ISSUE 1 SPRING 2017
The Hottest A r t World
Singles
P. Diddy’s Art Teacher
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Fashion Icons in the Art World
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CONTENT Bye Hollywood, Hello Art World! JUNGLE p. 22
Collectible Kicks
First It’s Me and Then It’s You and Then It’s Me Again and Then It’s Us
CANDY p. 58
10 Art Ba$ar 12 Confessions of a Nasty Gallery Girl 15 Career Coach
JUNGLE Genevieve Gaignard Captures the Present and Shows Us the Future p. 28
JUNGLE 18 The Self Love Club 22 Bye Hollywood, Hello Art World! 28 Capturing the Present and Showing Us the Future
STYLE 38 54 58 67 68
The Essential Girl’s Guide to the Art World
CANDY From Flipping to Vantablack p. 78
CANDY
21 Fashion Icons in the Art World STYLE p. 38
On the Cover Genevieve Gaignard Phone Booth, 2016 © Genevieve Gaignard, Courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles
21 Fashion Icons in the Art World P. Diddy’s Art Teacher Collectible Kicks Art Fair Bootcamp Art Gent Deconstructed
On the Centrefold Leah Schrager Trying Not to Look at the Hollywood Sign, 2015 © Leah Schrager
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72 Hide and Seek 78 The Essential Girl’s Guide to the Art World 86 Andy’s Candies 88 The Very Honest Gallerist 3 4 6 8
Content Imprint Editor’s Letter Contributors
IMPRINT
Founder / Editor in Chief: Cordelia Noe Associate Editor: Cait Munro Publisher: Christoph Noe
Editorial Design Concept: Prof. Andine Mueller, Till Theissen and Prof. Dr. Lorenz Poellmann, Berlin Graphic Designer: Summer Tsui Illustrations: Penelope Strintz Contributing Writers: Alex Anderson, Claire Bouchara, Cait Munro, Cordelia Noe, Stephanie Watson, Maxwell Williams Copy Editor: PaperTrue Project Assistance: Emma Lam For Advertising and Sponsorship Enquiries please contact: Olivia Wang, olivia@theartgorgeous.com Special thanks to: Bernhard Bartsch, Fabien Fryns, Wolfgang Kohl, Cecilia Lau, Ling Jian, Mama TOY Printing: TEAMS Printing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong
TheArtGorgeous Magazine is a publication by TheArtGorgeous. TheArtGorgeous is a subsidary of The Ministry of Art Ltd. TheArtGorgeous. Issue 1, Spring 2017. Š 2017, The Ministry of Art Ltd. All rights reserved. See the magazine online at www.theartgorgeous.com and www.theartgent.com. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publishers. The views expressed in TheArtGorgeous Magazine are those of the respective contributors, and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. The magazine welcomes new contributors but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or any other material. Contact: TheArtGorgeous is published by The Ministry of Art Ltd., 340 Queen’s Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Email: contact@theartgorgeous.com Subscription Email: thegirls@theartgorgeous.com
Scan or Visit: theartgorgeous.com @theartgorgeous
@TheArtGorgeous
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ArtGorgeous
ello Gorgeous,
EDITOR’S LETTER
at TheArtGorgeous, we believe that surrounding ourselves with the bright side of things is more important now than ever. That’s why in our inaugural print issue, along with our digital editorial, we’re talking about the art world’s sunny and social side. We want to bring visibility to some of our favorite art world personalities−from established influencers to newcomers. Our mission is to make the art world more accessible and fun, to lower the occasionally intimidating barriers and to have more people sign up for this wild ride on the art wave. Our cover girl and artist Genevieve Gaignard gets uncovered as the art world’s next celebrated magician sneaking in our souls. We follow up growing ties between art and pop culture, witnessing a range of enthusiasts, from Hollywood actors to NBA players, showing up at gallery openings, switching to curating and even founding their own art fairs, amassing massive collections. Cait Munro chats with Maria Brito, a NYC-based art advisor and interior designer, who is lucky enough to have celebs like P. Diddy as her clients. She is a shining example of how to nail the marriage between art and style. Also, fashion and art have a long history as bedfellows and we celebrate with you 21 women who have caught our eye over the years. The recent female movement in the arts becomes quite obvious when scanning through social media channels, with Stephanie Watson prowling in IG for the most exciting and influential digital feminists. One of them, Leah Schrager, has made it to be the magazine’s centrefold. In Hong Kong, we played hide and seek in architect William Lim’s private art hideaway, and took a sneak peak into the most exciting artist x sneaker collabs, from Seoul to Stockholm. For art world beginners (but we believe not only for them), “The Essential Girl’s Guide to the Art World” shows us what happens behind the scenes−from Vantablack to handsome art handlers. And on that subject, TheArtGorgeous is determined to bring love to the art scene: Meet the hottest art singles from Warsaw to New York City. We hope to get you as excited as we are. Stay tuned for the second print issue being published in June for the steamy art summer between Basel and Venice− and don’t forget to get yourself in shape with our art fair boot camp.
It Is All About An Entertaining View On the Sometimes Serious Art Scene
Much art & love
Founder / Editor in Chief cordelia@theartgorgeous.com
#artgirlsdoitbetter 6
WE’VE MADE TRAVELLING THE WORLD AN ART FORM.
A B OA R D W E LC O M E RU IS E S H IP T H E B E ST C R L D * . IN T H E W O S.COM / HL-CRUISE RGEOUS THE ARTGO
* According to Berlitz Cruise Guide 2017
GEORG KÜTTINGER: „FLYING“ Photography, C-print on glass | MS EUROPA 2, Deck 4
Fan Wu was born in Shantou, China but grew up in different countries. Currently, she works as a photographer in Hong Kong and New York. She is drawn to gender, emotions and emptiness which are her kind of space.
Maxwell Williams, an L.A.-based culture writer, who contributes to The New York Times, W Magazine, Bloomberg, Condé Nast Traveler, High Times and Dazed. He occasionally DJs.
CONTRIBUTORS
Cait Munro is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor obsessed with art, fashion and culture, both pop and otherwise. Her work has appeared in BULLETT, New York Magazine, Artnet News, The Observer and Vice. She is “the one with the big closet” in her group of friends and staunchly maintains that she invented the term “leather weather”.
Stephanie Watson is a Scottish journalist, who specialises in feminism, art and pop culture. She has written for HelloGiggles, Greatist, The Establishment, Bustle, Ravishly and is the EIC of Fembot Magazine.
Alex Anderson is an L.A.based artist, an MFA candidate at University of California, Los Angeles and a former resident artist of the China Academy of Art as a Fulbright Scholar. He completed his undergraduate studies from Swarthmore College.
Penelope Strintz is a french painter and designer based in NYC. Her concept lies in empowering women and men to have a voice beyond the commercial allure. She has created her own fashion brand called “Hold On” (holdonnyc.com), using vintage items that are customised and given a second, funnier life. She hopes to turn the boring reality of the world into something fun, light and also, a bit shocking.
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Art Ba$ar Sculptural Sunnies Revé by René, a line of trend-conscious sunnies founded by René Chu, effortlessly turns eyewear into wearable sculptures. Got caught by the detachable cat ears or monster claws? It’s cool, Beyonce did too. And the brand just got officially arty by collaborating with L.A.-based ceramicist Brian Rochefort, so time to cop a pair for yourself before they are everywhere. www.revebyrene.com
Ni Hao, Si Mon!
Simon de Pury’s memoir, The Auctioneer debuted last autumn, and now you can read the twisted tales of the world’s most famous hammer man in Chinese as well. The perfect thing to read while jetting around for the new art season.
Swiss Beats 10
Floor Couture Husband and wife duo Janis Provisor and Brad Davis are the brains behind luxury carpet atelier Fort Street Studio. The energetic pair, both highly regarded artists, draw inspiration from 17th-century Persian courts to the emperor’s private rooms in the Forbidden City. The results are fabric artworks with a watercolour-infused look. Apart from their showrooms in New York and L.A., make sure to pay their beautiful Hong Kong studio a visit, while next in town. www.fortstreetstudio.com
Photographer: Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Artist Chen Ke has teamed up with Chronoswiss for a limited-edition timepiece with her dreamy painting on the dial. The idea was born through the connection with the uber-collector Uli Sigg, who owns one of the most significant collections of Chinese art. www.chronoswiss.com
PEN Loves Art
Timed to coincide with Art Basel HK, The Peninsula Hong Kong celebrates its third year in partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts by unveiling an artwork by the renowned conceptual artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin RA. Bright Idea, 2016, a huge, sitespecific yellow lightbulb, will appear to emerge from the fountain just in front of the iconic landmark hotel. www.peninsula.com/loveart
LAX—HKG
ART x
lux The Business of Creative Collaborations
A flight to the hip Westcoast takes around 15 hours from Hong Kong, but the vibrant restaurateur Yenn Wong has her finger on the latest dining trends and seeks to bring Californian vibes to Asia. With an interior stocked with work by up-and-coming L.A. artists, Commissary has quickly become one of the hottest new spots on Hong Kong,s dining map. Designer Siew Hui Lim drew inspiration from L.A.’s liveliest hot spots from the ‘60s and ‘70s for this new kid on the block. www.commissary.hk
Larry’s Preferred Strictly limited to 3,000, this pink gem grants you complimentary access to over 40 world-class institutions and private museums as well as VIP treatment for some major art fairs around the globe. If you are one of the top art collectors or art scene makers and shakers you might have one in your mail already. www.larryslist.com
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Bangkok Summer 2017
Request your application to participate via contact@theartgorgeous.com www.artxlux.com
Confessions of a Nasty Gallery Girl
Q
Urs Fischer “Battito di Biglia,” Massimo De Carlo Gallery, Palazzo Belgioioso, Milan
Flirt alert: Working in a gallery obviously means looking after (male) clients, collectors and artists alike. So how do you manage to maintain a relationship that’s the perfect balance of friendly and professional, without enticing them to send flirty WhatsApp messages after having one too many at the opening? This is a hard one and a problem many of us on the sales side of things face everyday. Dressing up is a requirement of the job, and selling art means being charming and chatty. Misunderstandings between gallery girls and their male clients are very common–well, some of them turn into actual relationships. But unwanted attention is awkward, and over time, you will manage to find the balance and express the limits that are not to be crossed. It’s true, you might mess up a sale because you don’t want to go for a drink with a collector, but if he is an Art Gent with manners and is serious about his collection, this shouldn’t be the case. The ones to watch out for are the notorious vernissage-crasher, banker-lawyer types that buy their first small piece and expect to add your private phone number to the sale of a work that costs less than $5,000. Sorry, buddy. Sure, you are here to sell, so being talkative is definitely an asset, but don’t do what you are not comfortable with, and remember that in the end, it pays off to be professional. Or maybe, just to deal with female clients whenever possible. Ah, no...
Got a question for the Gallery Girl? Email her with your name or alias at gallerygirl@theartgorgeous.com
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TO BENEFIT amfAR, THE FOUNDATION FOR AIDS RESEARCH
HONORING
PANSY HO
SATURDAY MARCH 25, 2017
HONORARY CHAIR
CHARLIZE THERON TO PURCHASE A TABLE OR TICKETS, CONTACT VENUS LAU AT + (852) 2523 3582 OR VENUS@OCCHK.COM
SHAW STUDIOS KOWLOON 6:30 P.M. COCKTAILS 7:30 P.M. DINNER, LIVE AUCTION, ENTERTAINMENT WWW.AMFAR.ORG/HONGKONG2017
C
areer Coach
Assistant in an Emerging Gallery Watch an episode of Gallery Girls. Freestyle. If you are a daughter or son of the Top 200 collectors, you will be able to turn down offers. Better to ask when the resting hours are.
Don’t ask.
vs
Art Fair Vip Manager
DESCRIPTION
Fusion between first class flight attendant and lion tamer.
OUTFIT
Classic-chic. Don’t compete with your VIPs.
GETTING IN
Speaking more than 5 languages fluently increases your chances. Swiss-German should be one of them.
WORKING HOURS
During the fair season, you will be on call 24/7. Off-season, you can expect regular working hours.
SALARY
Deciding who gets a VIP pass is priceless.
Art history is a safe choice but journalism could be an alternative–best in combination with social media management.
RECOMMENDED STUDIES
Masters in International Relations. And definitely, Psychology.
Brad Pitt buys a work from your gallery and you are allowed to hold the iPad.
BEST MOMENTS
When Karl Lagerfeld flies in with his beautiful entourage. And the week after the art fair.
The last day of an art fair, if there haven't yet been any serious sales.
FEARFUL MOMENTS
The last day of an art fair, if there haven't yet been any serious sales.
Home, gallery, artist studio, storage, gallery, home, artist studio...
TRAVEL PENSUM
High, as you will also have to sneak into other art fairs to bond with “your” collectors.
What you're actually applying for is a social media position, because your boss will ask you daily about the number of new Insta followers.
UNTOLD FACTS IN JOB INTERVIEWS
The fair happens maybe once or twice per year. For the rest of the year, the position is not as VIP as you might wish. Your daily routine includes data entries and research on www.larryslist.com.
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BUILDING BUSINESSES ACROSS ASIA Search | Structure | Support
www.sophiemacpherson.com | info@sophiemacpherson.com
JUNGLE
Meet the Girls of the Self Love Club
Six Digital Feminists You Should Be Friends With p. 18
Gorgeous Jungle The Self Love Club p. 18 / Bye Hollywood, Hello Art World! p. 22 / Capturing the Present and Showing Us the Future p. 28 17
The Self Love Club Six Digital Feminists You Should Be Friends With on Instagram Today A new body-positive trend is growing on social media, and feminist artists are often seen posting selfies of their natural bodies on Instagram; unshaven legs and armpits, brightly coloured wigs, badass tattoos, and bare faces untouched by makeup. To the average Insta-junkie, these displays can be slightly repelling, but to all the self-conscious women around the world, it’s a wonderful blessing to see someone act so bravely on social media. To celebrate girl power, we’ve gathered a list of the most awesome feminist artists on Instagram today that are unapologetic, beautiful and often very, very, naked.
Writer STEPHANIE WATSON
Frances Cannon
JUNGLE
Frances’ IG is filled with adorable minimalist drawings that promote body positivity and self love. The wonderful thing about her drawings is the fact that Frances doesn’t fall into the trap of drawing what society considers as “perfect” bodies; they are asymmetrical, they defy gender stereotypes, they showcase pubic hair, nonsexualised breasts, and other traits that the society usually doesn’t want to see. @frances_cannon
Favourite #tags used #35jfmm #bansheebotpete #neonmoonco
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#selfloveclub
Leah Schrager Blurring the lines between an artist’s career and being a social media celebrity with more than 400K fans, Schrager created a musician, an artist and a model through her social media alter ego, and set herself three main goals to achieve by 2020: get a photograph of her butt on the cover of Rolling Stone, receive one million downloads for her music and grow ten million followers on her Instagram. Her photographs aim to change the way we think about the selfie culture, and are everything but puritanical. Amazing, what good can come out of loving and sharing our bodies! Find her @leahschrager and also as our inaugural centrefold in this issue. Favourite #tags used #newwork #art #metaselfie
John Yuyi Dubbed as “the Willy Wonka of the art world”, Yuyi’s work is pretty surreal, bizarre and hauntingly beautiful. After taking one glance at her Instagram, it’s clear that self portraiture is a big part of Yuyi’s work, and many of these portraits include covering herself in meat, social media tattoos on various body parts or instant noodles stuck to her face. This shows a fearless attempt at taking control of one’s body, something that we as feminists want for every woman on the planet. It must also be pretty fun to cover yourself in all those temporary tattoos like showing your Facebook likes on your cheek. @johnyuyi Favourite #tags used #johnyuyi #karaoke #facepost #robertwun
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#selfiestick
#studiovisit
Juno Calypso Her art is both delicate and somewhat haunting in tone; the pastels contrast well with some of the darker imagery of disturbing sheet masks, odd helmets and stiff mannequins—mostly positioned in honeymoon suites. Calypso’s imagery is as pink and as vibrant as a John Waters flick and looks like movie scenes from a highly stylised drama. Thematically, Calypso uses her alter-ego, Joyce, to show the private life of a woman overwhelmed by the social construct of femininity. Calypso (and Joyce) can be found @junocalypso
Sarah Maple As feminism is, essentially, a form of self love, Sarah Maple’s politically motivated photographs are a must see for any budding social justice activists. Her Instagram, in particular, is filled with feminist statements and even a few crude jokes that very deliberately question gender norms. One of Sarah’s best works is her painting If I loved you it was because of your hair, now you no longer have hair, I don’t love you anymore, is a portrait of Britney Spears mid-cut of her iconic long hair, which was put on display in the Blueproject Foundation’s “Herselves” exhibition of 2016; the piece reflects a rejection of forced power and reinforces bodily autonomy. Find Sarah @msmapes Favourite #tags used #feministart #banana #art #sellyoursoul #identity
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Little Voice Little Voice is not only an Instagram photographer and model, but she’s also the front-woman for the electronica band Freefreedomdom–who sound awesome by the way–and an art curator for the feminist platform Curated by Girls, which is equally awesome, and based out of Berlin. Her Instagram shots are comfortably casual in tone, with muted colours that almost give off a Polaroid camera feel. Guest photographers such as Gabijia Labutyte (@gabijolaphoto) also make an appearance on her page. You can follow Little Voice @itslittlevoice
Favourite #tags used
All images via Instagram
#freethepit #philipperocks #35mm #berlin #beautifulbeings
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Hip-hop artist Swizz Beatz attends No Commission art fair, presented by his private art collection, the Dean Collection, and Bacardi happening in 2016 at the Bronx
Bye Hollywood, Hello Art World! From Swizz to Shia: A Brief History of Celebrity in the Art World Writer MAXWELL WILLIAMS
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wholeheartedly in the recent years: Jay-Z danced with Marina Abramović at Pace Gallery in 2013 for his video Picasso Baby and Kanye West has collaborated with artists Vanessa Beecroft and Steve McQueen. But Dean can remember a time when he was the only one who took an interest. “Ten years ago, no one wanted to be in a gallery,” he told New York magazine in 2014. “They’d tell me, ‘Swizz, this is boring.’ Now Art Basel is here and is the thing to do. Everyone wants to do the cool thing.” But it’s not just the musicians. Tennis player John McEnroe, actor Neil Patrick Harris, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and comedian Steve Martin all have notable collections. In 2015, Martin curated an exhibition of 20th century Canadian painter Lawren Harris at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. “You might say it’s extreme to curate an art show and then do an hourlong banjo show, but it’s not that far off-centre to me,” he told The New York Times about juggling his entertainment career and being a curator at a major museum. “And you apply the same principles to both—the first being, you do the best you can.” Basketball player Shaquille O’Neal has gotten into the curating game twice with The FLAG Art Foundation, at their exhibition space in NY and Expo Chicago, selecting artists, like Mark Bradford, Awol Erizku, Cindy Sherman, Ugo Rondinone, Ellen Gallagher and Ron Mueck. Madonna, Drake, Pharrell Williams, magician David Blaine and singer Katy Perry have tried their hand at organising shows. And James Franco curated a show about James Dean at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012, putting it together with artists, like Paul McCarthy, Aaron Young and Douglas Gordon to mixed reviews. The most recent example of a celebrity curation was K-Pop idol T.O.P’s #TTTOP x Sotheby’s contemporary art sale at the auction house’s Hong Kong location. When I was last in Seoul, I was able to see a preview of T.O.P’s selections at the Shilla Hotel. It was an impressive arrangement of works ranging from Korean artists, like Lee Ufan and Kim Whanki to Western artists, like Keith Haring and Rudolf Stingel. But that’s to be expected: T.O.P wears his love for art on his sleeve. An avid collector himself, T.O.P served as a curator, for “The Eye Zone” at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore in 2015. He also loaned out several pieces by Haegue Yang for her exhibition at Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art later that year. T.O.P’s Instagram is almost exclusively filled with pictures of museum and gallery visits (with the occasional snap of fine wine thrown in to punctuate the BIGBANG rapper’s exquisite taste), generously sharing his travels with his 6.8 million followers. In fact, he included a work by Japanese artist Kohei Nawa in the music video for his hit song BAE BAE, which has been watched over 80 million times on YouTube. “I was raised in a very artistic household,” he told Sotheby’s when asked how he got turned onto contemporary art. “All the women in my family, including my mother, majored in art. They were all either artists or art teachers. The Korean modern masters Kim Whanki and Lee Insung are both my blood relatives.” T.O.P’s presence created quite a stir, leading to a higher than estimated HKD$136 million for the 28 works. Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s Yuki Terase told CNN that many of the buyers were younger, underscoring the influence a youth idol celebrity curator can hold. Though T.O.P says his aunt taught him how to paint, he favours to stick to music as his creative outlet. “I preferred looking at art—and immersing myself in it—to actually painting things myself.” Other celebrities actually do deign to become artists. The late actor Dennis Hopper often took photos that were the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles in 2010. Actors Jeff Bridges and Viggo Mortensen have both delved into photography as well. James Franco has made performance art and installation work, but his best work came in the form of a surreal performance in which he played the role of a fictional artist named Franco on daytime soap
The actress Lucy Liu transitions from the movie screen to the canvas
i
t was pretty sudden. When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie popped into Art Basel in Switzerland in 2009, it was bubbling. But Art Basel Miami Beach in 2012 was the year art broke. Previously, serious collectors like Lance Armstrong could be seen perusing a fair, but never before had I been so overwhelmed by the talk of celebrity. It was everywhere: an artist friend of mine scored a seat next to Kanye West and Kim Kardashian at a dinner. Demi Moore and Lenny Kravitz were spotted at the Artsy party at Soho Beach House. Chelsea Handler went with her hotelier boyfriend Andre Balazs, who owns the Standard Hotels. I stood on an elevator with Russell Simmons and saw Martha Stewart at a hotel party. Just four years later, all of that is at par for the course. No one bats an eyelash when TMZ shows up in the Wynwood Arts District hoping to catch a glimpse of Leonardo DiCaprio and his latest 23-year-old blonde. DiCaprio is actually one of the dozen or so highly respected art collectors who come from the world of entertainment, sport, music and fashion. Famously, Elton John started building his great photography collection after getting sober in 1991, and now it includes prints by the likes of Nan Goldin, Herb Ritts, Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy. “This collection is about love, not collecting for the sake of it or grandstanding,” he told The Guardian last year. Music producer Swizz Beatz (born Kasseem Dean) has worked with everyone from Jay-Z and Beyonce to Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne. But he’s increasingly put more energy into the Dean Collection, his contemporary art collection that includes artists, like KAWS, Erik Jones, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The rap world has embraced art
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Luring Millenials: K-Pop superstar T.O.P curates a contemporary sales for Sotheby’s Hong Kong in fall 2016 featuring artists such as Nam June Paik
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Actor Shia LaBeouf performs at the show “#IAMSORRY” in collaboration with the artist duo Rönkkö & Turner
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The rap world has embraced art wholeheartedly in recent years: Jay-Z danced with Marina Abramović and Kanye West has collaborated with artists Vanessa Beecroft and Steve McQueen
comfortable being labelled a musician. “That’s always the way I think. That came first. The music was almost incidental, and was something I stumbled into.” But no one has put their heart into it like actor Shia LaBeouf. His debut artwork—in collaboration with established artists Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner—came at a time when public sentiment was quite low on the Transformers star. He had been in trouble with the law a few times, and he was accused of plagiarising comic book artist Daniel Clowes in a short film he had released online. In response, LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner set up an off-site art show, called “IAMSORRY”, inviting visitors to enter one at a time and sit with him while he sat in front of them wearing a paper bag over his head that said, “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE” and silently crying. Before entering, visitors could take one item from a selection of items into the room with them, and were given no instruction on how to interact with LaBeouf. In an email with TheArtGorgeous, Turner described that piece as a work about “connection, empathy and community.” Since then, LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner have staged a number of exhibitions at places like the Angelika Film Center in New York; the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, England; and the Sydney Opera House. Their latest work, HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US, at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, was to be a four-year-long livestream in protest of Donald Trump’s presidency, in which visitors were encouraged to say the exhibition’s title phrase into the camera.* With each passing year, the celebrity/art divide is getting smaller and smaller. Television presenter Ryan Seacrest is on the board of trustees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, while Swizz Beatz is on the board at the Brooklyn Museum. At Art Basel in 2012, I heard grumblings “Miami Beach is over”, one curator told me, referencing the parties and the celebrities. But Jerry Saltz disagrees. In a talk at Frieze New York in 2015, he conveyed his thoughts in the best possible rhetoric: “There aren’t a lot of celebrities in the art world…I’m more interested in people that are gods in their worlds, and have come to our world: Kim Kardashian, Kanye. Few people have manipulated the ephemeral essence of image better than Kim Kardashian or Kanye. Kim is as completely self-invented a person as there has ever been. I’m not going to start worrying that they are infringing on the art world. I think, the more the merrier.”
opera General Hospital. The result was predictably hilarious and a fine example of contemporary performance art. Tilda Swinton, meanwhile, collaborated with artist Cornelia Parker to re-create Parker’s work The Maybe, in which Swinton slept in a vitrine at London’s Serpentine Galleries for seven days. Lucy Liu showed a series of collages at Salon Vert gallery in London in 2011 and Miley Cyrus raised eyebrows with candy-coloured sculptures (including a bong and a dildo) at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2014. Marilyn Manson showed watercolours at Museo Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City in 2011 (it should be noted that the writer of this article curated Manson’s exhibition, called “The Path of Misery”). Even singers Justin Bieber and Chris Brown have dabbled in street art. Actor Adrien Brody took up a paintbrush recently and has already had two exhibitions, including a showing of Hooked, a series of fish paintings, at ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair in November of last year. “Most people think actors are incredibly vain, and probably most actors are,” Brody, who portrayed Salvador Dalí in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, told Huffington Post about transitioning from the entertainment world to the art world. “And maybe I am vain, to a certain extent, but the purpose of doing this is far from vanity.” Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth has shown her crumpled, glitter-flecked compositions at 303 Gallery in New York—to mixed reviews—as well as at the gallery’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2015. “I really live in the art world,” Gordon told Elle last year about how she had never felt
* At the time of publication, the livestream was no longer active
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Photos courtesy of Rob Kim/Getty Images; ©Rankin; Hong Jang Hyun Photo Production Gary So @ Mad Carrot Production; ART021; LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner
Movie actor Adrien Brody’s China debut with his paintings at ART021 art fair in Shanghai
Muscle Beach, 2016
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Capturing the Present and Showing Us the Future
In her most recent series, Genevieve Gaignard explores her self-concept, perceptions of her identity, public presentation and loss at large. In a time fractured by social divisions and politics, she helps us imagine a future of unity Photography GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD Writer ALEX ANDERSON
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I’m happy when the viewer allows himself or herself to get lost in it so it becomes their world too
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Vanilla Ice, 2016
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I think illusion is a good description of what’s happening here. I also think of it as time standing still, especially as I look at that cat clock with the tail standing still when it should be moving. I’m a magician, goddammit!
Basic Cable & Chill, 2016
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Watermelon, 2016
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frocks half her size. The glass, and its accompanying repellent ref lection, separates the woman from the signifiers of happily ever after and presents the matrimonial illusion as something purely of the past in contrast with her current reality. The loss of the fantasy life we might imagine in our youth finds form in this image and speaks to the challenging realisations and lived experiences of scarcity and adulthood. This image is an access point to the larger narrative Genevieve creates in which she interrogates our perceptua l fantasies surrounding femininity, class and race, while revealing the realities of the people this character represents. Basic Cable and Chill, an allusion to the popular euphemism, “Netflix and Chill,” introduces the “hood vixen” as another character of American life. This piece shows us t he spa r ta n ex istence of a black female of limited means who projects her sexuality through a provocative stance and a revealing outfit that displays tan lines and a disregard for traditional beauty standards. The charged
body politics in the image questions the notions of what makes a woman desireable in our culture and invokes feminist notions of living beyond female objecthood and the parameters of a white, western, male-defined aesthetic. Genevieve destroys this paradigm by showing us that women with glasses, full-figured, black bodies and afros are as entitled to their sexual subjectivity as a frail white model in Beverly Hills might be. The character glorifies the average woman overlooked by the heteropatriarchal gaze because of her race, class and body type. Infused with agency, this character reveals a certain beauty, sensuality and intrigue present in the woman society chooses not to see. B e yond t he e x plor at ion of lo s s a nd id e nt it y p ol it ic s at t he intersect ion of race relat ions a nd public percept ions, Genevieve’s recent work is also about the ambiguity of our understanding of difference, an exploration of what it means to be an American today, and a step towards a larger unity. When one body can be both black and white, ratchet and redneck, and matronly and v ulgar, a space opens where race, class, gender and comportment constructs begin to fail, leading to another type of loss—the loss of the divisive forces of our world. With these notions in mind, who then is the other? The average, middle-class, black woman, or the woman some might refer to as “white trash”? Are they then equal? Could they be one day? Are they even very different? The questions these images demand make Genevieve’s work a critical and crucial exploration of contemporary consciousness and, visual culture at large. The work stands as both a distillation of present social constructs and their accompanying stereotypes, while allowing for the consideration of a future where these ideas no longer exist. The images create space for a larger reflection on humanity and the contemporary human condition beyond the rigid structures that govern the past and the present, which allows us to imagine a society where people are just people defined by their experiences, individual identity and nature. Her work is beyond contemporary; it imagines a unified future of human subjectivity and social freedom we can all hope to experience. Genevieve Gaignard will have a solo show at Shulamit Nazarian Gallery in Los Angeles opening in April of 2017.
Grace, 2015
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enevieve Gaignard, a photographer and an installation artist, has a strong history of creating complex images that interrogate our perceptions of race, class, and the female body through self-portraiture. Costumed as an array of characters from her life and imagination, which source from trips to thrift stores and family members’ closets, she distills our social climate through the lens of a black woman with skin fair enough to pass for white. Her latest body of work shifts from the sole focus on perceptions of her identity to an exploration of loss and darkness in the world—a theme that feels especially relevant at the moment. In this series of images, which debuted at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, we see the loss of dreams, the loss of youth and the loss of those we love. This new series shows us how we respond to and process loss and it gives form to a feeling that is otherwise a nebulous, yet achingly present piece of our reality. The darkness of these themes aside, the beauty, the humor and the compositional quality of the works add a layer of intrigue to the already potent content in a way that invites the viewer to question the larger story behind each character she becomes. Watermelon shows us the loss of a dream, many imagine at some point in their lives; that of idyllic married life. With shoulder-length hair and a blasé stare that suggests a certain overwhelmed submission to a life she did not choose, a character we can assume to be a working-class mother stands in front of the display window of a wedding dress store offering two lace
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© Genevieve Gaignard and Courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles
First it’s me and then it’s you and then it’s me again and then it’s us
Ling Jian 凌健 www.lingjian.org @lingjianstudio
STYLE
P. Diddy’s Art Teacher Maria Brito About Finding Art Stars for the Stars p. 54
Gorgeous Style 21 Fashion Icons in the Art World p. 38 / P. Diddy’s Art Teacher p. 54 / Collectible Kicks p. 58 / Art Fair Bootcamp p. 67 / Art Gent Deconstructed p. 68 37
STYLE Billed as Bangkok’s most promising young art dealer, Nova Contemporary founder Sucharitakul only wears alluring black power suits or tailored dresses paired with a black blazer. It’s professional, commanding, and quietly feminine.
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Photo credit: Thailand Tatler
Sutima “Junko” Sucharitakul
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Fashion Icons in the Art World
Fashion and art have had a long history as bedfellows—after all, an expertly constructed dress or an over-the-top handbag is truly a kind of wearable art—but that’s not the real reason we love watching what all the pretty art world birds wear around town. We watch the artists and designers because what they put on their bodies is a reflection of their rich, impressive interior lives and ultimately, their creative processes. We watch the gallerists and dealers because like people who resemble their pets, their sartorial sensibilities are often amusingly in keeping with their artistic preferences. We watch the polished women at the auction houses and art fairs in the hopes of one day being able to imitate that level of grace, elegance and poise under pressure. These 21 women have caught our eye over the years because they make an art, not a science, of getting dressed. These are the women whose clothes have something to say, and it’s something interesting. But it never overpowers the person wearing them, and to us, that’s style. Writer CAIT MUNRO and CLAIRE BOUCHARA
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Andi Potamkin
Diana D’Arenberg
Berlin-based digital artist Britta Thie is both a guest professor and an occasional model, though her wardrobe reflects decidedly more of the latter. Think normcore classics, chunky footwear and the occasional girly dress. Oh, and there’s also her flowing strawberry blonde hair and enviable bone structure to round the whole package out.
Art and design consultant Andi Potamkin is married to renowned hair stylist Jordan Blackmore, so she obviously has insane hair (that changes from blonde to brunette and long to short on the reg), but how she maintains her incredible bohoglam wardrobe is beyond us. Also? Don’t– we repeat, don’t–look at the photos from her colour-coded mountain nuptials unless you want to feel seriously jealous.
Even if you don’t know Diana D’Arenberg’s name, you’ve likely seen her byline in places like Harper’s Bazaar or the South China Morning Post. With Marilyn Monroe-inspired blonde hair, red lips and a manicured, old school glam vibe, her style never misses a beat. Did we mention she’s also famous for her spectacular, overthe-top Halloween ensembles?
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Photo credit: Joerg Klaus; Van Sarki; Diana D’Arenberg
Britta Thie
Photo credit: Lucinda Grange
Mashonda Tifrere Form-fitting dresses and fun prints are the key components of curator, singer and philanthropist (and former wife of Swizz Beatz) Mashonda Tifrere’s wardrobe. The New York-based founder of the ArtLeadHER organisation knows how to dress up for any occasion, thanks to her love for detailed embroidery, glam satin dresses and punctuating outfits with a sleek leather jacket.
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Cindy Rachofsky
London-born, New York-based artist Zoë Buckman manages the perfect mix of British insouciance and New York polish, with touches like gold bamboo hoops that make each look all her own. We’ve never observed anyone else who can rock Chanel with the same level of cool as vintage band tee, and that’s why we love her.
If you haven’t heard the name Rachofsky, you obviously don’t know your art collectors. Cindy and her husband Howard maintain one of Dallas’s premiere collections, brimming with the likes of Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Richard Prince, and her impeccable taste shines through in her wardrobe as well. Like any art world stalwart, she knows her way around an all-black ensemble, but she can pull off a bold pattern like nobody’s business.
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Photo credit: Billy Farrel; Maxine Helfman
Zoë Buckman
Anouska Beckwith
We’ll always admire Michaela de Pury’s ability to make pop-inspired pieces, like a rainbow shift or nude fishnets, look totally fresh and modern. The de Pury & de Pury co-founder (the other de Pury is her auctioneer husband, Simon) has an extensive wardrobe that allows her to seamlessly transition from ‘60s mod to ‘70s glam in the blink of an eye.
Her evening dresses are just as picturesque as her photographs reminiscent of Pre-Raphaelites, whether she wears a golden-brown dress with floral embroidery or a pastel green ensemble. Take it from Beckwith, to finish off any outfit, add a splash of red lipstick for an extra wow factor.
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Photo credit: Bryant Lee; Anouska Beckwith
Michaela de Pury
Photo credit: Stefano Sciuto
Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Not only does she own one of the most influential private art museums in Europe along with a seriously impressive art collection, but Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is also the owner of an inimitable collection of costume jewellery. She pairs these artful accessories with bold, monochrome suits custom tailored in Turino.
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Valeria Napoleone
Milo Moiré’s personal style is not dissimilar from her art: imposing, arresting and impossible to ignore. While her controversial nude performances at Art Basel and Art Cologne prove that the clothes don’t make the woman, we think her outspoken confidence and fearless attitude are enough to pull off any outfit–or none at all.
If you hate trends and prefer to dress to suit your taste, take Valeria Napoleone as your unconventional muse. The respected collector is not the one to follow the latest styles. Her arty, librarian-with-an-edge aesthetic means platform shoes, palazzo pants, sweeping skirts, starched colours, knee socks and bold pops of colour.
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Photo credit: Peter Palm; Alastair Levy
Milo Moiré
Pari Ehsan
Photo credit: Tylor HĂłu
Pari Ehsan may be the most stylish girl in the art world. After all, it’s kind of her job to be. The art-meets-fashion blogger and influencer has taken the art scene by storm with her clever combinations of couture and canvas. Her 207k Instagram followers (and counting) appreciate her ability to pull off any and every look, from coolly minimalist to larger than life.
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Photo credit: Kevin Hatt; For Him Magazine China
Andrea Mary Marshall
Chen Man Photographer and creative director Chen Man has captured everyone from Rihanna to Victoria Beckham for the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, so obviously her style game is on point. Her look is sleek and monochrome with an eye towards comfort when she’s behind the lens and a flare for drama when she’s in front of it.
Artist and photographer Andrea Mary Marshall’s model good looks make her a frequent subject of her own work, but IRL she prefers tough girl staples, like leather jackets and worn-in tees to the theatrical glam looks she often takes on in her photos. We think she’s a total icon either way.
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Pandemonia Photo credit: Edvard Katz
Her body is her canvas! Pandemonia has become an icon at art fairs and fashion events, not only because she is 7ft tall and made entirely out of latex, but also because of her bright red, blue and yellow choice of accessories and voluminous hair. We’re telling you, good hair upkeep is vital!
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Photo credit: Charles Whitcher
Lisa Pomares “Casual femininity” is the best way to describe model-turned-gallerist Lisa Pomares’s style. Like most interestingly dressed women, she’s never afraid to mix high and low, dressy and sporty, and masculine and feminine, a look that’s layered and all her own. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she’s drop dead gorgeous.
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Maria Elena Rudolf
Tony Gum
As part of the rising generation of high rollers in Shanghai, model-turned-art collector and ART021 co-founder Kylie Ying has an innate eye for high fashion and haute couture. Her style epitomises elegance, thanks to ultra-feminine silhouettes in cream, dusty rose and millennial pink with refined details and killer accessories.
As the vice president of Art Stage Singapore, Maria Elena Rudolf rubs elbows with a lot of international art VIPs, and she always looks the part, thanks to tailored sheaths, kicky accessories and a fondness for bright colours.
This South African goddess knows good style and how to make it her own. The Adidas shoe addict adores sportswear, loose sweaters and tees, while maintaining a Wes Andersoninspired colour palette. For Gum, consistency in colour and pattern are key!
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Photo credit: ART021; Gracinha Viterbo Head-Couture, PAQARINA Jewelry; Hayden Phipps
Kylie Ying
Photo credit: Elise Mesner
Elise Mesner To look at photographer, stylist, painter and Jill-of-all-trades Elise Mesner’s Instagram is to be awe-struck by her particular brand of expertly curated cheer. So obviously, her wardrobe is punctuated by feminine shapes, offbeat accessories and plenty of colour.
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P. Diddy’s Art Teacher
New York-based art advisor and self-proclaimed “luxury lifestyle consultant” Maria Brito about finding art stars for the stars
Maria Brito in her vibrant apartment in NYC
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i
t’s 11 a.m. at New York’s Soho House and Maria Brito is wearing sequin leggings. Reflective clothing before noon is, generally speaking, a don’t, but teamed with wedge sneakers and a megawatt smile, Brito somehow manages to make it look cool and easy–approachable even. She’s been awake since five, has already done a morning workout and is now nibbling on a pastry. I, having woken up about two hours ago, order a café Americano. She refuses to let me pay. Born in Venezuela, Brito has a degree from Harvard Law and spent a decade toiling as a corporate lawyer before finally pursuing her passion as an art advisor and interior decorator. And it’s a very good thing she did, because she’s basically responsible for getting P. Diddy into contemporary art. She’s also consulted the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and fitness guru Tracy Anderson, as well as a host of non-famous collectors. Brito is also a collector herself and has partnered with artists, like Nir Hod, Katherine Bernhardt and Kenny Scharf on a series of droolworthy limited edition handbags that put your average art/fashion collabs to shame. She’s also an author, curator and party circuit staple. And did I mention she’s gorgeous, down-to-earth and charismatic? Some people truly seem to have more hours in the day. Perhaps it’s the 5 a.m. wakeup call. A lot of your clients are celebrities, and in the past few years there has been an unprecedented level of interest in the art world from entertainers. Can you talk a bit about that? I think people in the entertainment industry have always felt really inspired by art and artists. In a way, it’s funny, because I think they consider [visual artists] to be true artists. Not everybody, but in a way, the respect that entertainers feel for visual artists is much higher than what they feel for their own peers. They look up to visual artists in a very different way. Better than a backstage pass: Brito frequently strolls over art fairs with her client Sean “Diddy” Combs
Why do you think that is? Well, creative people in that world many times are insecure or many feel–and this is not for everybody who is creative or successful–but they feel like a hoax at some point, because its just normal for human beings to have feelings like “oh, I don’t know if I deserve this success” and things like that. So the craft of an artist–someone like Leonardo da Vinci who has been in the Louvre for hundreds of years–is a lot more legacy than an album. 500 years ago, we didn’t have music that travelled places, so we’re still really in our infancy to see what the legacy of music and pop or movies will be.
I think people in the entertainment industry have always felt really inspired by art and artists. In a way, it’s funny, because I think they consider visual artists to be true artists
Do you find that working with celebrities is different from working with your other clients? Yes, definitely. It can be very complex. There is more scrutiny. You have to go through a lot of levels of scrutiny. And once you’re in those circles–not as a friend but as someone who is there to provide a service to them–you automatically put yourself out there in front of a lot of other things. It’s almost like your every move is being watched–not that I have anything to hide, but what I’m saying is, it’s a temporary invitation into a kind of lifestyle that is not my lifestyle. I feel like the art world can also be really weird about celebrities, which is always surprising to me. I think that if somebody like Leonardo DiCaprio buys works from your
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my time. If you want to work with fashion people, you have to put out three collections a year and it’s too much. It’s impossible! It’s not for a business of my scale and size. I would have to have another Maria.
gallery, it’s a press token that you can use for a little bit, but that’s it, right? I mean, how long can you use that? Hollywood and celebrity culture is utterly mystifying. It’s one of the best inventions of America. But it’s also the reason Donald Trump is president. The media is so powerful– social media and the media. You have sufficient ammunition to get your message to the world if you have been on TV for a long time and you also have an enormous following on social media. You have such a huge leg up. And that doesn’t happen anywhere else. The culture of celebrity in this country is unheard of anywhere else.
Are there any young, up-and-coming female artists you’re watching right now? There are many, but what is up-and-coming? Is she 18? We’re going so fast. Whoever is 40, which is young and is supposed to be a time when you’re flourishing, is already old. But I have met so many girls– Nina Abney, Caitlin Keogh, Mira Dancy–I have seen their work for so long, but they’re still young. Trudy Benson is fantastic and she’s still very young, Jamian Juliano-Villani is great, she’s so young. It’s a funny thing–when you turn 40, you’re done. I think it’s very important for women in any industry, but particularly the art world, to really do whatever the fuck they want. Because in creative industries, we’re not operating brains, we’re not investing people’s money in the stock market–I think if you wanna show your ass, show your ass, if you wanna not show it, don’t. It is important to fight for that kind of freedom, because I’m not an artist but I want to do whatever I want to do, and if someone’s gonna pay for it, even better. We should not be, in general, afraid of coming forward with a message. Sexuality, ideas, things that are for the greater good–I don’t think anyone should be afraid of these things at any age.
Is there a piece that you’ve considered buying for yourself and didn’t that now haunts you? Oh yeah, everyday. I think the list is too long. The majority of the things that we have, my husband and I, I bought without telling him, which is horrible, but you know… And then I hang it on the wall, and he’s like, “what’s that”? He tells me, “Do you think that I’m so silly that I don’t know you hung it?”
Because in creative industries, we’re not operating brains, we’re not investing people’s money in the stock market– I think if you wanna show your ass, show your ass, if you wanna not show it, don’t
How would you describe your sense of style in one sentence? I like to make a statement. I think it’s all about self-expression–making a statement and expressing myself. I think fashion is wonderful as an art form.
So you also have a handbag line, yes? Yes! It’s collaborations with artists. I was looking at a lot of the collaborations with artists and brands and for some reason, I was never 100% satisfied. Certain things can be incredibly amazing, but they become very expensive. Like the Tracey Emin/Stephen Sprouse partnership last year on all that jewelry, the earrings were diamond and they were like 5,000 bucks! It’s not really reachable. Some of the collaborations between artists and bigger brands fail because the artist is so far removed from the creative centre, and then when it comes out, it just doesn’t represent them any more. You’re also always kind of playing with the fine line of who you want your customer to be. I’m not really into doing things that are cheap, but you also don’t want to go so high that nobody can afford it.
What interior design tips would you give to young women who love art and design but might not have the money yet to really invest in things? I think they should go to all the amazing websites, like ArtStar, which is owned by Chrissy Crawford, who is a great girl. I was actually browsing there for stuff yesterday, and they have a lot of fun, limitededition prints, which are beautiful. And Artspace, and there are a couple of other websites where you can find a really great aggregation of stuff. Because places like the Lower East Side are becoming so expensive. It used to be like you could find some bargains, but now everything is like, above $20,000. Which is bargain for someone, but not a young woman just putting stuff together. I find it really beautiful when people just do a gallery-style wall with lots of prints and drawings and editions and photography. I have also always been a huge proponent of the massive statement piece, but that might not always be feasible, and I think its equally valid to have a beautiful, gallery-style wall that you can keep adding to.
Which artists have you worked with so far and who would you like to work with in the future? I partnered with Katherine [Bernhardt] and Natalie Frank and Trudy Benson and assume vivid astro focus. The first three were Kenny Scharf, Eric Parker and Carlos Rolon. And most recently, Nir Hod. Everything is different, because I did acrylic and then I did suede and necklaces and things like that, and then leather. Everything is actually made in New York, because I wanted to have a lot of creative control. I wanted to keep it limited edition–each one is only 5,000 units–and small and manageable. Definitely we’ll do more, but I want to do it on
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Image courtesy: Maria Brito
So, you started out as a corporate lawyer, right? What advice would you give to young women who want to make the transition from something like that to doing something more creative? Well, I think the sooner the better. But it has to be a calculated risk. It’s important to have clarity and to have a real business plan. Not 700 pages of spreadsheets, but when you actually get into the trouble and exercise of having to write down how the business is going to support itself in the next 12 months, you are actually going to discover a lot of things. It’s so crucial. And it’s going to change and evolve and there are things that are not going to happen, but still.
Maria Brito’s collection of wearable art clutches
Close-ups of Brito’s stylish Chelsea apartment Art by Mickalene Thomas in Brito’s master bedroom
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Collectible Kicks
Thanks to street style shots from around the globe, athleisure is suddenly not just an acceptable (if a bit lazy) Saturday afternoon tendency, it,s a full-blown hipster fashion statement. And the same rules apply to the growing sneaker craze. Sneaker style has moved quickly past the ubiquitous white Stan Smiths, and there is suddenly a slew of exciting, colourful new collaborations between the coolest sneaker houses and your favorite art world talents.
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Image courtesy: Eytys; Simon Mullan/ DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin
SIMON MULLAN x EYTYS In the back: Kilo, 2016, textile stretched on wooden frame (detail)
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In the back: Self Portrait, 2015, watercolour on newsprint paper (detail)
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Image courtesy: Rebecca Dayan; Vans
REBECCA DAYAN x VANS
Image courtesy: Eytys; 34FineArt
ESTHER MAHLANGU x EYTYS In the back: Abstract, 2014, acrylic on canvas (detail)
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In the back: Whistling Sky, 2016, mixed media on panel (detail)
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Image courtesy: So Youn Lee
SO YOUN LEE x ADIDAS (concept)
Image courtesy: Greg Bogin/Marlborough Chelsea, NY
GREG BOGIN x GREATS In the back: For Greg Lemond, 2017, acrylic and urethane on canvas (detail)
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Image courtesy: CLOT
CONVERSE x CLOT x ANDY WARHOL
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PLANCK
Muscles trained: Abs Duration: 30-60 sec training Sets: 3 sets
Don’t tell us that there is not a number of persons you don’t want to bump into again: the “collector” who always inquires but never buys, or the hottie from the other gallery you ended up with–literally–on Miami’s beach. The planck: A low stand allows you to hide below the booth table while keeping your head flexible to see when you can dive up again.
ART FAIR BOOTCAMP Art fair season is coming. Be physically prepared for long days at the booth and longer nights on the road with this five targeted exercises Post-Workout Collectibles
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Your day does not end with the fair hours: Dinners with private clients, followed by drinks, followed by Muscles trained: Core, abs clubbing at the ABSOLUT art bar. This Duration: 30-60 sec training exercise will help you to shake your body to the rhythm of the music once Sets: 3 sets DJ Simon plays Jay-Z’s Picasso Baby.
HULA HOOP
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SQUATS
Image courtesy: Victor Solomon; Galerie Perrotin; Jeffrey Gibson; Atelier Biagetti
Muscles trained: Legs Number of repetitions: 10-15 Sets: 3 sets
Play hard and win easy with the Blue Calcite Football Helmet by Daniel Arsham ( btw: a result into correcting his inherent colour blindness)
Even a billionaire collector does not like to spend money on shipping. This is why he might ask for complimentary delivery after fair hours. This leg exercise is key: Deliver even a Tony Cragg sculpture up to the penthouse, no matter the broken elevator.
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JUMPING JACKS Muscles trained: Full body Duration: 30sec training Sets: 3 sets
Victor Solomon recreates basketball backboards with stained glass. Slam dunks not recommended!
With hundreds of galleries at the fair, here is the solution how you can still grab the full attention of both, the serious collectors and the casual passers-by: jumping jacks. Advanced level: Wear high heels for up to 25m visibility. The extra conditioning will help save your breath for additional shouting or singing.
Some energy to burn? Jeffrey Gibson covered Everlast punching bags with glass beads, fabric and nylon bangs. Boom–go for it
Atelier Biagetti’s Body Building collection is a witty project to society’s addiction with the body beautiful. One of their fans: Sylvester Stallone
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DEADLIFT Muscles trained: Back, legs Number of repetitions: 10-15 Sets: 3 sets
A combination of the artist’s young age and astronomic prices might even make the most though-minded collector fade out. This lower back and leg exercise will allow you to get the collector back on his feet in no time.
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Art Gent Deconstructed Accompany by ILABO in the elevator of my apartment in Milan
Hat, found in Stockholm
Scarf made of silk with peacock feathers, from IMA concept store in Tokyo
ILABO designed and produced this ring made of bronze with a head of a giant wasp... @ilaboart
For Champagne house G.H. Mumm Lovegrove has radically redesigned the Mumm Grand Cordon with three-dimensional features embossed into the glass
Art world style can, apparently, be very hard to parse–especially when it comes to men’s fashion. Who knew? Luckily, we’ve made it easy to pin down the signature styles of some of the most outstanding gents we’ve recently fallen for: Ross Lovegrove
His works will be on show at the Centre Pompidou in Spring 2017
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Image courtesy: Ross Lovegrove
STYLE
Coat by COMME des GARÇONS, bought 15 years ago in NYC. Black crushed velvet, lightweight but fits so beautifully…I get comments from black guys, which is a great compliment for a white (very white) man!
SEDAN LOUNGE CHAIR, LANTERN LIGHT by Neri&Hu Made in Germany classicon.com
CANDY
We Are Like Benihana with a Michelin Star The Gallerist Raymond Bulman Tells the Truth p. 88
Gorgeous Candy Hide and Seek p. 72 / The Essential Girl’s Guide to the Art World p. 78 / Andy’s Candies p. 86 / The Very Honest Gallerist p. 88 71
CANDY ARTWORKS Map Office, Hong Kong Is Our Museum, 2004; Trevor Yeung, Fountain, 2012 PRODUCT Pumps by Jil Sander All products via yoox.com
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Hide and Seek YOOX and TheArtGorgeous played hide and seek in architect and artist William Lim’s Hong Kong-based private art collection, tucked away in the industrial Wong Chuk Hang district. It‘s a wunderkammer for local artists, design pieces and vintage items alike and where could one better distinguish between some of the most recent design objects and real pieces of art. Photography FAN WU
DESIGN Frame Table by lim + lu PRODUCTS Christian Louboutin book by Rizzoli, Clutch by Rochas, Necklace by Maria Francesca Pepe, Flats by Stuart Weitzman, Jewel Case by Ghidini 1961, Notebook by Louis Vuitton All products via yoox.com
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ARTWORKS Duan Jianyu, Guangzhou Local Chicken, 2003; Bosco Law Ka Nam, Random Images #006 and #007, 2015; Hanison Lau Hok Shing, Hello No. 5, 2014; Martin Wong, Constellation With Picture Frames, 1988 PRODUCTS Edition Vinyl Record by The Vinyl Factory Limited, Object by Pols Potten, Vase by Pols Potten, Container by Attico Cristina Celestino Container (Capsule Collection) All products via yoox.com
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ARTWORK Nadim Abbas, The Distance of the Moon (Moon-milk), 2012 PRODUCTS Handbag by Alaïa, Pumps by Diesel Black Gold All products via yoox.com
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The Essential Girl’s Guide to the Art World
Writer CAIT MUNRO Illustration PENELOPE STRINTZ
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A ART
You probably debated the whole “what is art” thing to death in your Art History 101 seminar, so for now, suffice to say it’s simply the reason we’re all here reading this.
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BASEL
The art fair that made art fairs a thing, Art Basel has spread its shiny, expertlycurated tentacles to Miami, Hong Kong, and of course, the titular Basel, Switzerland. Serious collectors go to the original, while celebrities, fashion people, club kids, international millionaires and those desperate for a free cocktail stick to Miami.
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CIGARETTES
Being in the art world is a bit like being transported back to 15 years, or whenever it was that everybody still smoked. It’s wonderful! Well, not for your lungs, but that ubiquitous, smokey pack of hipsters outside every opening is a great place to meet people who know vital information like where the afterparty is.
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DILETTANTE
Offspring of the rich and famous that have a passing interest in art and an active interest in being photographed at the right parties. Many of them purport to be “art advisors” or “freelance curators” but they’re really just trust fund babes with good connections and great wardrobes.
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E F FLIPPING GDINNER GALLERY H HANDLER I INSTALLATION EMERGING
An overused word used to convey an artist’s newbie status. While the term is often lambasted for connoting caterpillars or some similar kind of weird birth imagery, many PR people are still, for some reason, unable to find a better way to describe an artist under 40.
An insult flung at a certain kind of collector–most notably one Stefan Simchowitz–who buys up inexpensive works by young artists only to sell them back a couple years later for more money. Only in the art world would people be pissed off at you for turning a profit!
An exclusive dinner party following an opening that you get invited to if you’re a collector, press person, or a close personal acquaintance of the artist or gallerist. Great for networking (and guzzling free wine), but be wary: these shindigs always start about an hour later than the time on the invite.
The undeniable hotties of the art world, art handlers toil behind the closed doors of galleries and museums, carefully installing and de-installing billions of dollars worth of fine art with their bare hands. If that sentence didn’t just make you hot, consider the fact that most of them are built as hell and typically decent artists themselves.
The art world’s current obsession, thanks to their innate Instagramability. Bonus points if it’s also “immersive”!
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J K KOONS L LIAISON M MONEY N NADA
JARGON
The art world is full of it (no pun intended). Just look at any press release. Pick up a copy of Artforum. Continue reading this list! It could be because we’re notoriously exclusive (what better way to shut people out than by using big words they don’t understand?) or it could be because in reality, no one actually knows what they’re talking about.
Jeff Koons, king of all things shiny and banal, has come to represent something far beyond himself and his oeuvre. His name is synonymous with a trend towards grotesque displays of wealth and art objects that are little more than easily digestible playthings for billionaires. People love to hate him, so much so that in the not-so-distant future, liking him seems poised to become ironically cool again.
The job many front desk girls dream of graduating to, artist liaisons are responsible for maintaining the relationship between a gallery and its stable of artists–a job that, you can probably imagine, isn’t always easy, but does involve travel and lots of going out. Like most other gallery jobs, these people are usually ridiculously well educated and still make poverty wages.
Nobody likes to admit it, but it’s true: money runs the art world. From the big-name artists to the gallerinas, everybody’s gotta get paid somehow. And that’s why collectors–not the ones who dabble, but the ones who really drop coin on a regular basis–run the whole show at the end of the day.
If the Art Basel franchise made art fairs popular, NADA (aka the New Art Dealers Alliance) has done everything in its power to make them cool. Most up-and-coming indie galleries belong here, and the fairs take place annually in New York and Miami. One time, I saw Chloë Sevigny there wearing knee socks and a denim miniskirt, which kind of says all there is to say.
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OPENING
Openings are generally 2-3-hour-long events that take place the evening before a show opens and make it virtually impossible to see any of the art, but quite easy to make small talk with the revolving cast of characters that show up to these things. There is usually free, low quality wine and a lot of people with aggressively cool haircuts.
P
PRIMARY MARKET The “primary market” refers to anything that’s coming to the art market for the first time. Thus, it’s probably being sold by the artist or a gallerist who works closely with them, rather than an auction house or a collector.
Q
QUESTION
Something it is very hard to pose to an artist about their work without sounding like a total idiot. Seriously, if you think you’re not the eleventh person in an hour to ask them what their “inspiration was,” you’re kidding yourself.
R
RENT THE RUNWAY If you’re staring down a season of openings and charity galas (and you don’t, for whatever reason, have Alessandro Michele on speed dial), get yourself a Rent the Runway unlimited membership stat. It’ll keep you in Proenza bags and Marni dresses and all the fancy people will be none the wiser.
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SECONDARY MARKET The “secondary market” refers to any artwork that’s been on the market before. These works are typically sold by auction houses, websites like Artsy, secondary market galleries, or individual collectors.
T
T MAGAZINE
Ever noticed how all the biggest art/fashion/culture mags are just letters? Think: T, W, V. This can’t possibly be a coincidence. Anyway, if you’re an artist and you manage to get written up in one of them, well, welcome. You’ve arrived.
U
UBER
How the hell else are you going to get from the Hugo Boss Prize party at the Guggenheim to the afterparty on the Lower East Side? Bonus points if you can manage to stuff five scruffy art kids in a four-person vehicle without the driver saying anything.
V
VANTABLACK Technically, the blackest black pigment in the world, controversially co-opted by artist Anish Kapoor for use by him and him alone. Alternatively, what you’ll see if you open any downtown cool girl’s closet doors.
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W
WUNDERKIND
If there’s one thing art people love, it’s a wunderkind. You know, some 23-year-old beautiful genius that has emerged seemingly out of nowhere to sell million-dollar canvases and charm the pants off critics and collectors alike. Think Oscar Murillo, Lucien Smith, Dash Snow. And no, you’re not wrong in observing that they’re usually boys. Handsome boys.
X
X-RATED
The art world is not for the faint of heart. In fact, if you have any kind of aversion to boobs, butts and those uncomfortably tiny Renaissance penises, you should probably leave now. And for the love of god, avoid Jerry Saltz’s Instagram feed.
Y
YOUNG COLLECTORS
Think “young collectors committee”–a group of stylish young people who donate to and help cultivate a museum, or “young collectors night,” a special evening of programming at a fair or museum. In this instance, “young” and “collector” are often to be taken with a heavy grain of salt, as some of these people are like 45 and barely know who Richard Prince is.
Z
ZERO + MARIA CORNEJO The go-to designer of drape-y dresses and tops for gallerinas of the chic-yet-edgy persuasion. Seriously, you can’t toss a little plastic wine cup at a Chelsea opening without hitting a girl in one of these effortless, asymmetrical creations.
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dslcollection experiencing art through virtual reality dslcollection presents the first private museum using virtual reality technology
www.dslbook.com
l
www.dslcollection.org
Andy’s Candies
Say Hello to the Hottest Singles in the Art World
GRACE
Development Officer for Exhibitions at the Jewish Museum, New York
Chinese Zodiac Rabbit Your favourite hashtag #museumbabes First thing you do in the morning Coffee, lots of coffee Art Gent or Art Macho Art Gent Where are you off to next Toronto
Amanda Art Dealer, Managing Director for Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong Chinese Zodiac Rat Your favourite hashtag #beinspired First thing you do in the morning Wake up, get my phone, and read the news Art Gent or Art Macho I like art gent for the day and art macho at night! Hahaha! Where are you off to next New York, then back to Hong Kong, then to Texas for a visit in Dallas and Marfa
Yoram Fine Art Photographer, Berlin Chinese Zodiac Earth Monkey Your favourite hashtag #nude−I hope the various social media platforms start treating us like grown-ups soon First thing you do in the morning Be grateful, and drink coffee. Not always in that order Art Babe or Art Lady Lady, please. After all, I’m an Art Gent Where are you off to next I’m going to see the Ren Hang exhibition at Fotografiska in Sweden. It is sad to hear that he has passed away, but I’m glad he was able to show his work at the most important and cutting edge photo art museum in the world right now
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Damian Art & Culture Consultant, Hong Kong Chinese Zodiac Rat Your favourite hashtag #Hashtag is good First thing you do in the morning Drink water Art Babe or Art Lady An art lady babe please Where are you off to next Physically or mentally?
Yulia Curator & Art Manager, Berlin Chinese Zodiac Rat Your favourite hashtag #eatart First thing you do in the morning Drinking a cup of hot lemon water and checking to dos for the day Art Gent or Art Macho Or something inbetween? Where are you off to next NYC
Michal Art Collector, Warsaw
Chinese Zodiac Tiger Your favourite hashtag #peace #love #joy #hope #art First thing you do in the morning I am trying to tune in positively and visualise my plans for the day Art Babe or Art Lady Just Art Where are you off to next I think at the moment my absolute number one choice would be Athuruga after reading all the glowing reviews, and I’m already planning my trip back to India
Someone caught your eye? Send us an email telling us who you want to meet and include some info about your location, profession and a photo to: flirt@theartgorgeous.com. In case you didn’t see anyone suitable featured here, scan the QR code or check out our website www.theartgorgeous/love. That said, bonne chance!
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G I DEO N RUB IN
Sunset, 2016, Oil on linen, 150 × 200 cm | 60 ×78 2/3 in, © Gideon Rubin, Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve Cologne, Paris, St Moritz, Photo Richard Ivey
at Art Basel Hong Kong
GALERIE KARSTEN GREVE AG Via Maistra 4, CH-7500 St.Moritz · +41 (0)81 834 90 34 info@galerie-karsten-greve.ch · www.galerie-karsten-greve.com
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