Praying Mantis Disco Queen: Read Our Interview of Artist Joyce Pensato →

Walking into Joyce Pensato's vast studio in Bushwick I’m first greeted by Elizabeth Ferry, an artist and Pensato's studio assistant, as well as Charlie, an eerie looking, sweet dog whose right eye is blind by cataracts. Pensato herself is short, but tall in personality. Her shoes, feel more stylish, remnants perhaps of days in Paris, but still they’re perfectly covered in her signature paint drippings. As we sit, Ferry is busily packing up the space because they leave the next day for the closing of Pensato’s recent show, “The Fizz,” which as has been on display at Grice Bench Gallery in Los Angeles. After this, they come back briefly to prepare and work for upcoming exhibitions in Chicago, and then Austria. Click here to read more. 

Please Have Enough Acid In the Dish! Group Show Organized by Vinny Dotolo @ M+B Gallery in Los Angeles

M+B gallery presents Please Have Enough Acid In The Dish!, a group exhibition organized by James Beard Award winning chef Vinny Dotolo (of Animal and Jon & Vinny's fame). The exhibition explores the intersections between food, daily life and art in Los Angeles and features food-influenced paintings, drawings, sculptures and videos by thirty-seven Los Angeles-based artists, including many new works made for the exhibition. Please Have Enough Acid In the Dish! will be on view until September 2, 2016 at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles.  photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Marco Barrera, Agathe Snow and George Herms "Eternal" @ Moran Bondaroff Gallery in Los Angeles

Moran Bondaroff presents Eternal, a three-person exhibition with new work by Marco Barrera and Agathe Snow, and historical pieces by George Herms, selected by Barrera and Snow. Eternal will be on view until August 27, 2016 at Moran Bondaroff gallery in Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Katharina Grosse "Rockaway!" Presented by MoMA PS1 at the Gateway National Recreation Area at Fort Tilden, New York

MoMA PS1 presents Rockaway!, a special outdoor exhibit by artist Katharina Grosse, acclaimed for exploring the medium of painting in regards to its locations, conditions and possibilities. Through this temporary public art installation, Grosse turns Ft. Tilden's decaying aquatics building into a sublimely exhilarating exterior painting with her unique spray painting technique. In her practice, Grosse seeks to extend the scope of her paintings beyond the traditional borders of a canvas. She uses a technique in which brightly colored paint is sprayed directly onto site-specific structures. In doing so, she incorporates both the architectural features of the space, and materials located in its immediate vicinity, such as sand, trees, sea grass and pavement. These sprawling and sculptural landscapes evoke the physicality of action painting and earthworks through their gestures and monumentality. Grosse’s work seamlessly combines the subtle nuances of light and shadow, characteristic of traditional landscape painting, with the weight and spectacle of large scale sculpture. In this exhibition, Grosse’s singular approach highlights the possibilities of painting as a medium, and encapsulates the stark beauty of the natural and manmade structures in which this installation is contextualized. Rockaway! will be on view at the Gateway National Recreation Area at Fort Tilden, New York until November 30, 2016. photographs by Pablo Enriquez

Must See Exhibitions During Les Rencontres d'Arles 2016 in Arles, France

The Rencontres d'Arles (formerly called Rencontres internationales de la photographie d'Arles) is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette. The Rencontres d’Arles has an international impact by showing material that has never been seen by the public before. Here are Autre's highlight exhibitions that are not to be missed. 1: Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari "Toiletpaper Magazine" at the Parc De Ateliers 2. Ethan Levitas and Garry Winogrand "Radical Relation" at the Grand Halle 3. Where the Other Rests "Awakening Forgotten Images" at the Ateliers Des Forges 4. Augustin Rebetez "The Cardboard Museum" at Magasin Electrique Nonante-Neuf 5. Tear My Bra "Dream and Fantasy in Nollywood Movies" at Ground Control 6. Photos from Hara Kiri at Grand Halle. Les Rencontres d'Arles 2016 will be on view until September 25, 2016 in Arles, France. 

A Trip To Vedado In Cuba by Mattea Perrotta

El Vedado is a unique place. Sitting outside of the Old City, El Vedado has it’s own identity that architecturally resembles almost nothing of Old Havana. El Vedado features some of the best examples of early and mid-twentieth century architecture and urban planning in Cuba. The influx of Spanish immigrants in the early twentieth century brought with them art nouveau, along with neoclassical buildings, Art Deco styles, as well as works of the Modern movement. The neighborhood was initially developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, but became the heart of modern Havana in the 60’s. One of my favorite structures was the Vedado Sports arena built in 1956, located along the Malecon waterfront boulevard. Big arches, minimal lines and the bright colors of the arena’s steps make it stand out among the rest of the structures along the Malecon. If you travel through Vedado, take some time to see it. Lucky enough, we had a flat only a few blocks from the arena, and one block from the sea. The Malecon is a destination spot on it’s own, it's a seawall that stretches about 5 miles down Havana. The Malecón is popular among Habaneros, lovers and fishermen and becomes a nighttime promenade for the poor. It serves itself as my favorite bar and dance hall in Cuba. Locals gather in the evenings to watch the sunset, drink rum from a bottle and play their favorite Cuban melodies. photographs by Mattea Perrotta and Kate Parfet. Text by Mattea Perrotta

Bruce Conner "It's All True" @ The Museum of Modern Art In New York

Bruce Conner "It's All True" is the artist’s first monographic museum exhibition in New York, the first large survey of his work in 16 years, and the first complete retrospective of his 50-year career. It brings together over 250 objects, from film and video to painting, assemblage, drawing, prints, photography, photograms, and performance. Bruce Conner "It's All True" will be on view until October 2, 2016 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. photographs by Adarsha Benjamin

A Trip To Playa Santa Maria, Cuba by Mattea Perrotta

Only minutes from the Old City, a chevy taxi drive through a tunnel along the sea reminded me of driving along PCH, except instead of massive beachfront mansions, there were modest Cuban pastel homes that decorated the roadside. The Azul sea is more like bath water, and you can’t help but sing Kevin Ayers Caribbean Moon while you float and look up towards the sky. Locals from surrounding towns come to this beach, laying large spreads of fresh fruit and grilled fish. Young kids play football on the sand. An older man with one leg offers to sell us a rum filled coconut. The beach is lively, raw, echoes of Cuban percussions come from the distance. The weather was erratic that day, the sun was hot , water was warm, and an hour later the clouds created a canopy of grey with the wind blowing so intensely that we had to seek coverage under a giant red umbrella while three men held it down. The water boats blew sideways on the sand and we watched the tropical storm blow through the beach goers. It didn’t phase them. They laid like starfish on the sand and waited it out until they could continue their beach party. photographs by Mattea Perrotta and Kate Parfet. Text by Mattea Perrotta

Read Our Review Of Vetements' Spring 2017 Couture Collection →

From the very beginning, Vetements connected with fashion lovers not because of how different it was, but because of how oddly familiar it is. Demna Gvasalia and his radical collective of European designers are primarily interested in the ways that mainstream products have been co-opted and used by various sub-cultures as signifiers, protectors, and weapons.  Demna will tell any interviewer that asks that Vetements is not a “conceptual” brand; that it’s really “just about clothes,” as the brand’s name would lead you to believe. But the fact of the matter, the “just clothes” mantra is conceptual in and of itself. Demna, and stylist Lotta Volkolva, use the identities of clothes to extrapolate ideas from them: a hoodie sized to this means X and jeans with this particular cut mean Y. It’s almost like the viewer or the wearer can project his or her own ideas onto the clothes, like a blank canvas. The skinhead and his bomber jacket, the DJ and his tracksuit, the model and her stilettos: Vetements constantly finds new ways of looking at products we’ve seen, and probably worn, 1000 times. Click here to read more.