One week before this interview, Ai Weiwei’s studio in Beijing was bulldozed by Chinese authorities without any warning. Known for his brazen acts of dissent, Ai has not only challenged authoritarianism in China – the revolutionary polymath has also been extremely vocal about the worldwide refugee crisis. In a constant limbo state of exile, Ai has been living and working in Germany since getting his passport back in 2015. This fall, he will be taking over Los Angeles with three major exhibitions that he sees as one singular expression. At UTA Artist Space—which is housed in a 4,000-square-foot former diamond-tooling facility conceived and designed by Ai—the artist will be showing a series of sculptural works made from marble, including his iconic CCTV camera on a plinth, a Damoclean symbol of our post-capitalist era of state-sponsored surveillance. Central to the exhibition will be Humanity, a performative work and social media campaign that encourages visitors to the gallery to read a passage from Ai’s recent book on the refugee crisis—the footage will be compiled in a 30-minute video. On view until March 2019 at Marciano Art Foundation, Life Cycle will also explore the crisis of global displaced persons by drawing on the artist’s personal experiences and Chinese mythology. The show will include his famous work, Sunflower Seeds, which is comprised of over 49 tons of porcelain sunflower seeds carved and crafted by 1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen, in China’s Jiangxi province. Finally, at Jeffrey Deitch’s new Hollywood Gallery, Ai will present his installation of over 6,000 salvaged wooden stools from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which were gathered from villages across Northern China, thus serving as quotidian ciphers of cultural erasure and human existence. Read more.
Watch The Premiere Of "Suffer" By Patriarchy With Photographs By Torbjørn Rødland
Los Angeles’s most prolific vamp is at it again with a new music video from her band Patriarchy’s track “Suffer” starring the band’s front-middle-and-back woman Actually Huizenga, AJ English, and Shane McKenzie, with cinematography by Michael Romero-de Leon. “Suffer” is the second single from the upcoming album The Unself, slated for release in June through the label Dero Arcade. You can stream and download the track on Bandcamp. Norwegian photographer Torbjørn Rødland photographed Huizenga and English in dialogue with the video. The result is published here exclusively. See his forthcoming solo exhibition, Pain in the Shell, opening March 26 @ David Kordansky Gallery.
Jeans by HardeMan
Watch Celine Homme's "BOY DOLL" From Their Winter 2022 Presentation
Shot and directed by Hedi Slimane, Celine Homme’s Winter 2022 presentation takes place in one of Paris’s most emblematic venues. L’Olympia, known internationally for staging some of the world’s finest operas, plays, and concerts was established in 1893 in the 9th arrondissement and is the city’s oldest music hall. It was converted into a cinema in the 1920s after the market for theatrical performance experienced a sorrowfully steep decline. However, in 1954, the Olympia hosted a grand venue reopening under the executive direction of French Producer Bruno Coquatrix, and since then has hosted countless legendary concerts from the world’s greatest musical artists, both domestic and abroad.
An original soundtrack titled “FAVORITE THING” was composed by the Swedish band SHITKID
Casting, Styling and Set Design by Hedi Slimane
Hair Styling by Esther Langham
Makeup by Aaron De Mey
Read Our Interview Of Photographer and Filmmaker Lewis Khan → →
British Photographer and filmmaker, Lewis Khan, uses London as one of his many creative resources. The city has great sentimental importance to the native South Londoner, who has lived on Bonnington Square for most of his life. Tucked away behind the traffic of Vauxhall, the square is one of 300+ housing cooperatives in London, owned and run by its tenants. It has a unique and fascinating history that owes much to the squatters who moved in during the 80s as a preventative measure to avoid demolition of the residential buildings. The community set up a wholefoods shop and vegetarian café, which is still there to this day. Read more.
Watch Faith Wilding's Performance Of "Waiting" From Her 1974 Film Womanhouse
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Faith Wilding’s vanguard art installation and performance space, Womanhouse, Anat Ebgi in partnership with LAND (Los Angleles Nomadic Division), is presenting an eponymous solo exhibition with the artist. Seen here is a performance of “Waiting” from the documentary film Womanhouse produced by Johanna Demetrakas (1974). Below is an excerpt from Hans Ulrich Obrist’s interview with Wilding in our forthcoming BODY issue.
“HANS ULRICH OBRIST: You did two very legendary works at Womanhouse. You did the “Waiting” performance—an almost Beckettian performance about waiting, but very different from Beckett. And then, you also did an installation called “Womb Room.” Can you tell me about these two works? What kind of reaction did they get?
FAITH WILDING: Yeah, well we had a performance group that Judy Chicago led. Because that was our plan from the beginning—that we would do some performances as part of the house. I was at dinner with Arlene [Raven] and Judy one night, and suddenly I was like, I wanna do something about waiting—about what we've waited for, what I've waited for all my life. And so, we started making a list. I still have that list. Out of that, I crafted the “Waiting” monologue, which we worked on as a group; other people tried out how they would perform the piece. But you know, I have given permission to anybody who wants to perform it, and lots of people have performed it all over the world in all different kinds of ways, which I think is really cool…”
Womanhouse is on view through April 16 @ Anat Ebgi 4859 Fountain Avenue, Los Angeles
Watch The Music Video For "Don't Look" By Benny Sings Out Now Via Stonesthrow
“Don’t Look” is produced by Kenny Beats and Cory Henry, from Benny Sings’ latest album, Beat Tape II. Made in collaboration with the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theater, the puppets and props were made entirely from scratch to bring Ryu Okubo's cover art illustration to life. You can find Beat Tape II on vinyl, Apple music, Spotify, and Bandcamp.
Alex Evans - Director and Editor
Kevin Beltz - Lead Puppet Builder, Puppeteer
Thom Fountain - Puppeteer Consultant
Ilana Marks - Puppeteer, Puppet Fabrication
Jamin Orrall - Puppeteer, Puppet Fabrication
Karina De La Cruz - Puppeteer
Julian Small Calvillo - Puppet Fabrication
Paula Higgins - Puppet Fabrication
Caden Healander - Best Run Boy
Anomalous Beauty by Christian Ferretti & Donovan McClenton
face mask MR. S LEATHER, dress DRIES VAN NOTEN, necklace ALEXANDER MCQUEEN,
bracelet ISABEL MARANT, boots vintage DR. MARTENS
photography by Christian Ferretti
styling by Donovan McClenton
talent by Nell Rebowe (Next Models Agency)
dress MOSCHINO, jewelry VALENTINO
full look and jewelry ISABEL MARANT
full look ISABEL MARANT,
jewelry ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
full look and jewelry ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
full look VERSACE, jewelry ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
Read Our Interview Of Rave Review: The Vanguard Label That Is Diversifying The Metaverse With Upcycled Digital Cryptopanties →
In 2017, Beckmans College of Design graduates Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück realized that they shared the same interest in sustainable fashion and thus was born their Stockholm-based label, Rave Review. After qualifying as a semifinalist for the LVMH Prize at Paris Fashion Week, receiving the Rising Star Prize by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Stockholm Prize by Nöjesguiden, the Bernadotte Art Award, and participating in the Gucci Film Festival, the label has established itself as a tour de force among a new crop of designers perfecting the art of transforming home textiles into desirable garments. Autre spoke with the vanguard design duo about their innovative design process, the role of digital fashion, and promoting sustainability on the blockchain. Read more.
“The Tenth Muse” Group Show @ Case Gallery Celebrates Womanhood and Female Power
CASE presents “The Tenth Muse” curated by Ludovica Capobianco. Featuring Miriam Cahn, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Nicolette Mishkan, Alexis Myre, Olga Ozerskaya, Cait Porter, Fawn Rogers, Samantha Rosenwald, Sydney Vernon and Valentina Von Klencke, “The Tenth Muse” is a celebration of womanhood, showing the innate female power through delicacy, sensuality, and the intricacies that bestow the strength of femininity. The Tenth Muse refers to the poetess Sappho, the first known female artist and an epitome of how intellectual women have striven to have a voice of their own over the centuries. Despite arduously achieved freedom and independency, women still find themselves confined within social and cultural stereotypes. Women tend to be defined based on dichotomized characters and are expected to walk around wearing multiple hats and high heels. Bringing together a group of strong female artists with various practices and aesthetics, this exhibition aims at showing the beautiful and unique complexity of the female being. The Tenth Muse will be on view until March 27, at CASE Gallery, 154 S Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
Watch The Premiere Of "Lazy Bones" By Yoshi Sherma Out Now Via BabyRace Records
Yoshi Sherma is an enigma. Born in a tube yet spends most of his time in the Valve. His debut record Live From the Valve is a visceral mix of lumpy, chunky dance tracks, created in his rat infested, flood prone basement. It’s simply a gift whether you like it or not. Live From The Valve is available on cassette and across the streaming universe via Babyrace Records. Eat it up here.
Boozed Things: A Story Of Intoxicating Folly By Enrico Caputo & Valerio Nico
photography Valerio Nico
creative direction and styling by Enrico Caputo
makeup by Greta Giannone
set design by Nour Choukeir
AI by Chiara Kristler
shirt: stylist’s own
sweater: VITELLI
skirts: GIANMARCO MUSSI
shoes: MARSELL
sweater: VITELLI
LEFT
hoodie: GIANMARCO MUSSI
jacket: NEITH NYER
pants: GIOVANNI PORTA
shoes: ÇANAKU
sweater: MONELLA VAGABONDA
skirt: GIANMARCO MUSSI
jacket: GIOVANNI PORTA
top: VITELLI
skirt: GIANMARCO MUSSI
top: MOTOGUO
skirt: VITELLI
pants: GIOVANNI PORTA
shoes: MARSELL
kneeler: STUDIO CROMATO
sweater: VITELLI
skirts: GIANMARCO MUSSI
shoes: MARSELL
top: MOTOGUO
skirt: VITELLI
pants: GIOVANNI PORTA
kneeler: STUDIO CROMATO
hoodie: GIANMARCO MUSSI
top: DANIEL SANSAVINI
pants: GIOVANNI PORTA
shoes: MARSELL
Intersect Art and Design Presents Intersect Palm Springs
Intersect Palm Springs, which ran from February 10-13, 2022, brought together a dynamic mix of more than 50 established and emerging contemporary and modern art and design galleries.
The Fair featured two Curated Spaces:
Good Vibrations, organized by Shana Nys Dambrot (Arts Editor, LA Weekly) and Hunter Drohojowska-Philp (Author, Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s), offered an expanded view of geometric abstraction as it has evolved in Southern California from the 1950s to include the properties of light and the emotional and transcendent uses of color. Lorser Feitelson, Karl Benjamin, John Miller, Peter Lodato, Jim Isermann, Patrick Wilson, Dani Tull, Yunhee Min, Knowledge Bennett, and Jen Stark are among the artists to be included in this multi-generational show.
ZZyzx Redux, curated by Bernard Leibov (Director, BoxoPROJECTS), and presented with support from The Art Collective Fine Art Services, was inspired by that remote corner of the Mojave Desert which demonstrates the full cycle of modern Southern Californian desert history: from Indigenous trade route; to gold rush era federal fort; to railroad outpost; to a much hyped health resort; and finally an environmental research station. These cycles have spurred optimism, creative development, and new technologies as well as related aspects of dislocation, exploitation, and environmental damage. The exhibition looks at the sustainability of the current land rush in the local area through artworks both inspired by the attractant qualities of the region (light, space, architecture, nature, lifestyle) and those reminding us where history has taken us before. The exhibition includes work by artists Blake Baxter, Diane Best, Ryan Campbell, Gerald Clarke Jr., Sofia Enriquez, Kim Manfredi, Carlos Ramirez, Cara Romero, Aili Schmeltz, Ryan Schneider, Phillip K. Smith III, and Kim Stringfellow.
Tear by Richard Hudson. Presented by Michael Goedhuis at Intersect Palm Springs 2022 Focus on Form: Sculpture Garden
Focus on Form: Sculpture Garden provided a spotlight on sculpture at the entry to the Fair, featuring 18 large-scale works by such artists as Stephanie Bachiero (Peter Blake Gallery), Michael DeJong (New Discretions), Andy Dixon (Over the Influence), Tara de la Garza (bG Gallery), Richard Hudson (Michael Goedhuis), Robert Indiana (Galerie Gmurzynska), Dominique Labauvie (Bleu Acier), Robert Raphael (SITUATIONS), Alex Schweder (Edward Cella Art & Architecture), Jesse Small (Nancy Hoffman Gallery), Julian Voss-Andreae (HOHMANN), and Ben Allanoff.
Works from the Fair will be online at Artsy.net, Intersect’s exclusive online marketplace partner, through March 3, 2022.
Hedi Slimane Shoots Kaia Gerber In The South Of France For The Women's Summer 22 Baie Des Anges Campaign
The campaign was shot in October 2021 by Hedi Slimane in the South of France. Kaia introduces the new Cuir Triomphe Chain Shoulder Bag in all black. This particular style and the full collection will be available from February 25 in store and CELINE.COM.
Shrinking Away To Nothingness: A Review Of Francis Bacon's Man And Beast @ The Royal Academy Of Arts
Francis Bacon, Head VI, 1949
Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 76.2 cm
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
© The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
The Royal Academy presents Francis Bacon: Man and Beast, an impressive showcase of the Northern Irish artist. It reveals his unquestionable skill and craftsmanship as well as the infinitely dark depths of his imagination.
Banished at sixteen from his Catholic family in 1926 for being openly gay, Bacon left Ireland for Berlin, then Paris until landing in London in 1929 to establish himself as an acclaimed artist. Exempt from military service in 1939 because of his asthma, Bacon spent time in London and Hampshire, surrounding himself with artists that included Lucian Freud.
Walking through Man and Beast makes you ponder the shifting tides of post-war England and how it inspired individuals such as Joe Orton, the Kray Twins, Philip Larkin, and Bacon himself. Similar to Edvard Munch's Scream, Bacon’s work prompts an unsettling effect of synesthesia. Perhaps this is no surprise for an artist who strove to render the “brutality of fact.”
Profound and moving, his figurative works focus on the human form; crucifixions, self-portraits, and portraits of friends. Faces appear as if covered with nylon stockings, or cut away to expose the tendon and bone beneath; figures are reduced to a tiny space on the canvas, suggestive of being tortured in a shell, or shrinking away to nothingness.
Many of these images accompany the show's exploration into his unerring fascination with animals. Be it chimpanzees, bulls, dogs, or birds of prey, Bacon felt he could get closer to understanding the true nature of humankind by watching the uninhibited behavior of animals. We see carnality, appetite and decay, raw expression of anxiety and instinct through his anthropomorphic forms. From his Picasso influenced bio-morphs from the ‘30s, male heads isolated in rooms, or geometric structures in the ‘40s to animals and lone figures in the late ‘50s, Man and Beast highlights his existential approach to painting and why he presented his unique human forms the way that he did. Francis Bacon: Man and Beast is on view through April 17 @ The Royal Academy of Arts. Text by Lara Monro
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright: A Review Of Luncheon On The Grass At Jeffrey Deitch Gallery
Who said, “Painting is dead?” You’d be surprised to learn that this line was uttered by French painter Paul Delaroche in 1840 after seeing the first photographic image. Twenty-three years later, Édouard Manet painted his masterwork, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863), or Luncheon on the Grass, and modernism was born. Painting wasn’t dead, it was finally in dialogue with the zeitgeist. With Luncheon, Manet was deliberately trying to ruffle the feathers of the traditionally neoclassical establishment. Painted on a large canvas, a scale usually reserved for gods, mythic figures, and biblical representations, Luncheon was rendered with harsh, sometimes visible brushstrokes and a nearly hallucinatory depth of field. The background bather looks primordially copy and pasted, and the starkly illuminated female nude in the foreground, next to two formally dressed men, ambiguously gazes at the viewer with an uncertain contract of consent. Like Bob Dylan’s songbook, Luncheon has been covered and remixed ad infinitum, almost from the onset of the painting’s public unveiling. And now, three centuries after Manet shocked French society, more than thirty of today’s leading painters reinterpret this modernist asteroid in oil pigments at “Luncheon on the Grass— Contemporary Responses to Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. The group exhibition is an electric vision of a new zeitgeist, a new cosmological panoply of race, gender, class and sexuality. Many of the paintings, like Ariana Papademetropoulos’ It Becomes Blurry In The Moment (2022), are so new they are virtually wet and hang with a particular urgent immediacy, like a song coming out of the speaker for the first time. Caitlin Cherry’s Mixed Clout Relationships—Feast of the Ass (2022), is a pornographic dreamscape of famous, full-frontal rappers and clout chasers depicted in a dark fragmentation of orgiastic bodies, like a fractured plasma screen television. Other recent paintings include 57-year-old Chinese painter Liu Xiaodong's Newcomers in the Village - Response to Manet (2021), which was painted on location in Changchun in Northern China and depicts a group of friends and collaborators. Newcomers, and also a work by rising artist, Dominique Fung, called Sans Les Mains (2022), offers a fresh and rare depiction of AAPI visibility along the white hegemonic power structures of modernism. There is also Vaughn Spann’s incredible Juneteenth on the grass—after lunch (2022), which features the artist’s double-headed figures with the bather almost lost in the large expanse of a bay as fireworks explode overhead. The oldest work in the show is by the late, French New Realist, Alain Jacquet—a silkscreen on canvas entitled Le dejeuner sur l’herbe (1964)—and depicts our nude muse in the foreground, our two fully-dressed men, and our bather in the background, but in the context of a typically midcentury constellation of saturated Ben Day dots and a crystalline blue pool that harkens Cannes or some other Provençal locale on a sizzling summer day. Then there is Somaya Critchlow’s dynamic and evocative Mr. Peanut!—The Picnic (2020-2021), a delicately small painting that is a grenade packed with the ammonium nitrate and TNT of racial undertones. Mr. Peanut, whose full name is the rather colonial sounding Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe and was created in the image of the slave owning plantation masters of the Virginian and North Carolina peanut farms, is pictured with his white gloves, monocle, and top hat cupping the breast and kissing a Black woman. But perhaps the most direct response to Manet’s modernist masterpiece comes from Iranian-born painter Tala Madani with her 15x12 inch oil on linen, entitled Pickled (2022), which features a turd swimming in a jar that is half filled (or is it half empty?) with urine—our bather is mysterious, fecal and anonymous—there is no gender, no race—thousands of years of art history boiled down to a single piece of shit in a mason jar. Luncheon on the Grass will be on view until May 7, 2022 at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. text by Oliver Kupper
Read Our Interview Of Jim Hedges On Collecting The Photographs Of Andy Warhol →
Click here to read.
Autre Magazine and König Galerie Frieze Week Kickoff Dinner and Party At Desert 5 Spot In Hollywood
Starting off with a dinner in partnership with Tequila Casa Dragones at KA'TEEN (a conceptual take on ancient Yucatan Peninsula cuisine from Chef Wes Avila) , followed by an after party at Desert 5 Spot on the rooftop of tommie hotel, AUTRE magazine and Berlin-based König Galerie celebrated Frieze Week in Los Angeles to honor artist Ayako Rokkaku. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Read Our Interview Of Ayako Rokkaku On The Occasion Of Her Solo Booth At Frieze Los Angeles →
Click here to read the interview.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage: Read Our Interview Of Designer Luca Magliano →
interview by Janna Shaw
photographs by Pavel Golik
I once dreamt of Luca Magliano. I had no idea what he looked like; he appeared veiled but in no way sinister. In one of Magliano’s earlier video presentations, a poem is recited, a sonnet with lines dedicated to each garment displayed. “Out of Saint Teresa of Avila’s Chanel coat I stole one dollar to gift to my golden Wagner jacket.” After this display of romance, I wandered about my own closet, singing praises sweetly and theatrically to my own favourite pieces. Something poignant to this act.
Luca Magliano’s self-titled fashion brand is described as “Quintessentially Italian” and “An Emotional Anthropology”. Since its establishment in 2016, the brand’s collections have unfolded as a personal reflection of the vast imagination of Magliano, who derives inspiration from the works of artists and filmmakers such as Luchino Visconti, as well as his own emotions, encounters, curiosities, and experiences. We spoke with the emerging designer about his FW 22/23 collection and his celebration of solitude and melancholia. We speak about his love for Italy and my love for Italians, we discuss sleep and what follows it. We don’t talk much about clothes. We decide to let those speak for themselves. Read more.
Tori Wrånes Presents Mussel Tears @ Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles
As a synesthete, a person with a condition of combining senses such as seeing color and form in sound and language, Tori Wrånes visualizes sound into a sculptural and physical dimension. This experience allows the artist to use sound to dictate the form of painting and sculpture and, in turn, she also visualizes objects through vocal projection. Mussel Tears premiers sculptures, paintings, sound, and performance together to evoke dream-like narratives, where the familiar becomes fantastical. The exhibition has developed from the artist’s ongoing observation of what she describes as “the quiet outcasts of society,” referring both to elements of nature and personal relationships. The works in the show visualize a sensory experience of the world.
Wrånes’ unique method of communication, using sound and form to convey primal emotions and truths, bypasses the structural hierarchies of language and rational thought. The result is a wide-ranging, experimental, and ritualistic practice that guides us outside of our known world. The works in Mussel Tears situates the self in relation to other beings, both human and non-human, and illustrates how our understanding of the world is constantly mediated by our own bodies. Throughout her practice, Wrånes sews together our senses, asking us to consider how we might privilege the overlooked in any form.
Tori Wrånes is on view now through March 12 @ Shulamit Nazarian 616 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles.
