Focus on Sanity with Zofia Pałucha @ Galerie Pact

Zofia Pałucha works mainly with ”found footage” and creates sketches for the paintings
on a smartphone, using apps to transform selected photos. Like Free Jazz, the stream-of-consciousness-based work in contemporary figurative painting allows the artist to surrender to the painterly gesture and action of individual images. She combines the final artworks with evocative titles derived from philosophical essays, art history or quotes from movies and audiobooks.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the ever-changing landscape of contemporary crises has meant that podcasts about the most important political, social, and cultural events in the world always accompany Zofia Pałucha as she works and are an integral part of her creative process. One can trace the roots of the artist’s paintings to the early political works of Gerhard Richter, Marlene Dumas, or Luc Tuymans. Pałucha’s paintings, though deeply involved in politics and morality, are full of elusive meanings. They attempt to reflect the condition of modern man, emphasizing the fragility of the individual not only in the real world but in the virtual space too. Through the prism of sensuality and sexuality, filtered through personal experiences, the artist’s works delve into the problems in the modern world without providing a clear answer. Like the reality around us, her painting is multi-layered and subject to change. Her work is a manifesto, an expressive artistic statement about the here and now and perhaps ahead.
Focus on Sanity is on view through January 27, 2024, @ Galerie Pact, 70 rue des Gravilliers, 75003 Paris

Read Bliss Foster's Notes on Paris Fashion Week Men's Fall 2024

 

Loewe photograph by Daniele Oberrauch / gorunway.com

 

Loewe continues to be a dominant force in Paris. Even when we can’t possibly fathom that the winning streak has lasted this long, Jonathan Anderson’s consistency remains a staple of the week. Though, this should not be mistaken for stagnation. Runway pieces were merged with their nearby garments, most notably: socks that grew into pants and a waistband with a kangaroo pocket as a roof. The show itself is not enough to understand how exciting these clothes are — both the shearlings and the leather could be described as buttery, the patterns remain radically inventive, and the volume of beading in this collection is truly something to behold. 

 

Kartik Research photograph by Vivek Vadoliya

 

This season was the season of parents. Designer Kartik Kumra presented his brand’s first collection in Paris in the enthusiastic presence of his parents. They proudly wore their favorite designs from his emerging label, Kartik Research — a label whose fabrics are famously created without the use of electricity and whose embellishments feature the skilled artisanship found in Kartik’s home country of India. At KidSuper, Colm Dillane’s parents can be seen as crucial members of the team, often credited by Colm for contributing to the presentations. This season, Mr. & Mrs. Dillane made room for other members of the tightly-packed front row by squeezing together. Colm’s father was ultimately squeezed off the bench and enjoyed the show seated in his wife’s lap, creating a quintessentially KidSuper moment: optimistic and motion-picture-like.

 

courtesy of Louis Vuitton

 

It is possible that Pharrell’s work is attempting to revive the American spirit in fashion, maybe even through the same romantic lens with which Ralph Lauren created an empire. But his Louis Vuitton attempts to mythologize the beauty of his home beyond the whitewashed notions that have dominated the idea of American-ness in the minds of those abroad. This season, the Dakota and Lakota tribes were foundational to the collection, both in their artistic contributions on clothing and bags, as well as their endorsement of Pharell’s Western Americana that introduced the rest of the world to the Native American and Black cowboys. Cowboys of color can be easily forgotten when the idea of the West is so aligned with Buffalo Bills and Butch Cassidys, but through Pharrell, I think Louis Vuitton is hoping to create a new and more inclusive empire.

photo by Luca Tombolini and Gaspar Ruiz Lindberg

photo by Christina Fragkou

photo by Luca Tombolini and Gaspar Ruiz Lindberg

This is the footwear segment of this article. Among any discussion of footwear in any recent season, you will find well-earned praise for the creations of Rushemy Botter & Lisi Herrebrugh. Historic standouts include a hybridized cleat and banker shoe stacked on top of each other, or a 3D printed Reebok sneaker inspired by murex shells. This season, Botter’s shoes move us back to hybridization; the result is 70% soccer cleat, but bred with a bouldering shoe to create a rounded heel. What’s exciting is that we’re finally getting some Botter concept shoes as product. It’s, of course, difficult to make a prototype into a sellable shoe. Just ask Rick Owens, who continued to tackle the “concept as product” dilemma in the most effective way of any working designer. With Rick, if your eyes see it on the runway, it will be sold as product. This promise becomes even more compelling when you consider the Rick Owens lamp helmets, personal fog machines and now, balloon shoes equipped with inflatable valve. These flotation shoes were a staple of the show, which took place in Rick’s Paris home with a scaled down audience. 

 

courtesy of Junya Watanabe

 

Pattern cutting is the primary contribution to the world for certain brands, Junya Watanabe immediately comes to mind. In this iteration of his absurdly complex patterns, the result is more visually subtle, yet some of the ideas executed in this show are so simple and brilliant that you wonder why it hasn’t been done before — notably a coat with sleeves takes the common gesture of wearing a coat as a cape, but doesn’t give you the option to use the sleeves at all. Outerwear fuses together top and bottom to create long coats. Despite how often the comparisons are drawn between the designers who used to be pattern cutters for Rei Kawakubo, I can’t help but think of how this idea would fit so well into Chitose Abe’s Sacai and her elaborate experimentation with hybridizing clothing. On the other hand, Sacai’s approach is much more detail oriented and uses more visual reference — a clear ode to pajamas becomes rugged outerwear at Sacai.

 

Dior photo by Brett Lloyd

 

Dior Men was a carousel this season, a literal carousel that spun the models around in a sort of lazy-susan (a mega-susan??) and then lifted the looks eight feet off the ground. The music was the “Dance of the Knights” from the ballet of Romeo and Juliet, a dance that features predominantly circular movements, so that seems to check out. Dior’s menswear offering centers around tailoring every season, and usually brings variety through styling details, with one noteworthy detail in particular. This season, that detail comes through women’s dress flats and mary-janes worn with colorful socks. Kim Jones continues to find bizarre deep-cut garments to include in unexpected ways: a belted safari jacket is a great example. 

 

Airei photo by Andrew Morales

 

Performance art and fashion have endured a rocky relationship — at times, performance art is a critical component of understanding a presentation, at other times, it is distracting at its absolute best. Thankfully, the emotionally intricate brand Airei reminded us this season that performance art is a deeply fitting cross section with conceptual fashion. Designer Drew Curry did not outsource the performance art — he meditated in an armchair for his presentation while attendees tried on the collection. By meditated, I mean he sat in an armchair for six hours staring at a video of his newborn son. Members of the press relations team at his showroom, Dover Street Market Paris, told me that he had originally intended to meditate for twelve hours but was limited in time by the venue he hosted the presentation in. But performance aside, this was undeniably Curry’s best collection since the inception of the brand. Materials at Airei have always been exciting and innovative, in the past he has used fish scraps from sushi restaurants for their leather and human hair mats as an insulating and absorbent textile. The yak wool coats this season feature one of the most beautiful and dimensional fabrics I have seen in my career. 

 

courtesy of Hermès

 

This was our first time attending Hermès — and it did not disappoint in the slightest. In fact, it was even better than I had ever anticipated. Ultra luxury houses have earned this reputation for being boring. Hermès bucks that assumption and presents a collection that appears minimal to the eye, yet features some of the most exciting pattern work I have seen this year. Details include cashmere linings that extend past the zipper, squishy deerskin coats, double-collared shirts, and a ponyhair sleeveless top that looked as good as it felt.

 

Winnie photo by Stanislas Motz-Neidhart

 

Winnie’s collection this season was a standout because its founder, Idris Balogun, is the most qualified newcomer to the Paris calendar. He cut his teeth on Saville Row and now brings that millimeter precision to the runway. This season, by focusing on ease, Balogun was able to deliver a consistent and confident drop-shoulder to many of his blazers and jackets. The casting and styling was exceptionally executed and authentic to the Beat Generation and ’50s inspiration that underpinned the show — a refreshing new source of inspiration for tailoring. 

Walter Van Bierendonck photo by Catwalk Pictures / Etienne Tordoir

Deceptive goofiness took everyone by surprise with Doublet and Walter Van Bierendonck; both brands that many folks often dismiss as lighthearted and silly. Walter delivered a poignant performance art piece more than a runway. Each of the models was given a speaker smaller than a golf ball and were told to walk slowly through a series of rooms reciting facts about themselves while a different song played from each model’s speaker. Walter’s ongoing anti-war theme feels more relevant with each passing season. Walter’s designs are not runway-only, it’s always wonderful to see a devoted customer proudly wearing the same piece in the wild. Doublet, the Japanese brand with the most playful shows in Paris, changed directions this season by delivering a parody of Balenciaga. Imitating Demna’s self-serious in-joke created a new move in fashion’s Irony Chess.

Wolfgang Voigt Births Rich Yet Minimalist Psychedelia with the Loop Principle @ Galerie Nagel Draxler in Berlin

In both his musical and pictorial work, Wolfgang Voigt predominantly adheres to strict conceptual principles, which he refines and diversifies consistently. Alongside his mostly sample-based, rather free-abstract to gestural musical and figurative language, it is primarily the “loop principle” that has always fascinated Voigt. The static or varied repetition of minimalistic structures creates certain patterns, grooves, and shapes. This way of thinking is shaped not least by the structure of computer-based music programs, permeating Voigt’s work in various ways.

Whether navigating the tension between 4/4th bass drum-based groove patterns and condensed visual sequences/loops, or reopening the loops and engaging in free-abstract deconstruction (re-enchantment/de-interpretation) – for Wolfgang Voigt, sampling and “the loop” represents a way of perceiving the world. Even when adhering to certain rules and concepts in selecting and processing his source material, he intentionally allows deviations to emerge, often locating what he is “looking for” not in the intended location but in its vicinity. In the virtuoso interplay between “man and machine” he is consistently focused on the simultaneity of strict conceptual minimalism and the hypnotic-psychedelic effect of beginninglessness and endlessness. This encompassed the conceptual-rational observation of surfaces through digital pop art lenses and the creation of intoxicating, shimmering surfaces. And it involves the negation of predictability.

Mit Maschinen Sprechen is on view through April 13th at Galerie Nagel Draxler, Weydingerstraße 2/4, 10178 Berlin.

Read Our Interview of Folk Artist Justin Williams On The Occasion of His Solo Exhibition @ Roberts Projects LA →

Oil painting by Justin Williams of his wife, Jade, reclining on a sofa behind a fortune teller.

Justin Williams
Major Arcana, death watching over Jade (2024)
Acrylic, oil, raw pigment and gold pigment on canvas
77.25 x 84.75 in (196.2 x 215.3 cm)

In Justin Williams’s newest exhibition, Synonym, at Roberts Projects, waves of stories collide and crash across timelines, pouring onto the canvas in lush and decadent palettes. Williams creates wormholes between his ancestral memories and the present day. His work carves spaces, ranging from cozy to claustrophobic, in which dead and living strangers coexist in moments of imagined connection. Williams’ world is seen through a kaleidoscope of childhood trinkets, native flora, and mythologized fauna, from goats to dogs to horses. The artist collects moments and mementos alike to collage in these quiet yet fantastical dreamscapes, mining through Westernized memories of suburban Australia and hitting rich veins of ancestral Egyptian aesthetics. Williams embraces the awkwardness of outsider life, and his work embodies the comforting realization that even outsiders create their own exiled community. To mark the occasion of Synonym, he discusses stories and people, which echo throughout his life and strangers whose moments of grief have shaped his work. Read the full interview here.

Judith Godwins’ First European Solo Exhibition Expressions of Life @ Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery presents American painter Judith Godwin's first European solo exhibition, Expressions of Life. The exhibition comprises an overview of the artist's work from the early 1950s - the period in which she was associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement - to the end of the century. The opening exhibition truly illustrates the artist’s lasting influence over the landscape of American art, despite the challenges she faced as a result of both her sex and sexuality.

Long underappreciated, Godwin’s contribution to the New York avant-garde has undergone recent revision following her inclusion in landmark exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum, Whitechapel Gallery and Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, that offered a reappraisal of women abstractionists of the 20thcentury. Her thesis was – and remained – one of liberation from the conventions of a movement anchored in a language of masculinity and heteronormativity. Starkly aware of the limitations imposed on her by the milieu in which she practiced, Godwin sought to redefine such ‘masculine’ values by way of gestural abstractions that brought a loose geometry into dialogue with nature, dance and Zen philosophy. Her innovative reorientation of the language of modernism remains a radical statement today.

 

Godwin’s interactions with the New York art world began early in her career. As a student at the Mary Baldwin College in her native Virginia, she sought the acquaintance of the modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. Godwin’s invitation to Graham to perform at her college laid the foundations for a lifelong friendship between the two, and Graham’s trailblazing path in a world dominated by men became a touchstone for Godwin. The diaphanous washes of colour, colliding forms and sensuous arcs which characterise Godwin’s works from the early 1950s are indebted to Graham, whose performances she frequented on arrival in New York, often watching from the wings.

 

By 1953 Godwin had settled in New York and was continuing her artistic education under Hans Hofmann, whose influence can be seen in her dynamic approach to composition and colour. Provincetown Summer, 1953, exemplifies Godwin’s facility for translating depth and volume into two dimensions. Introduced to Zen Buddhism by Abstract Expressionist painter Kenzo Okada, such philosophies began to play a larger role in her painting, encapsulated by calligraphic brushwork, redolent too of Franz Kline, another close friend of Godwin’s. As the 1950s continued, the artist’s work took on larger proportions and a darker palette, all the while maintaining an organicism and proclivity for light and space in her evocation of the spiritual in nature. Her vigorous abstractions caught the attention of influential art dealer Betty Parsons, who included Godwin as the youngest artist in the inaugural exhibition at Section Eleven Gallery in 1958 alongside artists including Agnes Martin, and went on to present solo exhibitions of her work in 1959 and 1960.

 

During the 1960s, as Pop Art and Minimalism began their ascent, Godwin distanced herself from the New York art world, retreating instead to Connecticut where she worked restoring 18th-century homes and trained in masonry, carpentry and landscape design. Her return to New York in 1974 saw a change in her paintings, which demonstrated a robust communion with the outdoors and a physicality that invoked the power of nature. With its assertive cardamom red palette and esoteric iconography, Elegy to a Slain Deer, 1975, captures Godwin’s investigation of the relationship between the physical and metaphysical. As in her paintings of the 1950s, her keen appreciation of the corporeal form is palpable in the material presence of her body on the canvas, in body-length arcs of the brush that express her movements with agency. The liberation of the body and its inherent sensuality continued to play a central role in Godwin’s works of the 1980s and 1990s, as articulated by the flesh-inflected palette of The Nest, 1994. Godwin died in 2021 at the age of 91, just as her work began to reach new audiences worldwide. Her lasting legacy is in the transformative nature of her practice, which successfully recalibrated the masculine language of gestural abstraction, shifting representations of womanhood and sexual identity on the canvas.

Expressions of Life is on view through March 9 @ Pippy Houldsworth Gallery 6 Heddon St, London W1B 4BT, UK

Catherine Corman's "Lost Explorer" Is A Prosaic Observation of Beauty Hiding In Plain Sight

written and directed by Catherine Corman
based on the novel Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano
Jean: Roger Corman
Annette: Sally Kirkland
“Song of the Sea” written and performed by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

Jean (Roger Corman), an undersea explorer and documentarian, has begun to question his life’s work. Skipping a flight to Rio for his next expedition, he returns instead to the city, revisiting the places that inspired his quest for adventure, hoping to rediscover the longing that drove him to the ends of the earth, and which now pulls him back to his own past.

A statement from the artist:

“Years ago, I wrote a book about the Surrealist sculptor Joseph Cornell. His enchantment with the sea led to portraits of the mythical water nymph Undine, an homage to Descartes made of driftwood, and variations on Chardin constructed out of seashells. The sea became a sort of metaphor for art, each visible and knowable, and yet a mystery.

Another kindred spirit of the Surrealists was the undersea filmmaker Jean Painlevé, whose slow motion underwater ballets starring seahorses, starfish and seashells, illuminated the secrets of the depths of the sea. His mute, lyrical images are a poetic ideal that inspired Lost Explorer.

Painlevé and Cornell explored ways of creating art by of observing objects in the world, things as they are — sea creatures drifting along ocean currents, old postcards of mermaids, faded slides of white seashells - and revealing their natural, inadvertent beauty. 

In this film I have tried to observe the world and gently arrange it into poetry. I shot existing locations, unaltered. There was no crew — no set dressing, no lighting, no costumes. All the clothes my father wears are his own, all the props were found around our house.  

This is the simplest sort of filmmaking, more an observation of the world, with careful attention to all of its latent poetry, and openness to the mystery and beauty, barely hidden, waiting to be discovered.”

Object (Soap Bubble Set) (1941), Joseph Cornell

Still from The Seahorse (1931), Jean Painlevé

Catherine Corman's short films Lost Horizon and Little Jewel, based upon the work of Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano, were long-listed for the Academy Award. Little Jewel was also invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Her short film Les Non-Dupes screened at the Berlin Biennale. Her book of photographs, Daylight Noir, was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. She was educated at Harvard College and Oxford University.

Roger Corman is an Academy Award winning filmmaker who has been honored by the Cinémathèque Française, the British Film Institute, and the Museum of Modern Art. He has made over five-hundred films, including a series of Edgar Allan Poe films, and a number of films chronicling the 1960s counter-culture. His film The Wild Angels was the opening night film at the Venice Film Festival. He received the first Producer’s Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He distributed films by Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa in America.

Patrick Modiano received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his citation, the Nobel Committee highlighted “the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation." He has also received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française and the Prix Goncourt. He is the author of more than forty books.

Sally Kirkland was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Anna, for which she also received a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress. A former member of Andy Warhol’s Factory, she has appeared in over two-hundred films.

Helene Delprat's Monster Soup with Hand-fulls of Figurative Extravagance @ Hauser & Wirth Paris

Over the past four decades, Delprat’s multifaceted practice has engaged the human condition as its focus, exploring life and death in an oeuvre that spans various mediums. After finding success for her distinctively primitive style of figurative painting, following her residency at the prestigious Villa Medici in Rome between 1985 and 1995, Delprat turned her focus to video, theater, interviews, installations and projects for radio, all whilst continuing to paint. Since the late aughts, the artist’s painting practice has been shaped by an encyclopedic research process compiling a remarkable archive of sources. Delprat’s works, together, comprise a sprawling constellation of references to literature, film, radio, philosophy, internet databases, recorded histories and art history. The title of this exhibition, ‘MONSTER SOUP,’ reflects this multidimensional approach by referencing a variety of sources from popular culture. The poster for the exhibition, created by Delprat, reflects this syncretism: the image, taken from a British 1820s etching depicting a woman in horror at the monstrous contents of a magnified drop of Thames water, is interspersed with Delprat’s painted characters. Likened to an iconologist, she distills eclectic sources of inspiration into an expansive inventory—a world both fortuitous and deliberate, beautiful and grotesque, where themes of memory, identity, recording and legacy coalesce to remind us that the past is a construction and the present is fleeting. ‘Intellectually, I start from everything I see’ she says, ‘...there is no real prep work, except all this reading, all these curiosities, the newspapers I flick through, the programmes I listen to and all the photos that I take or cut out. The preparation is simply what I am living.’

Monster Soup is on view through Saturday 9 March at Hauser & Wirth 26 bis rue François 1er, Paris 75008

XIMONLEE's AW24 Collection Looks at Cloth As A Language in Wrapping

 
 


photography by Xie Wenhao
styling by DeSe Escobar
styling assistance by Rebecca Rendina
hair by Ushka Nochi Tela
beauty by DeSe Escobar
casting by Jose Maria

From Japanese bondage art to traditional gift wrapping, XIMONLEE’s Autumn Winter 2024 collection takes eclectic inspirations and incorporates them into elegant day-to-day wear. As a general principal, the brand is committed to approaching its research by exploring disparate extremities in pursuit of a romantic wardrobe for all genders.

We can see a continuation of the brand’s signature leather coats and jackets with their chain-lock design and their oversized lapels with a handcrafted crease effect in the outerwear. The womenswear addresses drapery in ways that are at times classical and at others coquettish, wrapping the body like a present so as to gently play with notions of restraint. From lightweight maxi skirts and deconstructed gowns, to tops that are made for all occasions. After several seasons of exploring gender-neutral characteristics, the new collection marks the merging of masculine and feminine images within the brand’s discreet yet innovative aesthetic. 

Yves Tumor for Acne Studios FW24 Menswear Collection

 
 

Acne Studios shot American musician Yves Tumor for their FW24 Menswear collection and they couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate muse. The artist constantly shifts, alters and plays with the boundaries of contemporary music, art, culture and aesthetic. “Yves felt just right for the collection, they are one of those people who are true to their art. When they are on stage, it’s incomparable, it’s hard to find real performances like that. It feels scary and lovely at the same time. They also embody the space age, cyber psychedelic vision and at the same time they are super rock. The way they pull a look together feels very in the spirit of the collection. On the shoot, it was brilliant, it felt completely different all the time, downtown/uptown, low-tech/high-tech, scary and cute, all at once. Yves has all these different sides, which to me, represents what a true rebel is: a person you want to be, who doesn’t give a shit but makes immaculate choices.” says Jonny Johansson, Creative Director, Acne Studios.

An ode to Denim culture: rebellious, sexy, and cool. The modern cyber biker. Menswear motorbike archetypes subverted with a kitsch cuteness. Neons clash with classic grunge details, mixing with psychedelic prints inspired by rave and club culture.

Contrasted proportions: low-waisted, high-waisted, skin-tight and oversized. Micro tank tops and cropped shearling jackets juxtaposed with maxi boots and ultra-baggy denim. The look is layered, worn with individuality and playful experimentation. There is a sporty ski element in the styling, straps hang off the body adding length and functionality. Denim silhouettes are updated: a round shape inspired by the early 2000s and a low-waist flared trumpet leg, meant to drag around the foot.

Fluffy faux fur hats with cat ears, mittens and scarves inspired by Kawaii street-style culture. Mohair hairy yarn is found in a new squared beanie shape and in mitts and scarves, adding a fuzzy element.

Extremes meet: micro-sized vs maxi-sized. Trompe l’oeil totes are covered with keychains and charms, whilst the Platt bag is updated with studs, heart charms and pink detailing. A new Musubi model with chain straps is introduced and the Multipocket is reinvented in pink with a foiled shiny finish. New monogram handbag and backpack in black nylon with buckles and metallic bows.

 
 

Read our Interview of Nicole Wittenberg Ahead of Her Debut Exhibition @ Fernberger Gallery in Los Angeles →

Nicole Wittenberg, Midsummer Morning 3, 2023. Image courtesy of Fernberger Gallery.

Garnering inspiration from riotous Fauvist material, Nicole Wittenberg intertwined herself with the world of art from the moment she saw Matisse’s Woman with a Hat. Rooted very confidently in her own intuition, Wittenberg has pursued interests related to her own gestural forms without much hesitation. Her artistic philosophy can be summarized by the kind of unbending compromise that turns heads and makes the world worth looking at. Imbued with synesthetic coloration, the work she portrays is embedded in its own unquantifiable emotional scale. She fearlessly plays with the kind of aggressive coloration that’s capable of conveying its own story, and her viewers get to reap the benefits. Nicole Wittenberg’s Jumpin’ at the Woodside is on view at Fernberger Gallery, a new gallery in Los Angeles. Well known for her erotica work, Wittenberg has garnered well-deserved attention for her experimentation with the body in space. After a shift in interest from figural forms to the entity that houses them, her focus turned to the landscape art we get to witness in Jumpin’ at the Woodside. Read more.

The Human Body and the Corpus of Los Angeles Intertwine in Catherine Opie's harmony is fraught @ Regen Projects

105 Freeway in harmony is fraught by Catherine Opie in Los Angeles

Catherine Opie, 105 Freeway, 1994, 1994/2024 © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Catherine Opie’s eleventh exhibition with Regen Projects, harmony is fraught presents over sixty photographs never shown publicly before, drawn from over thirty years of making pictures in and of Los Angeles. We see a deeply singular diary of Opie’s world—especially her early years as an emerging artist in the 1990s—intertwined with the complex public life of the city she made her home, from its signature freeways and landmarks, like the Hollywood sign, to scenes of activism and surfers at the beach. Together, they collectively trace a profoundly personal story, as well as the evolving drama and common grandeur of Los Angeles itself, a singular assembly of constructions, conflicts, and communities.

 
 

Installed in carefully considered constellations, photographs of freeways and bridges connect and encircle images of more private destinations, portraits of intimates, and telling interiors. Opie likens the literal, tender, resilient human body to the great corpus of the mutable city, always growing, aging, breaking, standing firm—another body with its own queer logic. Curiously, despite the quarter of a century or more that separates us from the moment of their making, many of these images seem to proffer the same city we know now. Likewise, we see subjects yearning for many of the same suspended desires or imperiled freedoms we seek today, evidencing a constancy (or stasis) that can be both touching and deeply unsettling.

harmony is fraught is on view through March 3 @ Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles

Drunk on Violence, Sensual Chaos, and Alex Foxton's Swoon @ Galerie Derouillon

Sebastian (Hate-no-hama), 2023 Huile sur toile, Oil on canvas, 70 x 180 cm 27 1/2 x 70 7/8 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Derouillon, Paris© Grégory Copitet

Alex Foxton’s paintings are as cathartic as they are therapeutic. The ambiguity of his figures, the colours, the compositions and the narrative logic—also remind us of the fable of Abel and Cain that he has revisited—prevent any simplistic reading, and bring us face to face with the paradoxical violence that inhabits the acts of creating order. Here we find the artist’s fascination with images of young men conscripted into armies the world over, whose naivety and innocence can become the perfect fuel for fascist violence. The paintings, most of which are made up of several layers of other images, remind us, like a manuscript would, that the past informs the present—just as the present reconfigures the past, because the latter can only be read through the former—so all these scenes are rooted in our imaginations, ways of thinking, and upbringings: it does not go unnoticed to anyone that the protagonists are all boys. Chaos is also an inherent part of the method of composition, with the artist painting ‘on’ and ‘against’ ‘randomly prepared backgrounds,’ thus allowing an unconscious image to emerge.

These new works by Foxton take up these old dynamics within his work: a kind of exploration of masculinity and heroic figures, a questioning of the spatial, aesthetic, and symbolic role of color, keeping its distance from national narratives, and also a somewhat-thwarted declaration of love for older paintings. There seems to be a new perspective added to this, a desire to represent the scattered fragments of the world, violently thrown every which way, that people working with good intentions are still trying to weave back together, like Isis patching up the dismembered corpse of Osiris, or the tikkun olam of the Kabbalah. It is only by being patient and attentive with the world, despite the calls for destruction from any given side, that we will be able to purge the black bile that corrupts the hearts of men.

Swoon is on view through February 24th, 2024 at Galerie Derouillon, Etienne Marcel 13 rue de Turbigo, 75002

UNESCO & Prada Group Announce The Third Edition of Their Sea Beyond Program

Today is International Day of Education, and in celebration, UNESCO and Prada Group have announced the third edition of their SEA BEYOND educational program dedicated to the dissemination of ocean literacy and ocean preservation, as well as a new partnership with Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries without Borders). This year, 34,385 students from 184 secondary schools across 56 countries will benefit from the SEA BEYOND’s training, which will focus on the interrelation between the ocean and climate, and the associated environmental challenges. It will offer ocean literacy training sessions for students and teachers and include live lessons with UNESCO ocean and climate experts. The program will run from January through June 2024 and will end with an international contest, as per the previous editions. 

All participating schools will their own awareness campaigns, which will encourage their peers to develop more conscious behaviors that help to promote ocean preservation using text, graphics or interactive content. The jury evaluating the campaigns will be composed of new and pre-established SEA BEYOND “friends,” the so-called SEA BEYONDers, people who have placed a love for the ocean at the center of their personal and professional lives.  

Springtime at the Scottsdale, Arizona Walmart Turns Commercial Landscapes into Sites of Nostalgic Mundanity @ Galerie Max Hetzler

Known for his paintings of man-made and natural landscapes, Jake Longstreth depicts American suburban and rural scenes with a clarity that is at once disquieting and subtly humorous. Devoid of human presence and bathed in perpetual midday light, these landscapes – among them American big box stores and chain restaurants – draw out a poetry of the everyday with a surprising warmth and painterly affection. Though American commercial developments may be considered a crass or ugly subject matter, Longstreth’s sunny neutrality underscores the fact that most Americans find them neither bleak nor remarkable. So ubiquitous that they are rarely truly seen, the stores and restaurants depicted in these compositions comprise a 21st-century version of the American commons. Longstreth encourages us to linger, be still, look. We might ask ourselves: What has become of these landscapes? What will become of them? Beyond the signature quietude of Longstreth’s landscapes, this body of work underscores the artist’s astute observation of landscapes in transformation. Revealed from unusual vantage points, tenderly rendered wildflowers, foliage, and trees cast dappled shadows on their surroundings, literally and metaphorically throwing into relief the cultivated domain that surrounds them.

Springtime at the Scottsdale, Arizona Walmart, is on view through March 2nd at Galerie Max Hetzler, Bleibtreustraße 15/16, Berlin.

Autre Magazine Co-Hosts A Fog Art Fair Dance Party In San Francisco With On Approval and Friends

Last Friday, AUTRE magazine cohosted a hot and sweaty late night dance party to celebrate Fog Art Fair in San Francisco with On Approval, Altman Siegel, Value Culture and Exhibited.At. A mix of tech and art worlds collided with locals at the Lions Den Lounge in Chinatown with music by Eugene Whang and Jeremy Costello. photos by Oliver Kupper

Günther Förg's Diverse Utopia-Critical Body of Work Dissected @ Galerie Max Hetzler

 
 

Günther Förg’s comprehensive and multidisciplinary oeuvre, which spans five decades, includes painting, drawing, and murals, as well as sculpture and photography. The focus is on material, color, and space. The artist's experimental approach to abstraction and monochrome painting was directed against the trend toward figuration that prevailed in Germany in the 1980s. His works made continuous reference to 20th-century modernism, whose utopia he critically questioned. In this context, he engaged with art movements as diverse as early modernism, referencing artists such as Edvard Munch, or the American abstract expressionists including Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Cy Twombly. Elements of conceptual art can also be found throughout Förg’s work, which additionally challenge traditional interpretations.

Günther Förg is on view through February 24th at Galerie Max Hetzler, Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin.

Highlights From FOG Design+Art Preview Gala Supporting SFMOMA’s Education and Family Programs

The tenth anniversary of FOG Design+Art included a decadent preview gala to support SFMOMA’s Education and Family Programs, which benefits 100,000 young people across the Bay Area every year. This year’s fair included 45 exhibitions by twentieth-century and contemporary design dealers and leading art galleries, and the launch of FOG FOCUS, an invitational designed to showcase art by young and underrepresented artists. FOG FOCUS will features nine exhibitors as well as art installations, activations, and performances in Fort Mason Center’s Pier 2 building. FOG Design+Art is open from January 18th to 21st. Click here to purchase tickets. photographs by Perry Shimon

Read Our Interview of Experimental Catalan Musician Marina Herlop →

 

top by Piero D’Angelo

 

Catalan musician Marina Herlop’s fourth album Nekkuja starts with a bang. On its opening track “Busa,” deep synths pierce through a bouquet of harp strings, choral arrangements and giggling voices. “I always want to include this surprise factor,” she says. “It’s like when you go on a trip, you always need something unexpected to happen, you need to go on a little adventure.” When speaking of the record, Marina often invokes metaphors, comparing the process of making music to architecture, gardening or even playing video games. While her melodies are mysterious and playful, combining elements of devotional and folk music with contemporary electronics, her lyrics are nonsensical, a deliberate choice to allow for the music to speak for itself (Nekkuja is a word she made up). “I don't want to talk about my life, I want to make music that feels aesthetically interesting,” she says. The artist, who counts Björk among her fans, is nonchalant about her recent success. “I know that this has come and this might go at some point, because people might get tired of it or because there's another project that feels hotter at the moment. But the effort I’ve put into music, that growth, never goes away.” We spoke to Marina Herlop about the spiritual nature of creating art, music as a refuge, and trusting her instincts. Read more.

Nike Women Celebrates Style, Self-Expression and Movement for Her in Los Angeles

Nike Women’s Stud Country Event. Image by Simone Niamani Thompson.

Nike Women hosted a weekend imbued with innovative movement and style as an homage to the power that can be derived from community-focused experiences.

On Friday, December 8, Nike Women hosted an intimate dance class with Stud Country at The Paramour Estate. Guests were encouraged to hit the dance floor wearing pieces from Nike’s holiday 2023 collection, selected by stylist Keyla Marquez, paired with favorite pieces from their closet. Stud Country was born from the legacy of queer dance spaces and honors the rich history of LGBTQ cowboy culture.

The next day, on Saturday, December 9, Nike hosted a day-long immersive experience called Nike Style Studios Neuehouse West Hollywood. Hosted by world renowned talent such as Honey Balenciaga, Sienna Lalau, Storm DeBarge and Courtni Poe, guests participated in a range of unique workshops that inspire different forms of self-expression through style, dance, creativity, and community. 

Nike Women celebrated the power of community in Los Angeles with this special weekend of programming that honors a new era of democratized fashion, prioritizing style, self-expression and movement.

 

Stud Country Portraits by Carlos Eric Lopez.