Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, today joined more than 50 partner organizations to reveal the mind-expanding exhibitions they will present in the next Pacific Standard Time, Art & Science Collide, opening in September 2024. Grants from Getty for the latest edition now total $17 million, with more organizations to be added as the collaboration grows. Getty also announced plans to make the landmark regional collaboration a regularly scheduled series on a five-year cycle under a new name, PST Art. See all programming here.
CLAMP's "My Velvet Shadow" Presents 3 Gen X Painters
© John Brooks; “In a Room Where You Do What You Don’t Confess,” 2023; Oil on canvas; 48 x 36 inches; Courtesy of the artist and CLAMP, New York.
On May 11, CLAMP will be releasing “My Velvet Shadow” which presents three Gen X painters—John Brooks, Anthony Goicolea, and Kris Knight—whose work exemplifies queer time and queer style. These artists came of age with the residual fear that sex, intimacy, and love could likely lead to death.
The work in “My Velvet Shadow” seeks to bridge the gap between two queer generations that were disconnected by the invisibility the AIDS epidemic bestowed upon an entire generation. Presented alone in the devastating aftershock of a gay plague, the subjects of these works exist/survive in unguarded vulnerable states surrounded by a host of disparate appropriations that act as a twisting road map for the preservation of queer culture. Instead of radical sexualization or earnest intimacy, the work adopts revelatory beauty to salve the scabs and scars of inherited trauma.
Luis Alberto Rodriguez's New Book "O"
In O, Dominican-American artist Rodriguez explores the free-fall of life, the construction of identity, and their connections with spiritual destiny. Using a cast of different bodies, ages, backgrounds and identities, Rodriguez challenges his subjects to let go: bodies contort and collapse while returning to poise, lifting to grace, and reaching into purity. How much control do we have over the direction we are headed? How soft is the landing?
The book's title – the letter O – speaks to the transcendence Rodriguez seeks in his evocative portraits: between a noise, a gasp, an exhale, a cycle, all sounds, an open symbol, a zero, a reset. These deep, soulful black-and-white darkroom photos attempt to capture a feeling in our contemporary moment: a loss of control and a search for dignity and pride.
O will be released by Loose Joints in early May with launches in New York, Berlin and Paris.
O. by Luis Alberto Rodriguez is published by Loose Joints.
all images © Luis Alberto Rodriguez 2023 courtesy Loose Joints
CELINE Women Summer 23 La Collection de Saint-Tropez Collection Customized Vintage Mini Moke
For the Women Summer 23 La Collection de Saint-Tropez, CELINE presents a customized a vintage Mini Moke vehicle. the small summer beach convertible car originally designed for military purposes, which first appeared in 1964 and quickly became a symbol of freedom and pleasure in many seaside towns, especially in Saint-Tropez where the car was famously driven by French actress and myth Brigitte Bardot. For this special project, the car has been customized with a Triomphe wooden steering wheel, a Triomphe canvas hood, and a dashboard featuring tan leather elements, wicker seats, and spare wheel protection. a golden Triomphe signature appears on the wheels and gear shift. photographs by Hedi Slimane.
Kate Parfet Debuts Unique Coffee Table Poetry Art & Photo Book
Milking a Duck is a casebound poetry, art & photography coffee table book by Kate Parfet, printed by die Keure. Available today, via publisher pois é and in select bookstores worldwide including Arcana Books on the Arts, Casa Bosques, Claire de Rouen, Mast Books, Librarie Yvon Lambert, McNally Jackson and Skylight Books. This book is a representation of the female experience, and more specifically motherhood, recognizing all mother stories as both universal and singularly unique. Parfet’s deep exploration of (and at times outrage for) the ways in which politics, medicine, and society shape the motherhood experience inspired her to create this book. Click here to order.
Discover AMAZONICOIL: The New Ethnobotanical CBD Serum by Makeup Artist and Director Marco Castro
MARCO CASTRO® is the new beauty and skincare line created by renowned makeup artist and beauty expert Marco Castro. As a Peruvian immigrant, Castro draws inspiration from his love for Latinx culture, which he explores in both his makeup work and films. With work that has been recognized at over thirty film festivals, he has collaborated with respected artists such as Pedro Almodóvar and Nan Goldin, and his client portfolio features prominent names in the fashion space such as Luar, Calvin Klein, and Cartier.
In the development of his brand, Castro is committed to providing sustainable and mind-reawakening skin solutions using ethnobotanical ingredients sourced from the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, including sacha inchi, wild buriti, and hemp-derived, full-spectrum CBD extract. With its mission to decolonize beauty standards and provide a platform for future generations to embrace their unique identities, the brand celebrates and promotes Latinx culture by spotlighting the ancestral Latinx language of beauty and placing it on a global stage. In an effort to create a better future for better humans, the brand has also become Leaping Bunny certified, testing all products on humans rather than animals.
For its initial offering, MARCO CASTRO® has launched AMAZONICOIL®, a beauty serum that can be used both topically for lightweight moisture that soothes the skin and reduces signs of aging, age spots, and acne scars, and orally to help with anxiety, stress, and pain relief while boosting the immune system with revitalized antioxidants and macronutrients. It is the result of years of research into Peruvian ethnobotany and the myriad health properties of its ingredients.
Autre's Spring Summer 2023 "Utopia" Issue Is Available to Preorder Now →
click here to preorder
Bottega Veneta & Gaetano Pesce Present 'Vieni a Vedere' @ Salone del Mobile in Milan
The Humanist architect-designer-artist Gaetano Pesce is a towering figure in each of his fields; a true multidisciplinarian with an iconoclastic agenda who, despite a career spanning seven decades, still refuses to be cowed or quantified. In numerous public and private works realized globally, in the fields of architecture, town planning, interior design, industrial design and exhibition design, the constant experimentation of an artist who refuses repetition infuses all.
Following the commission given to Pesce to create a temporary site-specific artwork as show space for the Summer ’23 Bottega Veneta fashion show, the dialogue continues and a further stage is explored. Once again given creative carte blanche, and this time situated in the brand’s Montenapoleone store, Pesce creates a unique installation called ‘Vieni a Vedere’ (Come and See). Spanning the store, the immersive installation utilizes resin and fabric to create a unique experience that the visitor travels through. It frames an edition of handbags realised by Bottega Veneta for the artist according to his designs.
Embracing figuration and stories of the personal rather than the purely functional, Pesce’s bags utilize the idiosyncratic both in terms of handcraft and creativity. Based on mountains and prairies, the handbags echo his early life in Italy growing up near the mountains in Este, and the prairies of America, a reflection of where he lives today.
“This is my first design of a bag and it is figurative – two mountains with a sunrise or a sunset behind. I wanted a bag with an optimistic view. There is a capacity to realize anything at Bottega Veneta and this bag opens up a way to express future design. The design of the future has to be figurative and it has to communicate – such an object has to tell a story.” Gaetano Pesce
The installation is on view through April 22, where the artist’s edition of handcrafted handbags can also be purchased. Look out for an interview of Pesce in our forthcoming SS23 Utopia issue, also available for preorder April 22.
Hotel Fancì by Sharon Angelia, Camille Ange Pailler, and Alina Larissa
creative direction by Alina Larissa
fashion styling & art direction by Camille Ange Pailler
photography by Sharon Angelia
casting by Suhadi Budiman at Bumi Faces
models Hani at Persona Bali & Alya at Bali Starz
makeup by Annika
hair by Angelina Sherba
stylist assistance by Gloria Stephanie
photo assistance by Safri Ndruru
all clothing by Fancì club
shoes by Valeria De Lacerta
jewelry by Baggira
Based in Vietnam, twenty-four-year-old Duy Tran sculpts bodies with frilled dresses that are contrasted by sexy, see-through fabrics. Earlier this winter, the precocious designer invited us to explore his new Fancì collection in an extravagantly expansive hotel called The Rich Prada in Uluwatu, Bali.
Currently under renovation, the seemingly abandoned resort is well-frequented with each room boasting its own unique, thematic design. The stark contrast between luxurious materials and dirty construction sites offered a space for unbridled imagination. It was like being in an abandoned, life-sized Barbie house, teeming with dust and dirt years after its child had outgrown it.
Brian Belott and Ross Simonini: A Cross Country Simultaneous Performance
Last year, Brian Belott and Ross Simonini performed across the country simultaneously, as part of their ongoing collaboration in painting, text, and music. Simonini performed in Los Angeles, on the ruins of Cobb Estate, the former property of the Marx Brothers, which is now a wilderness area believed to haunted. Belott performed at anonymous gallery, at the closing of Simonini's exhibition in New York, where Simonini's performance was live streamed. The release of this video is in celebration of Sound Scribbles, a collection of Belott's vocal improvisations, compiled by Simonini. The album releases on RVNG Intl. on April 14th and is presented in two limited versions, with essays from Belott and Simonini.
Brutalism and the Body: A Melitta Baumeister SS23 Editorial by Sam Crawford & Cathleen Peters
photography by Sam Crawford
styling by Cathleen Peters
hair by Rei Kawauchi
makeup by Mariko Arai
modeled by Theresa Hayes @ Muse c/o Derek
photography assistance by Ari Sodak & Dylan Garcia
Melitta Baumeister stretch lace dress and patent leather pointy loafers, Falke cotton socks
Melitta Baumeister ripple pleating dress and pants
Melitta Baumeister metallic lame dress, AKA lobe earring and ear cuffs
Melitta Baumeister sequin with wood construction dress
Melitta Baumeister ripple pleating top and pants, stretch mesh top, and patent leather platform shoes
Melitta Baumeister stretch mesh dress and patent leather pointy loafers, Calzedonia nylon tights, AKA silver bracelet
Read Our Interview Of Charlotte Edey on the Occasion of Her Solo Exhibition @ Ginny on Frederick in London →
Charlotte Edey is a London-based visual artist who adopts a multidisciplinary practice as a form of personal and political expression. Drawing on a multitude of themes, her work addresses notions of femininity, gender, body politic, and mythology. Edey’s tapestry, embroidery and sculptural pieces are extensions of her drawing practice, and her distinct artistic language focuses heavily on symbolism and the investigation of space. Recognized for their surreal dreamscapes and pastel palette, she employs a recurring water motif that takes inspiration from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” which serves as an investigation of ‘hydrofemininity,’ and the belief that our bodies are fundamentally part of the natural world.
Edey’s newest body of work, Framework, is currently on view at Ginny on Frederick. In this exhibition, a dialogue between each piece has been created by the artist as she examines various ways to blur the boundary between the real and the represented through the motif of the window and frame. Using these as a point of departure, she explores the notion of transparency to identify and differentiate between interior and exterior, public and private. Her intricately detailed—hand sewn and beaded—tapestry works and larger mirrored pieces are symbolic gateways that gently interrogate interior space, identity, and observation. We spoke on the occasion of Framework’s opening to discuss her development in recent years, as well as her interest in the symbolic interplay between windows, frames, and eyes. Read more.
First reprisal (sometimes I’m afraid if I disregard someone else’s story) by Polina Boyko, Bianca Nicolucci & Marzia Comuzio
belts by Arlette
tattoo by Mario Mellis
photography by Polina Boyko
styling by Bianca Nicolucci & Marzia Comuzio
makeup by Yoko Minami
hair by Yoko Okuno
talents Miriam @ PRM Agency & Jasmine
lighting by Alexander Retnik
photography assistance by Oriana
makeup assistance by Lala
tank top by Celine Breton
skirt by Lucila Safdie
tights stylist own
hat by Paula Mihovilovic Einfalt
jumpsuit by De Pino
belt & ballerinas stylist own
socks by Tytm8
brown cape by 100Morceaux
silver cape by Paula Mihovilovic Einfalt
earring stylist own
earring by Roussey
hoodie by Sara Mikorey
brown cape by 100Morceaux
silver cape by Paula Mihovilovic Einfalt
green & black dress by Cormio
earring by Tétier
belt by Arlette
tattoo by Mario Mellis
tights by Hglf
cape by 100Morceaux
dress by Meiloumi
tights stylist own
brown cape by 100Morceaux
silver cape by Paula Mihovilovic Einfalt
green & black dress by Cormio
brown dress by Meiloumi
grey hoodie by 100Morceaux
purple body by Paula Mihovilovic Einfalt
pink top by Provincia Studio
black & white tights by Lewis Dussurget
bracelet by Zana Bayne
Leave Your Thoughts On Boobs After The Tone: Read Our Interview of Carly Randall On Her New Short Film "TITS" →
Carly Randall is a visual artist, filmmaker and creative producer. Her work explores issues and themes that specifically impact women in modern society. These include knife crime, online bullying and filter culture, as seen in her multi-award-winning dance film, FILTERFACE: Double Tap to Like, which examines how social media filter culture affects the mental health of young women.
In 2022, Carly was awarded a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England to create a 2-minute-long, educational art film that exposes the language men use to talk about women’s breasts, highlighting the ubiquitously misogynistic and objectifying attitudes. Carly set up a hotline for teenage boys and young men to share their honest opinions on women’s breasts via voicemail. She created posters to promote the hotline, strategically placing them in prime locations around London’s East End Borough of Hackney (sometimes up to 200 a go), and shared with universities, colleges and friends who posted them in city centres nationally to ensure a diverse response that fairly depicts the breadth of the UK. To accompany the voicemails, Carly worked with a casing agent to bring together a selection of women from around the UK to shoot and film their breasts—those which our patriarchal society have deemed “undesirable": too flat, too big, odd nipples…
Carly has created a unique social experiment that creatively dramatizes the disparity between the ‘fantasy’ and the ‘reality’ of women’s breasts as a result of unrealistic representations created by the porn industry, perpetuated across social media and reaffirmed by patriarchal conditioning. I spoke with Carly about her motivations behind the art piece, how Playboy inspired her backdrop for the art film, and her main takeaways from listening to the voicemails. Click here to read more and watch the film.
Cultural Fabric: A 3-day Event @ Fotografiska Berlin On View March 23rd to 25th
Mous Lamrabat
Brozart, 2023
Before opening its flagship museum space, slated for the second half of 2023, Fotografiska Berlin is focusing on an inclusive pre-opening program, the goal of which is to cross-connect the city’s various creative industries. Cultural Fabric is a 3-day exhibition of photography hosted by that is dedicated to a rereading of the relationship between art and fashion practices.
Seven artists, both Berlin-based and international, will explore the main theme in a group exhibition, showcasing their work at Atelier Gardens. The multidisciplinary show is curated by Marina Paulenka (Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska Berlin and former Artistic Director of Organ Vida and Unseen) and Thomas Schäfer (Exhibition Manager at Fotografiska Berlin). With their practices operating at the intersection of fashion and photography, the following artists will be presented: Julie Poly, Carlota Guerrero, and Mous Lamrabat, with more to be announced soon.
Cultural Fabric is on view March 23-25 @ Berlin’s Atelier Gardens (formerly BUFA) Oberlandstraße 26 – 35, 12099 Berlin
Sculpting Presence by Debora Brune & Camille Naomi Franke
photography by Debora Brune @dilleragency
styling by Camille Naomi Franke
styling assistant Antonio Chiocca
hair by Noriko Takayama
hair color by Julia Säfström @ kurkowitz
makeup by Janette Peters
modeling by Julia @ Mint Management, Aeyden @ Elixavier
photo assistance by Isabel Spantzel, Johanna Dietz
tights and boots by Madomorpho
belt & top by Alisia Wood
tights and boots by Madomorpho
top by Alisia Wood
blouse and skirt by William Fan
bag by Prada
pants by Filippa K
shirt by Magliano
denim by Ganni
full look by Versace
full look by Versace
dress by Balenciaga
dress and neck piece by Dries Van Noten
earrings by Jil Sander
full look by Alisia Wood
blouse and skirt by William Fan
pants by Filippa K
boots by Madomorpho
dress and neck piece by Dries Van Noten
Watch "It's a Setup to Be Fed Up" By Federico Nessi for Reward If Found
creative direction & sound design by Federico Nessi
cinematography by Jeff Bierman
styling by Hind Matar
photography by Senem Güneş
movement direction by Breckyn Dávila Drescher
modeling by Nubia
This intimate video directed by Federico Nessi dives us straight into the world of Mohamed Khattabi's emerging genderless brand, Reward if Found.
Through the private act of dressing, Federico and his creative team use the wardrobe to take the viewer on a journey. The yokes and fabrics bring us right back home, and the pieces act as a protective layer, a comforting garment, but also a strong statement of our ethnic origins.
Giuseppe Penone's Universal Gestures Opens @ Galleria Borghese in Rome with the Participation of Fendi
On March 13th, over thirty works by the Master of Arte Povera, Giuseppe Penone, were revealed at the Galleria Borghese in Rome in participation with Fendi, weaving a new dialogue between nature and history. Created between the 1970s and the early 2000s, this body of work curated by Francesco Stocchi demonstrates the immutable vitality of sculpture, and in attendance were some of Italy’s most prominent figures in art, fashion, and entertainment.
The exhibition stems from the search for something that is not present in the splendid spaces of the Galleria, offering a new reading of the relationship between landscape and sculpture that the ancient statuary present in the museum’s collection embodies according to classical canons. A path that is in perfect continuity with the research on the relationship between Art and Nature that characterizes the direction of Francesca Cappelletti.
Giuseppe Penone. Universal Gestures does not propose any comparison but presents works chosen as a “reflection” with respect to the environment, offering a “completion” of elements: in the rooms characterised by a triumph of marbles, sculptures and decorations — magnificent representations of the mineral world — Penone adds an organic graft of leaves, leather, wood that connects and defines the two universes. In the Gardens, on the other hand, the integration looks to the world of metals, with bronze sculptures that dialogue with the rich surrounding vegetation, enriched by around forty new potted plants to support some of the works.
The exhibition itinerary includes nuclei of lesser-known works that are less associated iconographically with Penone’s work, such as Vegetal Gaze, and others exhibited for the first time in thematic groups – Breath of leaves and To breathe the shadow — inserted into the space as autonomous and original presences. In the absence of mythology in Penone’s work, the narrative shifts its axis, and the relationship between natural time and historical past gives rise to a new, uncertain present.
Distancing itself from any possible formal or symbolic comparison with the Galleria, Penone’s work observes matter by revealing the forms it conceals, with the intention of reactivating the natural osmotic exchange between the museum and the surrounding park, which inspired many of the works composing the museum’s collection.
The artist’s interventions do not disrupt the unique balance between form and architecture that characterizes the Galleria, but renew that entirely Baroque game that intertwined landscape, nature and sculpture, activating a new dialogue, presenting a question on sculpture, revealing its historical and contemporary evolution.
Giuseppe Penone. Universal Gestures is on view through May 28th @ Galleria Borghese, Piazzale Scipione Borghese, 5 00197 Roma.
Wayne McGregor's "Woolf Works" Premieres @ The Royal Opera House in London
Alessandra Ferri, William Bracewell in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky
text by Lara Monro
“The book is not form that you see but emotion that you feel”
— Virginia Woolf
Born in Stockport in 1970, Wayne McGregor CBE completed his dance studies at Breton Hall College at the University of Leeds and the Jose Limon School in New York. His signature experimental style is defined by accelerated speeds and sharply articulated detail paired with an intellectual quality that explores the theatrical possibilities of technology and science. In 1992, he established the dance company Random Dance and was also appointed choreographer in residence at The Place. Over the last decade he has created works for Paris Opera House, New York City Ballet and Teatro Alla Scarla, to name a few.
McGregor’s appointment as The Royal Ballet’s Resident Choreographer in 2006 was considered a radical break from tradition given that his reputation was strongly rooted in contemporary dance. His masterpiece, Woolf Works, is exemplary of his ability to transcend the confines of what ballet should or shouldn’t be. At its premiere in 2015, it was met with outstanding critical acclaim, winning McGregor the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
This March, the Royal Opera House are bringing back the three act performance, which presents a physical manifestation of Virginia Woolf’s complex literary pieces; Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. It is a Gesamtkunstwerk of movement, sound, design and light that are indissolubly linked. Max Richter's score takes us on a transcendental journey, delving into the three distinct universes of Woolf’s works while Lucy Carter’s lighting design and Morizt Jung’s costumes seamlessly complement and translate her rich inner narratives. All the while, McGregor’s choreography carries the musical fingerprint and enforces the fully authentic voice of the author.
Alessandra Ferri, artists of The Royal Ballet in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky
Act one delves into Woolf’s famous novel, Mrs. Dalloway, which details a day in the life of the fictional upper-class woman, Clarissa Dalloway. Alessandra Ferri, the 59-year-old Royal Ballet principal, embodies both Woolf and Clarissa while the multi-layered, elusive web of music, I now, I then, begins with a recording of Woolf from 1937 reading her essay “On Craftmanship” before it develops into disparate and melodic strands. Movement and sound offer a stream of consciousness into the past choices and present realities of the book's three main characters: Septimus, Peter, and Sally. This includes a powerful representation of Septimus’s shellshock as a WWI veteran through contorted bodies and jarring movement.
In act two, classical and contemporary styles clash and collide; bodies shape-shift, becoming one before they break apart. Fractured and flowing they represent the transformative qualities of Orlando; a journey into the main protagonist’s transformation from man to woman, and their ability to time travel over centuries. The stage becomes a sci-fi playground as the universe and dancers continually evolve. Adorned in golden Elizabethan ruffs and androgynous garments, laser beams capture the dancers’ pointe shoes like comets streaking through the air. The musical score, Becomings, mixes the classical with contemporary as Richter meshes La Folia from the 17th century with electronic, analogue modular synthesis, sequencing and digital processing.
Alessandra Ferri, artists of The Royal Ballet in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky
In act three, we move away from the intense and high energy performance of Orlando into the most consciously poetic of Woolf’s works, The Waves. Regarded as her most experimental piece, the novel follows its six narrators from childhood through adulthood with a strong focus on the individual consciousness. Pounding waves occupy a large screen while Gillian Anderson’s voice introduces the act by reading Woolf’s last note to her husband before taking her life in 1941. The poignancy and emotional depths of the final scene are complemented by Richter’s score, Tuesday. The melodic contours build over twenty minutes with a beautifully haunting solo soprano carrying the dancers until they gradually evaporate into darkness. Fassi is left alone. Like a gentle wave meeting the shore, she folds out motionless onto the stage; a subtle yet profound symbol of Woolf’s tragic end and that of the performance.
Woolf’s words dissolve in McGregor’s gesuntkunstwerk yet still manage to possess their literary wonder. Thanks to the collaborative mastery; the dancers’ unfathomable skill and dramatic performances, the music, lighting, and design — we are able to comprehend the beautifully complex world of Woolf and her works.
Woolf Works is playing at the Royal Opera House until March 23. Click here to reserve tickets
Joseph Sissens in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky
Nicodim Gallery Presents DISEMBODIED Group Show in New York
DISEMBODIED, curated by Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, builds and continues conversations around the violence, ecstasy, and epiphany within out-out-body experiences as-seen from the perspective of those on the ground—the leaps of faith we take to believe those who say their souls depart while their bodies remain. The works in the exhibition cover a wide swath of allegorical and tangible disembodied states, including the spiritual, the telegraphic, the psychedelic, the dissociative-induced, artificial intelligences, and alien encounters. The exhibition includes works by Jeanine Brito, Joshua Hagler, Ho Jae Kim, Rae Klein, Yoora Lee, Laurens Legiers, Tali Lennox, Jorge Peris, Mosie Romney, Nicola Samori, Krista-Louise Smith, and Nadia Waheed.
DISEMBODIED is on view through March 9 @ Nicodim Gallery 15 Greene Street New York