no.14
BLU-MAGAZINE.COM ISSUE NO.14
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Photo by Csanad Szesztay
contributors
Brigitta Bugya Art historian / Journalist Interview with Ariane Irlé and Karolin Schnoor Page 76 & 48
COURTNEY CHANDLER Designer Interview with R/H Page 30 courtneyadairchandler.tumblr.com
josh gooch Designer Interview with Erik Jones Page 16 goochua.tumblr.com
RON LOGHER Photographer Dark Days Page 70 ronlogher.com
ERICA FAVA Photographer Feel’s Like Gray Page 34 www.ericafava.it
Alessandro Casagrande Photographer Scarlet Fever Page 22 bighousediary.tumblr.com
MATTHEW BROWN Photographer / Writer Interview with 1xRun / Wynwood Walls Page 60 & 64 aimlowshoothigh.com
mariana quevedo Photographer Neon Rebel Page 52 marianaquevedo.com
VERONICA STAUB Copy Editor
camila amortegui Publisher / Creative Director cargocollective.com/camilaamor
Leeann SOKI Mak Stylist Possessed Page 10 sokimak.blogspot.com
Dorottya Nagy Make Up Artist Polly’s Night Page 80 dorottyanagy.tumblr.com
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10
POSSESSED
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ERIK JONES
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SCARLET FEVER
table of contents // issue 14 // 2012
Art cover by Erik Jones / Fashion cover by Erica Fava
30
R/H
34
FEELS LIKE GRAY
48
KAROLIN Schnoor
52
NEON REBEL
60
1xrun
64
art basel / wynwood walls
70
dark days
76
ariane irle
80
polly’s night
Possessed Photographer: Rachell Smith Stylist: Leeann Soki Mak Hair: Liam Curran using Bumble&Bumble Make Up: Claudine Blythman at Balcony Jump Photography assistant: Rose Patterson
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Black mask: Maria Francesca Pepe Dress: Jean Pierre Braganza
Dress: Jean Pierre Braganza Shoes: Gabriella Marina Gonzalez
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Black
quilted coat:
Horace
Silver chain vest: Boutique by Susan Caplan Tights with spikes: Maria Francesca Pepe Shoes: Underground
Tubular necklace: Maria Francesca Pepe Bra: Sian Hoffman Skirt: Fyodor Golan Arm cuffs and shoes: Gabriella Marina Gonzalez
Bra,
corset, neckpiece and wrist cuffs all by
Sian Hoffman
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ERIK JONES i n t e r v i e w b y JOSH GOOCH
Experimentation and submission to the process may be new territory for ARTIST Erik Jones, but the results from his change in approach to art creation has delivered some wonderfully exploratory work that takes us a step forward in what we have come to love in his illustrationS. Somewhat crossing the threshold into the world of fine art, it’s his illustrative style that carries over and delivers to us his take on the human form that has captivated us with his previous work and continues still to pull us into his most recent crop of images. Erik took a moment to discuss his work and some of the new directions he may be taking with it.
The heavily illustrative look of so much of your work stands out. Where do you feel your work fits in today’s world of illustration? I’m not sure actually. I feel like this would have been a great question for me 3 years ago, my art was pretty surface and easily defined. Now I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing, and as a result I’m not really sure who my audience is. I’m just creating and putting it out there. I’ve recently been extremely fascinated with fashion illustration. I started a tumbler (InkandCollar.tumblr.com) where I’ve been collecting/sharing images (fashion,art) that inspire me. I plan on diving into this market in the near future, actually the cover of this magazine is a decent example of where my heads at. What evolution of your work and skills have you seen since your graduation from Ringling College of Art and Design? I was really focused on “pin-up” art while I was in school and for the entire beginning of my career. I’m starting to stray away from that now. I’ve been really interested in nonrepresentational art, it’s really helped me to step out of the box and view my own art in a different way. I feel like the process of creating has become more interesting than the final piece. To be honest I have no idea what I’m doing right now, stylistically. I’m in a transitional period, so only time will tell what is to come. I can say that experimenting like I have been is very freeing, compared to the way I used to work. I spent so long drawing the figure perfectly (to my best ability), painting every hair and eyelash. I was essentially a slave to my reference. Now my reference is just a starting off point and I’m actually kind of looking for mistakes. With all that said, I’m finally enjoying the process of painting, it feels like less work and more fun.
When looking back what was the best benefit from attending such a prestigious institution? Yeah, I really enjoyed attending Ringling. It was amazing being with so many other like-mined people all the time. I think that makes art school very unique. It’s something I miss a lot, being able to socialize everyday with other artist, getting critiqued and having secret competitions with classmates to see who can create the better piece. I miss those days... As part of the Supersonic Electronic show you were surrounded by a wonderful group of artists working to blur the lines between fine art and illustration. What can you say about the current crop of illustrators who are exploring the world of fine art and seemingly finding a receptive audience? I noticed this happening while I was at Ringing. We (illustration students) were creating work that was supposed to be for print/publication (the essence of illustration) but we were creating pieces as if they were going to hang on a wall. My fiend Sean Chapman and I coined this observation as ‘Fine Illustration’. I love this idea and try to practice fine illustration when I get an illustration job. However, I can’t speak for other fine illustrators but I would be very reluctant to call myself a “fine artist” at this time. Doing that is sort of like a person who helped his dad make his business cards call themselves a graphic designer. I believe a lot of us fine illustrators still make paintings because they simply look cool, and I hold fine art to a much higher standard. I think my last serious of paintings, POP-OP, was the closest as I’ve come to “fine art” and I’m very anxious to continue that thought process and creative path.
Your POP-OP series and the inclusion of geometric shapes seems to add an extra dimension to your work which you describe as an experimentation of building up shape and color. Where did the inspiration for this come from? That show was my attempt to let loose and really explore all different types of mediums. The major influence behind the show was all the nonrepresentational art I was finding, mostly on FFFFound.com. I kept seeing pieces and thinking “what if they added a figure to that, seamlessly?” I never really saw anyone do it, so I figured I’d try. I do feel like a lot of people didn’t really get what I was doing. I heard a lot of “yeah that’s cool, but I like your old work more” and I started to notice a HUGE drop in sales at comic book conventions. Though I am much happier doing this type of work, I still feel like I’m having a bit of a hard time finding an audience for it. What can you tell us about creating a series of works like POP-OP for the Red Letter Gallery that may have helped your evolution of style or message? The POP-OP show was my answer to my past work. I threw out my preconceived thoughts of what my paintings should look like and just let the work evolve on it’s own. By that I mean I embraced mistakes and didn’t worry about the outcome. The show was more therapeutic and educational than anything else. As I said in a past interview, “it’s not only a salubrious experimentation with the figure but also an exploration of mediums.” You know, I wish I had some profound statement to make with that collection, but it’s simply one big experimentation.
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When looking at the special cover to Top Cow comics Witchblade #145 that you created we are able to see some of the style and elements that you were exploring in your fine art, like in the POP-OP series. Not too many artists get to really explore a fine art approach to comic book art. Names like Ashley Wood, Phil Noto, and Travis Charest come to mind when thinking of your stylized covers. Are the comic companies open to this or do you have to fight to include some of these elements in your comic work? It’s been tough trying to break into comics with this style, for sure. Let’s face it, comics are a business. If I was a huge artist selling out shows and stealing people’s hearts, they wouldn’t care what I did on their cover. Unfortunately, it’s hard to convince people that this new style will work for their character(s).Top cow was really great letting me explore this style and I think the cover was positively received, so that’s a plus! Though I’m still looking for more work like that to come my way, we’ll see what happens. < art 18 blÜ-magazine.com
You are very active on social media platforms documenting your process, and the materials you use for work. What sort of connection with your audience has this opened? I hate it when artist keep their process to themselves. As I said earlier, the best part of creating is the process, why not share it?! I have noticed that people really enjoy the tutorials, and I really enjoy giving them. I guess I started showing my process for 2 reasons. 1, because I got an overwhelming amount of questions about the materials I use. And 2, because people thought I was painting over photographs and I wanted to clarify that these were indeed start to finish paintings. The evolution of my process is actually kind of funny. The reason why I work with so many different mediums is because I simply can’t paint well. If you were to give me just acrylics and a canvas, I’d hand back a sloppy mess.
My strengths are my ability to render well with pencils, so I took those basic pencil rendering skills and applied them to colored pencil, then started to apply different mediums over the pencils to give it a painterly look , such as water-soluble wax pastel, acrylics, watercolor, water-soluble oils, and nupastels. So yeah, my strengths and experiences with mixed media has come from my weakness in painting, funny how it comes together like that. I see a lot of people out there like me that lack rendering skills with paint, which makes me want to share my artistic experiences all the more. Really, I’m just happy people care enough to pay attention to how I’m creating and because of that I’ll share information to anyone who wants to know.... why not theirison.com
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SCARLET FEVER Photographer: Alessandro Casagrande Stylist: Letizia Scarpello Makeup and hair: Daria Cecamore Model: Nina Mykhailova at 2Morrow Model All dresses are by italian designer Letizia Scarpello
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R/H
Riiheläinen / Hernesniemi i n t e r v i e w b y COURTNEY CHANDLER
The Finnish designers of R/H, Emila Hernesniemi and Hanna Riihelainen, develop and create feminine attire that is both soft to the touch and playful to the eye. They are inspired by a variety of muses: from planets to female anatomy to country music legend Dolly Parton. With their hard work and dedication their label has grown very quickly. Having just participated in Copenhagen and Stockholm Fashion Weeks, Emilia and Rachel have their sights set on Paris and New York (and maybe even Dollywood).
Your inspirations are atmospheres, music, and female anatomy. How are these inspirations shown in your designs? Our inspirations usually become physical in a wanna-be naïve kind of way - Mountain tops appear in the form of mountain cuts in tee shirts and knits, dragons appear as silhouettes in shirts and wool dresses... Mickey Mouse’s ears on dresses. All R/H prints are inspired by things like monsters, summer sky, paintings, jungles, snakes and planets. All actual things that follow their form in a piece of clothing. Good spirit mixed with a little black magic and humor. Some one said it well when they commented that R/H is “very clean - still never boring or without humor”.
SPRING/SUMMER 2012
What makes the Finnish reindeer leather so unique, and how did you choose this material to use? It is just a natural choice for us coming from Finland. A unique animal being able to live a wild life. It is a healthy alternative compared to all farmed animals who only receive a life as a consumable piece of meat and skin. With your collection only having been around for a few seasons, how were you able to grow and expand it so quickly? Actually we just presented R/H’s 4th season. And I think it is not for us to decide why the label has grown so quickly. We don’t think we have grown that quickly anyway - Hanna and I work everyday since 1,5 years with a hard motivation to achieve a position as a womens-wear collection with a sustainable future. That way for us it has been a long project already. But we are very happy about the situation and even happier to not know what happens next - still hoping for the best. What is it like prepping for Stockholm Fashion Week? What other fashion weeks do you have plans to be a part of? Copenhagen was of course the most exciting part for R/H with our own runway show and everything. Now sitting in a cheap hotel waiting for the last day of Stockholm showroom we already are planning our visits at Capsule in Paris and New York. Will be nice to see our friends and see what the season brings along!
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What is your S/S 12 collection going to be like? What inspired this collection? Wild with water and leaf colors from the jungles and fountains. The collection was inspired by Guns’n’Roses, Dolly Parton and the jungle animals. Do you have any future plans to expand to a men’s collection or accessories or shoes? For men’s no although it would be nice. There is enough for us to work out with this 1,5-year-old women’s collection. Accessories have played a role since the beginning - like the Lucky Eyes and Mountain earrings. What is your favorite piece you have designed? What is Hanna’s? Right now I love everything in the SS/12 green R/H Jungle print. Hanna loves the SS/12 Mickey Beach dress in blue and black stripes. Who is someone in the limelight that you feel would be an ideal person to wear your designs? We think all the women who feel themselves comfortable enough to wear R/H are more than ideal. It is great to see R/H clothes on women we know and don’t know - they are the ones we get power from! rh-the-label.com
FALL/WINTER 2012
FEELâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LIKE GRAY Photography: Erica Fava Stylist: Gabriele Corbyons Hair & Makeup: Cinzia Russo Model: Daria at 2Morrow
Skirt: Msgm Top: Giorgio Armani Bracelet: Zona 67 Shoes: Leitmotiv
Hat: Ab A Brand
Dress: Erkan Coruh Top: Leitmotiv Apart Per Borsalino
Dress: Vivetta Necklace: Zona 67
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Dress: Msgm Scarf: Xx-Xy Belt: Htc Gloves: Ab A Brand Apart Shoes: Leitmotiv
Fur: Msgm Shirt: Xx-Xy Shorts: Giorgio Armani Shoes: Leitmotiv Brachelet: Schield Collection
Dress: Trebitsch Belt: Htc Ring: Zona 67 Bag: Arnaldo & Battois
Gloves: Ab A Brand A Part Hat: Ab A Brand A Part Per Borsalino Top: Msgm Skirt: Msgm Jacket: Alessia Xoccato
Karolin Schnoor i n t e r v i e w b y Brigitta Bugya
Illustrator and artist, Karolin Schnoor has created a uniquely feminine aesthetic that is both intricate and harmonious. She explains the delicately dynamic balance between them in her own words.
Tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m from Potsdam, a city in the outskirts of Berlin but I moved to London to study illustration and I ended up staying after graduating and now I’ve been here for 9 years! I work from my tiny flat in South London. It’s slowly filling up with drawings and screen prints and I’m running out of space so it looks as if I will have to get a studio at some point. That or cut down on my printing which would be hard! What inspires you the most? Probably colour and pattern. I like things that are visually striking, that you have an almost visceral reaction to. I find it very pleasing when something is well balanced and keeps the eye moving. I also enjoy a good story, I think narrative is important in illustration and it’s one of my goals to incorporate this into my work more. You are currently living in London, what IN the city inspires you and your work? London is a pretty great city to live in. It feels as if you could find anything here. I think I almost appreciated it more when I first moved here and I didn’t have the Internet at home (hard to imagine now!) I actually had to walk around and go to places to see inspiring things. Now everything is so accessible online I don’t venture out as much. On the other hand, I also found it difficult at first to be in such a big anonymous place, it can be daunting when you don’t really know what you are doing. Now that I feel more sure of my work it’s quite liberating to have so much going on around you. I feel more part of it and it gives you a good momentum, knowing all these people are so busy all around you. Describe your relationship with hand drawing? How did you become so obsessed with it? Maybe I’m old fashioned but illustration to me does still mean drawing by hand. I use my computer a lot but
everything begins with a hand drawn image. It feels like such a direct translation of the image in my head to the page. If I worked on the computer from the start it would just get in the way. It’s also satisfying to feel that I’m getting better at drawing as I go along, like I’m honing my skills (very slowly). How do you develop your patterns and color-palette? It’s hard to describe because it feels like quite an instinctive process. I usually have a colour in mind before I begin a drawing. I start with a large area of orange for instance and I will work from there.Filling in pattern is part of the balancing act. Once the deciding elements are in place it’s filing away at the details until it looks finished to me. I suppose I have some go–to elements. I like to use stripes for example. Can’t go wrong with stripes. Your drawings seem to tell a story. What’s the story behind one of your favorite pieces? I don’t know if I could pick out one piece. I think a lot of my drawings are united by lose themes of decoration, nature,femininity and perhaps a space that’s not quite real but very close. Maybe a flatter, more colourful version of reality where everything is simpler. How would you describe your style? Perhaps semi–naive decorative folk? That has a good ring to it, I’m going to start a movement. You seem to prefer smaller hand drawings and screen-prints, does that have anything to do with the intimacy of working with smaller items? Absolutely. You should see my sketchbooks, they are a bit of a joke. The word thumbnail sketch was invented for what I do. To prepare for any illustration I will do a handful
of tiny sketches and then struggle to translate them to a printable size. I also like using intense colours so perhaps it would be overkill to go too large in scale! Have you ever wanted to do large scale productions? I think I should try it. I do recall several teachers practically ordering me to experiment more with scale but I’m quite stubborn so of course I didn’t. Much of their advice has turned out valuable in retrospect so I should really. If you could choose a book to illustrate, what would it be? Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I typed that answer so fast, I wish you could tell! That would be my first choice but then right away I think it might be better to go with something less obvious, more of a challenge. Maybe something really dry and specific like that section in Moby Dick where he just describes all the different whales. Could be great! Your drawings remind me to the Eastern European fairy tale books of the 80’s. I’m wondering what your favorite fairy tale was or is? And what was it that caught youR attention? That’s the best compliment I can imagine! My most vivid, inspirational childhood memories of illustration are from a fairy tale book with woodcuts by Werner Klemke. It’s hard to chose a favorite. Maybe Rapunzel because it’s just so strange and visually powerful. People in fairy tales do all kinds of insane, selfish things yet we still think of them as magical and dreamlike or worse; romantic. karolinschnoor.co.uk
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Photographer / Editor: Mariana Quevedo Model: Dominique B. Make up Artist: Ashley Walker Hair: Jenna Vrzal Stylist: Essence Jones
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1X RUN
i n t e r v i e w b y MATTHEW BROWN
Artists throughout history have been resilient to the economic ebb and flow. In today’s market the demand for original work is growing at a remarkable pace. Jesse, Dan and Ryan, a trio of noteworthy entrepreneurs have responded well to the trends, raising the bar for art dealers and re-sellers worldwide. Fortunately for us, we had the opportunity to speak with them about the incredible success of their online store, 1xRun. Here’s what they had to say...
How did 1xRun initially start out? JESSE: We opened 323East Gallery in April of 2008, and after a few years of exhibitions we started releasing prints on the gallery’s website. We noticed that after a few days the excitement of the collectors would start to die down, and over the next few months we would only have a few sales here and there. We also had a bunch of inventory to deal with if it didn’t sell out quickly. Although it wasn’t a bad thing to have inventory for the shop, it was a factor that we knew could be improved upon. In addition to running 323East Gallery, we also provided creative marketing services under Ohm Creative Group (OCG). Between 2006 - 2011 the team at OCG was building web applications and Internet marketing campaigns for our a variety of clients. We were doing a pretty good job making money for them with the execution of unique ideas and online marketing strategies , but we wanted to create those ideas for our self. We had faith that we could build our own online environment and promote something we were really passionate about. One night we were talking over some ideas, and it became really clear that we were all very passionate about collecting art prints. We came up with a simple idea; to create online openings just like we do each month at the gallery but bring that level of buzz and excitement to a global audience. We came up with a name and started designing everything in October of 2010, within 3 weeks we had a super simple website up and running selling just one print for one week, 1xRUN was born. Do you guys have a particular way of selecting artists/prints when you do runs? JESSE: There are actually a lot of ways that we go about selecting artists to work with. When we first started out, we relied heavily on the relationships and the reputation we built with artists through the gallery, and all the great local talent we were surrounded by. We also created a
giant wish list of artists that we loved and just started reaching out to people to see if they were down to take a leap of faith. Now that we’ve been doing this for a minute and have worked with well over 150 artists, we get a lot of referrals and introductions from the artists themselves. RYAN: We tend to gravitate towards artists that are in galleries we respect and/or featured in publications we follow. We also have our eyes on the street. I live in New York so I get a different flavor for what’s emerging on a daily basis just by walking around. If I keep seeing good work, I try to engage the artist. We have a knack for getting some serious talent before they are widely noticed based on our tenacity and ability to network in the underground. Examples of this include Dickchicken and ASVP who have both crushed my neighborhood of Williamsburg Brooklyn. DAN: There are so many more artists we would love to work with out there! If you want to release work on 1xRUN, and we haven’t reached out to you personally, don’t be afraid to give us a shout. Even though we try to stay informed as to who’s doing what, it’s impossible to know it all. If you’re a collector or just a fan who wants to see a particular artist featured on 1x, let us know! You are located in Michigan, how is the current art scene there? DAN: The art scene here is better than it’s been in a long time. There is a great DIY creative spirit here in Detroit, and we’ve been getting a lot of national attention for some of the renaissance that’s been happening. People from all walks of life are coming together in creative ways, from urban farming projects and hacker collectives to food culture, and fashion. It feels like people here in general are becoming artisans again. It’s not always easy day-to-day in the Motor City, but it’s one of the
most inspiring places you could possibly live, for a whole number of reasons. RYAN:The fine art collectors at high price points might not have enough galleries in Michigan to shop at but there is definitely a good deal of work being made in Detroit and exported elsewhere. And most importantly, the artists love coming to Detroit and working, getting up etc. It’s a mecca for getting up. Everyone from Banksy, REVOK and Ron English to people like Faile and many more than I can name have visited Detroit in the last couple of years. We are happy to let out of towners paint the exterior of the gallery as well as take them to the right spots to get up and we have supplies, transportation and can always provide a crew to make sure they don’t get busted in a foreign land. If we look at history, if the art and music scenes are thriving, it can only grow, and we are proud to see things heading in a positive direction creatively. Most of your prints sell out within a couple of hours of being released, what are some of the most sought out prints you have sold? JESSE: Every day is exciting with new prints releases, talking with our collectors, and video chatting with artists from around the world. It’s interesting to watch how people react to some images and others take a bit longer to catch fire. Some of the artists try to compete for the quickest sell-out or at least joke around about it with us. Luke Chueh’s “Inside Out” has held the title since March of 2011 and we’ve had a few that have almost inched him out, like Meggs from Australia, Tara McPherson from Brooklyn, Ryan McCann from LA and Dave Kinsey from LA. They’ve all been close but Luke still holds the belt. RYAN: We have many that have sold out in a few hours and some that have sold out in minutes. Some
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companies would just take that and print gobs more but it’s important to us to keep the edition sizes low and highly competitively priced. It’s a blast to hit refresh and see them vanish. People love the excitement and so do we. It’s the ticking time bomb effect and it’s very unique to us. Do you have any personal favorite prints or runs that have been made? DAN: Some personal favorites are Camilo’s “Target Girl” series because we really rolled up our sleeves and help make each one with Camilo. It took several very long nights to get them all done, but it was a great feeling looking at the entire collection when they were all finished. I love being that involved in producing the work. Both of Dave Kinsey’s runs are at the top of my list of favorites. I’ve been a huge fan of Dave’s for many years, and it was an honor that he worked with us. Some others would be John Dunivant, Dabs Myla and AVONE, but there are so many I love.. JESSE: Wow - so we’ve been fans of many of these artists for years and we’re honored to work with them. Overall we have to really feel an image to release it on the site, so it’s pretty hard to narrow it down to even a few. One personal favorite of mine is Glenn Barr’s “With Out Pitty”. It was second print we released, and it sold out in just over an hour. The image itself is amazing, but it also has a lot of sentimental value because it proved the concept of 1xRUN worked. RYAN: Quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like Peeta’s work. It’s mind-blowingly technical but preserves more of the graffiti style than many other prints we release. I also love Death to Banksy by Ryan McCann. When we got that image, we knew it was a home run and nobody knew about the artist, so when it sold out and got the buzz it did, it just makes us all feel like we’re really kicking ass at discovering new artists and not just doing what everyone else is doing. What kind of things are currently in the works? DAN: One really exciting natural evolution for us is releasing more than just print editions. We’re starting to curate mini-online exhibitions, starting off small at first, then building up to curated themed group and solo exhibitions that showcase up to 10 works of original art + prints. We are also trying to make each run more unique than ever by increasing the number of hand-printed/embellished/original works alongside our normal runs. We’ll be trying some experiments with the amount of time we keep a run going as well. It’s always been a week by default, but we’re hoping to do some cool 24 hour runs, and maybe some that are up for longer than 7 days. We’re really just having fun and seeing what our collectors and fans respond well to.
Who are some of your favorite artists? JESSE: There are so many artists working today that I’m a fan of.. Mark Ryden, John Dunvant, Revok, Brett Amory, Ron English and many more. The masters of the modern pop movement have a special place in my heart because they really paved the path for the consumer driven art market that we are now a part of. Artists like Keith Harring, Andy Warhol, Jean Paul Basquiat, and Roy Lichtenstein. Without those guys, there’s no telling what our visual landscape would look like today. DAN: I have to give a shout to the artists that have inspired me since I was young, crawling around in abandoned buildings and just starting to write graffiti. Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Dave Kinsey, ESPO, Saber, Tristan Eaton, Twist, Glenn Barr, Kaws, Seen, Os Gemeos, Seak, Fosik, John John Jesse, David Choe, Cope2, and Banksy to name a few. Some artists I’m really into right now would have to be Brett Amory, Dabs Myla, Bask, Beau Stanton, Tatiana Suarez, Hush, John Dunivant, AVONE, Audrey Pongracz, Meggs, Mellissa Forman, Reyes MSK, Conor Harrington, How & Nosm, Serge Gay Jr., Ron Zakrin, JR, man.. I could go on and on and on… RYAN: My favorite artists living are those who don’t take themselves too seriously and let the work speak for itself. Ryan McGuiness, Faile, Ron English fit that mold. I’m in awe of Ai Wei Wei, Jeff Koonz, and always love seeing what Damien Hirst is up to. I’m also particularly psyched that Kenny Scharf, who is also a friend and throws some of the strangest parties on earth, is getting his due--he really was the glue that gave us all the Basquiat, Keith Harring and Warhol effect, and his new work is incredible and priced accordingly! The art world is an endlessly fascinating collection of people and images. Some of the collectors are actually way more far out than the work or the artists. We get a lot of insight by seeing what the collectors are buying before it hits the masses. Any personal favorite artists you would like to collaborate with in the future? JESSE: We’re currently working on an upcoming project with Ron English that we’re stoked about. Ron is an amazing artist to say the least, and it’s projects like this that really keep us excited.. and our collectors on their toes. DAN: It would be amazing to work with a legend like Stephen Powers. Dude has been killing it for so long now and I’m a huge fan of everything he’s done. His Love Letters project is definitely one of my favorite public art projects. An AJ Fosik edition would be pretty rad too.. RYAN: Without a doubt, I want to work with Blek Le Rat. 1xrun.com blÜ-magazine.com
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WYNWOOD ART BASEL MIAMI 2012 P H O T O S b y MATTHEW BROWN
DARK days Photography by Ron Logher / ronlogher.com Fashion Stylist: Jalal de Boer Model: Marleen Maijvis at BM Model Management Hair & Make up Artist: Hilda Jonkman Hair & Make up Assistant: Renate Rutten Molenaar
Legging: Maison Portier Bra: Christina Guseva Boots: Nelly Shoes
Bodysuit: Christina Guseva Coat: Dimitry Frenko Krul
Glitter Jumpsuit: Maison Portier Plastic Dress: Anbasja Blanken
Top: Van Markoviec Skirt: Dimitry Frenko Krul Tights: Cette Fun
Bodysuit by Christina Guseva Futuristic Top Sepehr Maghsoudi High Heels by Nelly Trend
Dress: Dimitry Frenko Krul Boots: Pleaser Tights: V&D
ARIANE IRLÉ i n t e r v i e w b y Brigitta Bugya
Ariane Irlé’s portfolio is comprised of motion graphics, interactive media and striking print designs. With strong roots in the fine arts Irlé adds fresh concepts, an all-together new way of thinking to her designs through experimentation between the digital and the analogue dimensions. We asked her about this duality as well as the inspiring creativity of connecting the fields of art and design.
How do you define yourself: as an artist or as a multimedia designer? I am a designer. I definitively made a conscious choice as of the context in which I would evolve and I would say that my work is often a response to a question or a brief, which can be commercial but can also be featured in an exhibition or a magazine. I like how art and design can blur in its form, and I think we live an exiting time for that as there is a space for commercial work to be realized in highly artistic ways. I come from a school of thoughts where concept leads onto realization, in this sense I believe the medium should just follow whatever technique expressed an idea best, but an artistic realization doesn’t necessarily mean that the output is art. In other words think i m an artist working in he field of design.
You started your carrier as a sculptor, why did you choose to do something else? Do you feel the digital world can add something more creative that you can’t find in the analogue world? Its a combination of things. In sculpture, I was interested in creating some sort of impossible vision, dreamlike environments, and while building a piece, I was always thinking of it as in a virtual world but knew how to represent it physically. So when i found out about animation and digital image making, i was naturally inspired to learn about these techniques. When i started, I was exited to move from the real space because this was an open door to imagination and symbolic representation. However I came to find out that in some cases, it is precisely the real aspect of things that make them believable and interesting. Today I like to bring back materiality into digital imagery, because it has depth and consistence and I find interesting to play off the idea of image making.
How do fine art and applied art relate in your work? Mostly in the process. when starting a new project i always start with an idea rather then a visual experiment and that comes from my fine art background. To me, it is important for a piece to reflect a thought and its success also relies on its execution, witch should be aligned with the idea. Well executed craft is what brings it to completion and make it interesting to look at. Personally, i like to build things by hand, and construction is something that comes rather naturally to me so that how i sometimes find my way out. Can you tell me the process and idea behind constructing some of your three-dimensional screens? This can happen in several different ways. For instance in “Love” i just made the whole word folding paper to create each segment, so most of the work is done outside from the computer, and i only retouched the photograph at the end. There is not much digital manipulation on this piece. In the image I made for Stella magazine, I treated each image outside from the computer as well, I spray-painted the objects with various colors and then photographing them against a color background, then i recomposed the image in photo-shop using real shadows and leaving details showcasing analogue nature of the elements ( for example by leaving visible the paper handles holding the cutout model. ) At the same time, the composition belongs to the digital world, scale is out of proportion and implemented with vector elements. Do you think you have a specific signature in your graphical or typographical works? I like to try new things so my work doesn’t typically repeat and reflect a straight signature but i would say that there are way in which i function that sees through, as well as my taste.
For instance, in many pieces, i use simplified modular forms, and build a structure from the combination of one or multiple units, which typically applies to type work. Also, the use objects, creating sets and the use of bright colors. Can you find satisfying artistic freedom in other ways beside creative briefs? Some briefs are very boring and other are really fun to work with so it depends on the projects. I v been lucky enough to work on rather artistic project in the last couple of months, so it was stimulating. At times when work is not as exiting , I try to get involved with external projects which is always nice. And because there is no client it is a good place to do things that are more personal, a little more crafty and unusual. Are you working on any independent art projects at the moment? Or do you plan to do so? Lately I’ve been so busy with work that i haven’t really had a minute to do anything else. At the same time, i feel rather inspired in these moments so i write down new ideas to experiment on. Making objects, taking pictures and going back and forward from analogue to digital is something i really love doing. It’s also a little messy and time consuming, so it gets hard to do that in a studio context so i hope to do more of that kind of work outside. where do you get your inspiration? I look at a lot of images all the time. At the moment, think i get most inspired by and art and fashion photography, fashion design that transforms people into characters, installation art, object photography showcased in a a graphic way or as in a still life painting, and just sets in general where elements are objectified. In general, I like things that are really rough and eccentric. arianeirle.com
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NIGHT
POLLYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S
Photography By Vivienne Balla / vivienneballa.com Styling: Zsuzsi Deak / zsuzsideak.tumblr.com Makeup: Dorottya Nagy / dorottyanagy.tumblr.com Hair: Norbert Kozma / nokohair.tumblr.com Model: Polly at attractive Photo assistant: Andras Zombori
Overal: Tamara Toth Necklace: Pieces
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Flower Printed Dress: Lรกtomรกs Hat: Vero Moda Fur Waistcoat: Only Necklace: H&M Pearl Bracelets: Pieces
Fur Coat: Vero Moda Printed Dress: Lรกtomรกs
Hooded Lace Dress: Zoe Phobic Knit
Silk Dress: Pazicski Chained Belt: Eva Nyiri Embroidered Handbag: Vero Moda
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