7 posts tagged "Whitney Museum"
Shop The Look: Polka Dots
The Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collaboration hits stores today, just two days before the artist’s retrospective opens at the Whitney Museum in New York City. In honor of Kusama’s striking polka-dot design printed on pajama sets, trenchcoats, and accessories, we’ve rounded up six of our favorite items from J.Crew, Comme des Garçons, Current/Elliott, and more to hit the spot right now.
1. Madewell T-shirt, $45, available at www.madewell.com
2. J.Crew pants, $120, available at www.net-a-porter.com
3. Swatch watch, $50, available at www.lordandtaylor.com
4. Superga sneakers, $80, available at www.jcrew.com
5. Current/Elliott shorts, $168, available at www.farfetch.com
6. Comme des Garçons wallet, $155, available at www.netaporter.com
To view more looks, click here.
Fashion And Art Converge At The Whitney
It had all the fixings of a standard fashion show—front-row fixtures like Michael Stipe and Jen Brill, makeup by James Kaliardos for MAC, hair by Bumble and Bumble, and in-demand models from agencies like IMG and Ford, but K8 Hardy‘s Untitled Runway Show at the Whitney Museum on Sunday was anything but typical. The multimedia performance artist, known best for her cult zine FashionFashion, put together a collection of over 30 looks as part of her exhibition for the 2012 Biennial. For Hardy, the presentation was a way of creating a dialogue about commercialism and the way fashion affects society’s views on women rather than a vehicle for showing off her design chops.
The crowd of art enthusiasts waited patiently for about half an hour before the first model stepped out onto the wood and steel runway set, installed for the occasion by fellow Biennial artist Oscar Tuazon. Walking to amped-up reggaeton beats mixed up with Neutrogena radio ads and high-pitched nail art tutorials that had some audience members covering their ears, each model affected her own signature strut based on Hardy’s instructions. “I used to love the shows where models would dance down the runway,” Hardy told Style.com after the show. Some shuffled slowly with a moribund limp, others did ballet-like pliés and leaps, and one girl even staged a convincing runway stumble and tumble. Each catwalker wore teased-to-the-max wigs and face paint that resembled another spoof on the now-famous Tanning Mom.
Continue Reading “Fashion And Art Converge At The Whitney” »
Couture’s Confucius
What makes Chinese artist Zhang Huan a fashion darling? It’s not immediately obvious. Zhang, who has traipsed around the Whitney Museum while encased in raw meat, created enormous Buddhas from cowhide, and painted large-scale canvases using incense ash—all in the name of art—has also previously been commissioned by the likes of LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, Christian Dior, and Diane von Furstenberg. His latest exhibition, which inaugurated Shanghai’s newly reopened Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) on Friday, may offer an oblique clue.
Called Q Confucius, the artist’s largest solo exhibition in China takes the ancient philosopher as its subject and blows him up as a 16-foot-high, mechanically breathing replica; in incense ash paintings; and as an animatronic statue in a three-story-high cage populated by nine live monkeys. So is there a fashion twist to it? Perhaps the answer is in irony. “As Mao said, ‘Art comes from daily life,’ ” Zhang says with a wink. “And fashion is really about daily life.”
Zhang Huan: Q Confucius is open through January 29, 2012, at the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China.
Artists And Labels: The Continuing Story
If Marc builds it, they will come. The contemporary artist/fashion label complex, that is, which Jacobs sent to new heights with his accessory collaborations with Louis Vuitton. Yes, artists and designers had collaborated before—including Dalí and Schiaparelli way back when—but the runaway success of Louis Vuitton’s Murakami bags (and the follow-up Richard Prince “joke” bags) has given contemporary artists a new form to play with and, just as importantly, a new revenue stream. The latest is the conceptual art star Jenny Holzer, who’s teaming up with Keds to create kicks this summer. (Artist’s canvas, taken literally.) The high-top and low-top styles are emblazoned with PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT, a phrase from Holzer’s text series Survival. They’ll be available online and at select Bloomingdale’s locations in July. The footwear brand is giving back to the art world, too: Keds is sponsoring the Whitney’s summer season.
$70 to $75, available at select Bloomingdale’s locations and www.keds.com beginning July 8.
PLUS: Click below for a few of our favorite recent art/fashion collabs. Continue Reading “Artists And Labels: The Continuing Story” »
Donatella At The Whitney
What with throwing last month’s BCBG-sponsored Art Party and hosting last week’s intimate Lou Reed concert, the Whitney has been feeling awfully chic of late. Cue Donatella Versace, who stilettoed into the museum this afternoon to make that three for the trend. The occasion was the launch of Art Unites, an initiative from Versace and the Whitney committed to bringing art to children in need. Drawing was on the day’s agenda, but Versace, a self-declared non-sketcher, left the art-making to the experts: namely, some really adorable kids from the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which benefits children with chronic or life-threatening diseases. Wielding Magic Markers, the youth set worked on drawings while the designer worked the room. “She seems really nice,” one budding artist concluded after Versace left her table in an aura of flashbulbs. The drawings, 900 in all, along with those created by children from Jet Li’s One Foundation in China, will be made into one-of-a-kind tote bags available this fall online from Gilt Groupe, and will retail for $200 to $250. In addition to being made into Versace bags, two drawings chosen by Donatella will make their way (and not necessarily in tote bag form) into Versace’s Fall RTW show. “I’m not looking for talent or theatricality,” Versace said of eventually picking the winners. “I’m looking for emotion.” Her future design collaborators had been told as much. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you make today,” she told the assembled group, “and I hope it comes from the heart.”