25 posts tagged "Terence Koh"
Hong Kong, They Love You
This weekend, 28-year-old Pablo Ganguli, the flamboyant curator of culture and creative characters, took his Liberatum festival for the arts to Hong Kong, co-curated with pianist Rosey Chan. Despite the endless black rain, the nonprofit three-day event, which featured lively talks with Pharrell Williams, world-renowned producer William Orbit, and Paul Schrader as well as installations by filmmaker Mike Figgis and a performance piece by Terence Koh, attracted editors and culture enthusiasts from around the globe. On Saturday night, the festival’s participants and spectators joined Ferragamo at Hong Kong’s Kee Club for dinner, dancing, and a surprise performance by one of the weekend’s most glamorous headliners, Spanish actress and Almodóvar muse Rossy de Palma. “As long as I can remember, Rossy has influenced me with her dynamic character,” Ganguli said.
The talk quickly turned to the festival’s temporary home. “When people talk about China these days, they usually talk about money,” said Vogue China’s editor in chief, Angelica Cheung, who turned up in a smart black Lanvin look. “The art scene in China, as everybody knows, is very active. But everything here is often commercial, commercial, commercial! More people should be doing things like this,” she added, noting that she particularly enjoyed Stephen Webster’s lecture, which took place at the festival earlier that day. (Webster, as it turned out, was in Hong Kong for reasons commercial as well as artistic: In addition to the fair, he was in town for a show of his jewels at Lane Crawford. “I brought all my best stuff because I really want to test it out here,” he said.)
De Palma made her grand entrance in a sequined Custo look, fluttering a black fan. “It was always my fantasy to come to Hong Kong. I am obsessed with China!” she said. It was her first time in the city, but her burlesque performance included an improvised homage: “Hong Kong, my darling, I love you!”
Buying Brooklyn: The Art Edition
For the style set that insists on local food, local booze, and locally sourced designs, here’s local art. The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) kicks off its eighth annual BAMart Silent Auction tomorrow, and honorary curator Beth Rudin DeWoody selected pieces made by artists either based in Brooklyn or who have previously collaborated with BAM. They include Nate Lowman, Richard Prince, and Terence Koh. Polaroid portraits of Dolly Parton, Keith Haring, and Bianca Jagger may go quickly, but we’re told that a few other artists’ works are set to be the big-ticket items here. Among them, a piece (pictured) by Mickalene Thomas (whose portrait of Michelle Obama was the first painting of the First Lady to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery), an ink and graphite work by Matthew Ritchie, and an etching (Plate Distortion II) by Tauba Auerbach. The works are currently on display at the Dorothy W. Levitt Lobby of the Peter Jay Sharp Building at BAM and viewable online. The auction, supporting BAM initiatives, launches tomorrow on Paddle8.com and runs through April 22.
Dinner On The House
Fashion week presents a particular problem to any scheduler: When? “Fashion week’s so nuts,” designer Waris Ahluwalia admitted. “I didn’t have an open night.” So when he went to host an “intimate” (25—which turned into 45—person) dinner to celebrate his presentation at CIRCA’s Lincoln Center accessories lounge, he decided to bat cleanup, and invite friends to supper after the end of the week. It worked. Last night, CIRCA CEO Chris Del Gatto and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff hosted Johan Lindeberg, Scott Campbell, Veronica Webb, Sophie Théallet, Aaron Young, Terence Koh, Carlos Quirarte, and Ahluwalia’s mother, Darshan (“the guest of honor, always”) piled into Tiny’s in Tribeca for a last-minute dinner toasting House of Waris’ Spring jewelry and scarf collections. “A downtown celebration for an uptown exhibition,” he called it.
The collection being celebrated marks the second time that the House of Waris—known largely for its jewelry—has forayed into scarves. At a follow-up visit at his studio today, the designer explained that the two categories only seem different. They’re both, he reasoned, about keeping craftsmanship alive for a new generation—of craftspeople, as well as of customers. (The Rajastani embroiderers who work on his hand-loomed cashmere scarves now have their hands so full from his business that they’ve stopped working with any other.) This season sees a major uptick in the number of scarf designs offered, with many motifs carrying over from the jewelry collection. They range from the simple—a gorgeous plain taupe cashmere scarf with embroidered border—to the ornate, with chains picked out in contrast thread weaving their way over the whole. They have a richness—and a price tag—consistent with the hours of work they take to complete. But luckily for entry-level fans, batik-dyed cotton-silk scarves start at $300.
On Sale: Material Heels
In an effort to help offset the cost of the most expensive disaster in history, a dedicated group of New Yorkers braved the elements last night to show their support for Japan at a fundraiser co-hosted by Martha Stewart and Wynton Marsalis. At Reika Yo Alexander’s En Japanese Brasserie, guests including Hilary Swank, Zac Posen (left, with Stewart), and Waris Ahluwalia checked their winter wear at the door and headed to check out the silent auction items.
Art made up a big part of the evening’s offerings: photographs and paintings by the likes of François Nars, Julian Schnabel, Laurie Simmons, and Terence Koh decorated one wall. That last was mulling an acquisition as well as a donation. “If I get to leave here with one thing,” Koh said, “it would be the Yoko Ono piece.” But with a fashion-heavy crowd like this, no surprise that the item attracting the most attention was a pair of gold Louis Vuitton heels (right). They came with a little something extra: the signature of their original owner, Madonna. “I thought about taking the Madonna shoes, cutting them in half, and displaying them Damien Hirst-style,” Michael Stipe mused. And while we can’t imagine that she and the Material Girl have quite the same taste in chic, even Stewart was eyeing the pair. “Madonna’s shoes, of course,” she told Style.com about the item she most coveted. “But they are a little too small for me.”
James Franco Plays “Dangerous”
With a roster including Terence Koh, Dan Colen, Bruce LaBruce, and the late Dash Snow, the Peres Projects gallery is familiar with fame that extends beyond the art world’s stratosphere. But its latest get is an even rarer sort of art star: a household name (and soon to be Academy Awards host). That name, of course, is James Franco, and his first European solo exhibition just went up at the two Peres Projects sister spaces in Berlin. While fame is not the focus of Franco’s The Dangerous Book Four Boys, he sprinkled grace note allusions to his star power throughout the witty multimedia exhibition. But the theme of play that links his clutter-art installations is the fun sort of play, not necessarily the acting sort—it animates his melted toy houses and video installations of Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock, ahem, exploring their sexual tension (just the sort of video that makes is-he-or-isn’t-he speculation such an evergreen media fascination).
Of course, acting and the fame it has afforded Franco has given him the opportunity to play on a big stage. After center stage at a media blitz at the Peres Project Kreutzberg space, Franco headed for the private opening party in the elegant Peres Projects Mitte gallery’s vaulted-ceilinged basement party space. There, while sitting across from German fashion icon Veruschka and mega-model Luca Gadjus, Franco explained that art is the forum that enables him to connect widely disparate and often controversial endeavors in acting, literature, and academia. “All these worlds influence each other and translate into art,” he explained. “Artists are expected to work in different mediums and explore different disciplines. They are permitted to experiment. Outside the art world, even in established creative fields, there are still perceived divisions between high/low culture and different areas of intellectual inquiry. But art is freer and more forgiving.” And you don’t have to gnaw off your arm to make it.