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Tag: art

  • Before and after: They replaced their midcentury home with a modern pool-inspired refuge

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    The first thing you notice about the Monterey Park home of artist Yi Kai and his wife, Jian Zheng, is the swimming pool. Like David Hockney’s pool paintings, which celebrate the sun-filled landscapes of Los Angeles, the glistening ripples of the pool water reverberate throughout the first floor, much like the skyline of Los Angeles in the distance.

    “This house has always been treated not simply as a construction project, but as a continuously evolving piece of art,” says Kai. “Over time, we’ve been refining, altering and reimagining it — a process that reflects the values of both experimentation and transformation.”

    The blue swimming pool, a quintessentially Californian feature, is not just a recreational space but a central element of the new house, which was built from the ground up after the 1956 home was torn down. According to architect De Peter Yi, who designed the newly completed home for his aunt and uncle in collaboration with architect Laura Marie Peterson, the home’s original kidney-shaped pool was intended as a delightful surprise upon entering the house.

    The house’s movement as it curves around the pool “breaks out of the rigid house construct,” Yi says, and it’s a deliberate design choice that symbolizes the blending of Chinese and American cultural elements.

    “We wanted to make the outdoor spaces useful and delightful,” says artist Yi Kai, 70, who built a new home with his wife, Jian Zheng, 65. “The balcony provides vantage points that you wouldn’t normally get.”

    A white Midcentury home with bars on the windows and a pool in foreground.

    Kai and Zheng’s 1956 home in Monterey Park before it was demolished.

    (De Peter Yi)

    The magical quality of the pool extends well beyond the first floor. Upstairs, an 80-foot-long, curving teak deck, permitted within 50% of the rear setback, rotates around the pool, making the outdoor spaces feel much larger than they are. Partial-height walls frame the city, creating a series of outdoor spots that feel like rooms.

    “For me, the house was really about opening up specific views and moments to create a series of indoor-outdoor rooms,” Peterson says.

    An 80-foot-long walkway creates memorable moments outdoors, Yi says, by “taking something mundane and making it special” by framing the light as it shifts throughout the day.

    “We are framing that view,” says Yi, comparing it to James Turrell’s outdoor “Skyspaces” (including the “Dividing the Light” open-air pavilion at Pomona College) where Turrell frames a portion of the sky with a built environment.

    Two people inside their home.

    Kai and Zheng inside their new home.

    Kai, who is Chinese American, says his artworks blend aspects of his heritage but are “centered around a single theme: understanding and reflecting on the human condition.”

    Look closely, and you’ll see Kai’s artistic touches throughout the house. For instance, an outdoor spiral staircase, a connection between the deck and the ground-floor garage studio, is a striking feature. It’s screened in nine 18-foot wooden strips from the couple’s original home and painted in red and blue with a seven-tier white base — a design that echoes the colors of the American flag.

    The outdoor spiral staircase painted red and blue.

    The outdoor spiral staircase is composed of repurposed wood from the couple’s demolished home.

    Another unique feature in the home is a long slot, reminiscent of a trap door, that allows Kai to move his paintings from his studio on the first floor to an attic-like space on the second floor where he stores them.

    A couple move a large oil painting through a hole in the ceiling

    Kai and Zheng pass one of his oil paintings through the ceiling of his studio to his office on the second floor of their home. Kai says he got the idea after visiting Cézanne’s studio in France.

    The second story office of artist Yi Kai and his wife Zheng Jian's home.

    Kai’s paintings are stored in the home’s office on the second floor.

    Yi says his uncle’s deep interest in Chinese and American culture is vividly reflected in the house’s design. The slope of the roof, for instance, reflects the mid-century butterfly roofs scattered throughout the predominantly Chinese neighborhood, while the arc of the terrace references historic courtyard houses and gardens in China.

    A new, modern house with a slanted roof in Monterey Park.

    The house was designed to have a low profile in front.

    A second story balcony that curves around a swimming pool.

    Kai, 70, was born and raised in China and drafted into the People’s Liberation Army as a railway soldier at age 15. After the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Kai fled China and relocated to the United States, where he lived for 13 years in Minneapolis and briefly in Boston, before meeting Jiang and settling in Los Angeles.

    In 1998, the couple purchased a three-bedroom home near Jian’s office in Monterey Park, which is often referred to as “Little Taipei,” because of the large number of immigrants from China residing there. “It was easy for us to integrate into the community,” Kai says.

    Eight years later, when Kai got a job teaching art at Claremont Graduate University, they rented the house and moved to Rancho Cucamonga to be closer to Kai’s job.

    When the couple began thinking about retiring in 2014, they turned to their nephew for help in reimagining their house so that they could return to Monterey Park.

    A dining room with colorful furniture and art.
    A dining room with colorful furniture and art.

    Colorful furnishings by China-based Pablo, in collaboration with artist Lu Biaobiao, in the living room and dining room play off the colors, symbols and textures of Kai’s paintings.

    Los Angeles painter Yi Kai in his art studio at home.

    Kai in his art studio at home.

    After years of working as an artist, Kai had modest dreams for retirement: He wanted a place where he and his wife would be comfortable. “Peter wanted to design a special house related to art,” Kai says.

    Because of logistical and financial reasons, they decided to demolish the original home, which tenants had rented for 16 years, but retain the pool. Today, they are glad they did. “The pool inspired everything that is special about the house,” Yi says of the project, which included requests for maximum living space, a first-floor bedroom with an in-suite bathroom for aging-in-place purposes and an art studio for Kai.

    “I told him to use his imagination,” says Kai. “I am a first-generation from China. He is a second-generation immigrant. I thought, ‘Let’s take his American ideas and my Chinese ideas and combine them.’”

    Halle Doenitz, left, De Peter Yi, Yi Kai, Zheng Jian and Larry Tan shown in a home.

    Structural engineer Halle Doenitz, left, architect De Peter Yi, homeowners Yi Kai and Jian Zheng, and general contractor Larry Ton inside the home.

    Portrait of architect De Peter Yi.

    Architect De Peter Yi in the shade of the balcony.

    As an immigrant, Kai says he takes great pride in the multicultural group that worked on the home project over 30 months. “Our lead designer, Peter Yi, came to the U.S. at age 5 [and] is a second-generation Chinese American,” Kai says. “Gabriel Armendariz, another designer, comes from Mexico and brings a Latino cultural background. Halle Doenitz, our structural engineer, is a Caucasian American woman. MZ Construction has two partners, one from Hong Kong and one from mainland China, and Larry Ton, our contractor, has an arts background.”

    Their efforts have paid off. The interiors of the 2,200-square-foot home are expansive and airy, with easy access to the outdoors. Notably, the outdoor kitchen, located on the other side of the indoor kitchen, is a feature the couple uses daily for their stir-fry recipes.

    Palm trees peek out of an asymmetrical window.

    Palm trees appear in the second-story bathroom window.

    A swimming pool, left, as viewed from a second floor deck.

    Ripples of water from the swimming pool reverberate throughout the rooms of the first floor.

    Asymmetrical windows throughout both floors of the home provide indirect lighting for Kai’s artworks, responding to the house’s geometry and mimicking its playfulness.

    Like the views from the terrace, the sight lines are constantly changing — palm trees appear in one window, a neighbor’s tree in another — depending on where you look. “The windows respond to the different views and interesting topography of Los Angeles,” Yi says. “There is beauty in the sidewall and the neighbor’s trees. The views extend the house outwards.”

    Similarly, colorful furnishings by China-based Pablo, in collaboration with artist Lu Biaobiao, in the living room and dining room play off the colors, symbols and textures of Kai’s paintings.

    Upstairs, where a tea room connects to the main bedroom and bathroom, the entire living area, which includes the office where Kai stores his paintings, connects to the wraparound terrace. In addition to 450 square feet of balcony space on the second floor, the terrace adds an additional 650 square feet of shaded outdoor space on the ground floor.

    Two chairs rest in front of a partial height wall with a window.

    Partial-height walls give one corner of the outdoor deck the feeling of a room. “It’s beautiful to watch how the light changes throughout the day,” says Kai.

    Though he lives in Cincinnati, the couple’s architect nephew says it was rewarding for him to visit his family in their new home, which ultimately cost $1.5 million to build. “It has been amazing to see how they use the house,” he says.

    Ultimately, Kai hopes to open the home to the public for salons, exhibitions and cross-cultural exchanges.

    “America is my home,” he says, “a place where I’ve realized many dreams and achieved both personal and professional success. It is also the place where I wish to give back, by contributing all I can — my art, my knowledge, and my energy — to help enrich American culture in return.”

    Adds Zheng: “Everyone can appreciate art, and everyone can love it. But not everyone truly brings art into their daily lives or integrates it with how they live. Our goal is to inspire a shift in mindset, to show that art is something everyone can enjoy and that it can be a meaningful part of everyday life.”

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    Lisa Boone

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  • They snagged an L.A. dream rental with parking and nice neighbors — then made it better

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    When Natalie Babcock and Samuel Gibson found a listing for a sunny apartment in Beachwood Canyon five years ago, they immediately fell for the two bedroom’s charming built-in bookshelves, faux fireplace, hardwood floors and formal dining room. Practical amenities such as an in-unit laundry and a garage, which are often elusive in Los Angeles rentals, didn’t hurt.

    In this series, we spotlight L.A. rentals with style. From perfect gallery walls to temporary decor hacks, these renters get creative, even in small spaces. And Angelenos need the inspiration: Most are renters.

    Today, however, the couple says they are most impressed by the sense of belonging they have found in the community just outside their 1928 Spanish fourplex. Here, where tourists and brides in wedding gowns often pose for photographs in the middle of the street in an effort to capture the Hollywood sign in the background, Babcock and Gibson have become part of a larger family. “Everyone knows our dogs’ names,” says Babcock, a 35-year-old educator working in the adolescent mental health field. “There is a true community vibe in this neighborhood.”

    Adds Gibson, a 38-year-old screenwriter and Spanish professor and tutor from London: “I’ve never lived in a place that felt like a neighborhood. We’re in a message group with our neighbors. Sometimes our dog walks take forever because we stop every few minutes to say hello to someone.”

    The couple was living in a charming apartment in Los Feliz when Gibson had to return to England to care for his mother, who had pancreatic cancer. Compounding their distress, Babcock’s father suffered a stroke, and Babcock moved in with her parents to help her sister, Eve, care for their father.

    “It was the worst year of our lives,” Babcock recalls of that period. “Sam’s mother died, and my father had a catastrophic stroke.”

    Their Los Feliz apartment was filled with bad memories, and they were excited by the prospect of creating happier memories in a new apartment.

    A man sits at his desk in an art-filled bedroom.

    Gibson’s office is decorated with artworks by local artists including his sister and one found on the street.

    After scouring countless rentals online, the couple found a listing for the Hollywood apartment on Zillow, only to encounter what they now describe as “a feeding frenzy” when they arrived at the open house. The apartment, they say, was priced too low at $2,995 compared with similar units, and they were faced with fierce competition.

    So they decided to do what many people do when trying to persuade sellers to choose them to buy their house. They wrote a letter about themselves, included photos and sent it to their potential new landlord.

    “Eve and I were in a panic because the apartment was so beautiful and we really wanted to live there,” says Babcock. “The three of us were an unconventional group, though, and we hoped they might choose us.”

    Samuel Gibson and wife Natalie Babcock sit at their dining room table.

    The couple enjoys having dinner parties in their dining room, which has a mix of chairs and benches.

    When they moved into the apartment in February 2020, they were thrilled, not realizing they would end up isolating there together during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The apartment was a welcome reset,” Babcock says, “It gave us plenty of time to nest and decorate.”

    A year later, Eve moved out, and Gibson converted her bedroom into an art-filled office that now doubles as a guest room when family and friends visit. The key to a comfortable — and flexible — guest bed, they say, is a durable mattress topper from IKEA, which they store in the garage and carry into the apartment when they have overnight guests. “Blow-up mattresses always deflate,” Babcock says of their choice. “This is a better option.”

    The couple’s taste is vibrant, and the colorful interiors reflect their sense of fun and love of design. They painted one wall in Samuel’s office a dramatic Kelly green, which makes the white-trimmed windows and his extensive art collection pop. Behind their bed in their bedroom, they painted an accent wall a charcoal hue, which gives the bedroom a peaceful feel.

    Pictures of family and friends decorate the refrigerator.

    Pictures of family and friends decorate the refrigerator.

    A small dining table in a corner of a kitchen.
    Decorative tiles and spices in a kitchen.

    Decorative tiles and sunshine illuminate the kitchen.

    “Paint is your friend,” Babcock says. “Be bold in your color choices, and when it comes to DIY and landlords, ask for forgiveness, not permission.”

    A glance around the apartment confirms not just their love of art but also the personal stories behind each piece: framed prints in the kitchen, black-and-white photographs in the dining room, large-scale oil paintings in the living room and hallway, and mixed-media pieces in the office, including works from local artists, EBay, Gibson’s sister and even one found on the street.

    Mixed in with the artwork is an abundance of lush houseplants, including Monstera deliciosa, a rubber tree and a ponytail palm, that is thriving thanks to the surplus of bright, indirect light that filters in through the large picture windows overlooking bustling Beachwood Drive.

    “Art is one thing that I am always happy to spend money on,” Gibson says.

    A white bed against a charcoal wall of a bedroom.
    A black pitbull stands on a white bed.

    In the bedroom, a charcoal-colored accent wall, vintage furnishings and art help to create an inviting retreat.

    A hallway filled with paintings

    A painting by Alexander Mayet hangs in the hallway.

    Last year, Gibson painted the kitchen walls blue and installed peel-and-stick floor tiles from WallPops over the dated yellow linoleum flooring, providing an inexpensive, albeit temporary, update. (One package of a dozen 6.2 x 6.2-inch sheets costs $17.99.)

    “It wasn’t the hardest project,” Gibson says, “but you do have to measure each tile to the centimeter because the apartment has moved slightly over the years, presumably from earthquakes.”

    Throughout the 1,200-square-foot apartment, the couple has decorated with vintage Midcentury furniture and thrifted furnishings and accessories sourced from Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.

    “There’s something nice about scraping together designs,” says Gibson. “It’s like a puzzle where you have to patch different styles together.”

    Peaches the pitbull lounges on the sofa in the living room.

    Peaches lounges on the sofa in the living room.

    In the living room, the couple has furnished the space with an L-shaped Bensen sofa, which they purchased at a warehouse sale mentioned on Craigslist, comfortable yellow swivel chairs they picked up from the back of someone’s car in downtown L.A. and a pair of leather loungers they found on Facebook Marketplace.

    To accommodate their love of hosting formal dinner parties, they purchased a table that seats eight, which they found on Craigslist. “We found it in a grungy flat in Hollywood,” Gibson says.

    Admitting her husband “has become the primary household chef,” Babcock takes the lead when it comes to dinner parties and “goes all out.”

    Samuel Gibson and Natalie Babcock walk their dogs with the Hollywood sign in the background.

    “Sometimes our dog walks take forever because we stop every few minutes to say hello to someone,” says Gibson.

    “I grew up around the dining-room table,” says Babcock, a Los Angeles native who was raised in West Los Angeles.

    In the corner of their dining room, across from a thrifted wooden bar cart, they installed a stone cigar table inspired by their trip to Casa Luis Barragán in Mexico City. They purchased it from a designer who was living in a loft in downtown Los Angeles.

    Ultimately, some of their rental’s decor, such as having washable sofa covers, is influenced by their dogs Chili, whom they rescued as a puppy in 2020, and Peaches, their “foster fail,” whom they adopted in 2023 after a neighbor pulled her from a shelter the day she was scheduled to be euthanized.

    “We’ve made great friends here,” says Gibson. “From our apartment, we can walk the dogs in every direction. We can walk to the Hollywood Reservoir in the Hollywood Hills, to the caves in Bronson Canyon, to the Sunset Ranch stables at the top of Beachwood Drive, or to Griffith Park, which is a two-hour loop.”

    Chili gives Natalie Babcock a kiss in the living room.

    Chili gives Babcock a kiss in the living room.

    Do they ever dream of owning a home like other couples their age? “Yes, of course,” Gibson says. “But I think we would truly never leave this apartment unless we could buy a house with a yard. It’s like London, in that, having a yard is a luxury.”

    Babcock agrees, admitting that small things such as an outdoor space for the dogs or a second bathroom would be nice.

    But it would be a shame “to buy a house that’s not as nice as this,” Gibson says.

    In the meantime, they are happy in their Hollywood Hills home, which reflects their love of art and their deep affection for their sweet-natured four-legged friends and their neighborhood.

    “We joke that we will die here,” Babcock adds, laughing.

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    Lisa Boone

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  • The power of culture shared at community event with food and music

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    The power of culture will be shared at a free community event for all ages on Saturday, June 14, featuring food and music, presented by the Gloucester Cultural Initiative.

    The two-part event, titled “A Celebration of Resiliency and the Multi-Cultural Heritage of Cape Ann,” starts with a culinary festival and finishes with a concert.


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    Around Cape Ann | Gail McCarthy

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  • Robots carve sculptures in Italy, sparking outrage among traditional artisans

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    Robots carve sculptures in Italy, sparking outrage among traditional artisans – CBS News


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    In Carrara, Italy, a studio is using robots to create sculptures, a move that has traditional sculptors concerned about the future of Italian art. Bill Whitaker explores the clash between technology and heritage on “60 Minutes.”

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  • Makeup artist Jo Steel has us geeks begging for for more (30 Photos)

    Makeup artist Jo Steel has us geeks begging for for more (30 Photos)

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    Halloween seems like the perfect opportunity to give the lovely and talented, Jody Steel her flowers. The makeup artist and cosplay icon has partnered with CBS and has also been featured on Freeform’s ’25 Days of Christmas.’

    Her shadowing techniques are next-level, and it’s as if she thinks of her face as a blank canvas for any given character.

    Steel’s skill and beauty have us geeking out. Give her a follow HERE.

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    Zach

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  • How Steve McQueen Became Hollywood’s Favorite Artist

    How Steve McQueen Became Hollywood’s Favorite Artist

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    Matthew Dentler, head of features at Apple TV+, appeared to be more personally invested in the picture than your typical movie studio head at a company with a $3.6 trillion market cap. He started discussing the project with McQueen “a couple years ago” and through the process they would text and call each other, bouncing off ideas. Dentler was at McQueen’s opening at Marian Goodman last September in LA. He’s hoping there’s time for a day trip during his next New York visit so he can make it up to Beacon to see Bass.

    “Obviously, we’re proud of the film, it’s been a rewarding experience to work with him and the team on this film—but I think also what’s been fun is getting to become friends with Steve,” Dentler said.

    The first trailer for Blitz dropped the same day that Dia’s Chelsea galleries opened for the season with three McQueen artworks, and there was a party for members that night. McQueen completed Bounty, a new installation of a few dozen photos of flowers in Grenada, quickly. He had gone to the island in July. In the same gallery was something much older: Exodus, which McQueen told me was technically his first film, even if he sat on it and didn’t show it until the late ’90s. I had heard about the piece. Apparently it came about when, during an amble through London carrying a camera, the young McQueen spotted two West Indian men in smart bowler hats carrying potted palm fronds and followed them, losing them only when they got on a double-decker bus. Was that true?

    “Yeah, that’s basically it,” McQueen said, staring at his first video playing on a loop on a ’90s-era block TV. “I just saw these guys and started following them around.”

    Most of the crowd that night gravitated toward Sunshine State, which had debuted in slightly grander form two years earlier at the HangarBicocca. In Chelsea it was a two-channel video installation projected on both sides, starting with two depictions of a smoldering sun that cuts to parallel scenes from The Jazz Singer, Hollywood’s first film with synchronized sound, about a cantor’s son from the Lower East Side who starts singing jazz and eventually finds Broadway fame. But when Al Jolson’s character starts applying the blackface that he wears onstage, his face disappears, and McQueen’s voice wafts through the room.

    “My father was called Philbert, a very Victorian name, and one of the last things he told before he died was a story…” McQueen says, the plummy disembodied voice hanging over the film.

    The story he tells is this: When he was a young man, Philbert McQueen traveled from Grenada to Florida on a job picking oranges, and one night after work McQueen’s father went to a bar with two other workers. When they walked in, everyone froze. The bartender told them he didn’t serve Black men. He didn’t use that phrase. One of the orange workers hit the bartender over the head with a bottle, and they fled into the night as the patrons chased after. McQueen’s father hid in a ditch, heard two gunshots, and stayed until morning, terrified, when he returned to work by himself.

    Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen on the set of Shame, 2011.From Fox Searchlight/Everett Collection

    “He never spoke to me about it before, until when he was going to pass,” McQueen had told me back at the Crosby Street Hotel.

    In the gallery, Matthew Barney listened, mouth agape. Louise Lawler sat with the gallery director Philipp Kaiser, who works at Marian Goodman, and Swofford, McQueen’s agent at CAA, was standing with Stigter as Joan Jonas stared deep into the monitor. After a few loops of the film, it was time to leave for dinner, and in the next room, McQueen was surrounded by the flowers of Bounty. The night before, there was a dinner too. The next day he had to fly to Milan, and in two weeks he’d be in London for the premiere—and in New York the next day for the film festival, and Los Angeles the day after that.

    Eventually, I found McQueen staring at the minute-long Exodus. “I love work, I just don’t love all the promotion,” he said.

    He turned away from the monitor to look at me.

    “As I told you, I’m not good with small talk,” he said. “All I have is my work, my family, a few friends you can count on one hand. I’m not good with small talk. All this small talk, you just have to cut it off.”

    For details, go to VF.com/credits.

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    Nate Freeman

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  • What VIPS Wore to the First-Ever Art Basel Paris

    What VIPS Wore to the First-Ever Art Basel Paris

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    On Wednesday morning in Paris, the art world elite streamed into the Grand Palais, uttering the same word again and again: “Wow.” Under the Palais’s monumental glass dome, the sun was bright, the air was warm, and the very first edition of Art Basel Paris had just opened for business.

    The inaugural French spin-off of the powerhouse Swiss art fair wouldn’t open to the public until October 18, but select visitors were able to take a sneak peek two days early during First Choice, an event reserved for “essentially, our top-tier VIPs,” explained Fair Director Clément Delépine. The attendees included those positioned to acquire multi-million-dollar works of art—international billionaires, major museum directors, art advisors, and consultants—but also a strong contingent of artists, writers, and curators. The exclusive guest list spanned five continents, novice and veteran fairgoers, and both the high-net-worth and creative classes alike. “Think of it as a good party, you need a good mix of people,” Delépine added. Even covert art collector Owen Wilson made a surprise appearance in the afternoon, eliciting a few of his own iconic “Wows.”

    Naturally, a premiere event in such a visually-oriented industry produced some great street style. So, this First Choice, we asked a cross-section of the bustling crowd a straightforward, but vital question: What are you supposed to wear to an art fair?

    From left: Lauren Halsey wears a thrifted shirt; Balenciaga jeans; necklace from the Slauson swap meet. Tschabalala Self wears a Miu Miu blazer; Maison Margiela boots; Celine bag; top from Ssense; skirt unknown.

    “You know there’s going to be so many people here, so you wear something that’s going to be comfortable, but also make a bit of a statement. I got this knockoff designer skirt online somewhere. I forget where, but it’s a good dupe.” —Tschabalala Self, artist, New York

    “I just gotta put something on.” —Lauren Halsey, artist, Los Angeles

    From left: Beñat Moreno wears a Yoshi Yamamoto jacket; vintage skirt and top; New Rock boots; Guess bag. ORLAN wears a Gucci jacket and glasses; Issey Miyake pants; sweater and belt unknown.

    “For us, it’s always important to dress well and to create a look—to tell a story with clothes, with makeup, with hair. It’s like a business card, you know? It’s the first thing someone sees of us, and it’s important to be confident and say something with it.” —Beñat Moreno, artist and studio manager, Paris

    “For me, life is a permanent party. In my art, it’s very important to have a construction of myself and my aesthetic—to be against the stereotype of normal fashion—because the body is politique and the private is politique.” —ORLAN, artist, Paris

    Details of Moreno and ORLAN’s looks.

    “I prefer the contrast of well-known brands with very small and normal things. I don’t know where the boots are from. I got them on the Internet.” —ORLAN

    Miles Greenberg wears a White Volcom tank top; vintage Margiela trousers; Marni combat boots; Balenciaga bag; Margiela x Gentle Monster sunglasses.

    “Getting dressed for an art fair is about functionality and sex, but I think that, in my life as an artist, the more I’ve done, the less I dress. These are essentially the only trousers I own, and they’ve lost several buttons and had several little holes in them. I fix them to the best of my ability every few weeks. I buy Volcom tank tops on Amazon because, when I was growing up in and around Montreal, I always thought the skater boys wearing them were the hottest.” —Miles Greenberg, artist, New York

    Ernest Dükü wears a scarf, shirt, and jacket from the Ivory Coast.

    “Le look is important. We come to the fair to see, but at the same time to be seen.” —Ernest Dükü, artist, Paris and Abidjan

    Kibum Kim wears an Ader Error suit; Jacquemus top; Spinelli Kilcollin jewelry; Bottega Veneta boots.

    “At art fairs, you need comfort and versatility, which means mixing and matching simpler, more monochrome things with a few statement pieces. As a gallerist, I like playing around with looking professional with a little bit of something extra. Ader Error is a Korean brand that I love; they do classics with a twist. The Jacquemus cycling top is for a pop of color and because we’re in France, and Spinelli Kilcollin, a friend’s jewelry brand from Los Angeles, brings a little bit of home with me.” —Kibum Kim, partner at Commonwealth & Council gallery, Los Angeles

    Farhad Manouchehri wears a Saint Laurent suit and earrings; Bethany Evans shirt.

    “There’s a feeling you get in the morning where you’re just excited to dress well. [Working in a gallery], you don’t really have to wear a suit, but the first days of the fair are usually the more exciting ones, so bring out the more exciting outfits first.” —Farhad Manouchehri, sales and artist liaison at Hollybush Gardens gallery, London

    From left: Asher Norberg wears a Roberto Cavalli sweater; vintage Kenzo pants; Onitsuka Tiger shoes. Antwaun Sargent wears a Miu Miu shirt and sneakers; Bottega Veneta pants; The Row jacket; Acne hat; Gucci sunglasses.

    “I’m not working a booth today, so I just needed to look somewhat presentable…just a bit more casual. I forced Gucci to give me these sunglasses. I’m not even joking. After a show, I emailed them and said I need to have them.” —Antwaun Sargent, a director at Gagosian gallery, New York

    “I’m kind of dressed how I always dress. I probably would have worn a short sleeve today.” —Asher Norberg, model, New York

    Anna Clivio wears a Yoshi Yamamoto dress; Louis Vuitton shoes; Hermès bag.

    “I’m 80 years old, and my hair has been this color for 60 years.” —Anna Clivio, art collector, Zurich

    From left: Marta Giani wears a Marni top and shoes; Prada skirt; Celine bag. Isobel Gooder wears a Bottega Veneta dress; M&S boots.

    “I spent the whole of last week setting up an outfit for every day. At an art fair, I think it’s important to be actually quite invisible. From our standpoint, you want to be able to slip in and out. Whenever you’re going in for a marathon art week, flat shoes are absolutely essential, but finding stylish comfortable shoes is hard, as you can see [laughs].” —Isobel Gooder, a deputy director at Sotheby’s, Paris

    Marievic wears a Black by Comme des Garcons jacket; Illesteva glasses; Junya Wantanabe sneakers.

    “I was thinking about the weather. It was bright and sunny, and I’ve been wearing whites all summer, so I went with my color palette. The chain is a gift from my mom, and I stole this bracelet from my best friend’s daughter.” —Marievic, artist, New York

    Barbara Huffman wears Issey Miyake pants and bag; Margiela x Salomon shoes; Kuboraum glasses.

    “I wear suits sometimes, but I’m known for pushing the limit. I wear a lot of Issey Miyake because I travel a lot and only take carry-on luggage, and it travels well. I recently found out people don’t wear hiking boots anymore, but hiking shoes, so I found these online.” —Barbara Huffman, art lawyer, New York

    “The coat is old English, a very traditional British brand. He has no idea where his shoes are from. My father is not really into fashion. He just came out of the gym.” —Delphine Giraud Monroe, curator, on behalf of her father, Henri Giraud, art collector, Paris

    From left: Alain Servais wears a vintage jacket; Levi’s jeans; Puma sneakers; ascot unknown. Khadija Hamdi wears unknown brands.

    “I’ve been wearing ascots for the last 20 years, which many people might find kind of snobbish, but it’s nothing besides a cynical wink at the idea of personal branding. I must have had 30 different ascots over the years and none of them cost more than 25 or 30 euros. Dressing is a power move, and it’s about what you want to express. I always say that to be elegant with 5,000 euros is easy, and being elegant with 200 euros is a real talent.” —Alain Servais, art collector, Brussels

    “People think I’m a brand woman, but I’m actually a no-brand woman.” —Khadija Hamdi, art gallerist, Barcelona

    Jonas Wood wears a Shepshop shirt; Carhartt pants; New Balance shoes; Prada belt.

    “I’m wearing a hat that I made for my 20-year drawing show at Karma, this awesome gallery in New York and LA. I just want to be comfortable. I literally just smoked weed and now I’m listening to Kraftwerk and trying not to make eye contact.”—Jonas Wood, artist, Los Angeles

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  • How Elsa Peretti Transformed Tiffany & Co. In Her Own Fabulous Image

    How Elsa Peretti Transformed Tiffany & Co. In Her Own Fabulous Image

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    In 1971, Elsa Peretti was still three years away from the partnership with Tiffany & Co. that would assure her status as one of the most consequential jewelry designers of the 20th century, but she already had the aplomb of a star. Wearing a tie-dye Halston caftan, perched on an Angelo Donghia chaise longue in her apartment on Irving Place in Manhattan, she explained to a journalist how she came to have it: “You must have a lot of confidence but very little compromise with yourself.”

    Peretti, who died three years ago at the age of 80, exhibited both those qualities from an early age. Raised in a palazzo in Rome, she chafed at the expectations of her wealthy, conventional family. At 21, she wrote her father a letter declaring her intention to live independently; in response, he cut her off financially. Undeterred, she taught languages and skiing at her former finishing school to support herself before settling in Barcelona, where she began modeling and fell in with La Gauche Divine, a group of artists and intellectuals who opposed the fascist Franco regime. At the time, said Stefano Palumbo, the general director and a board member of the philanthropic Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, which he helped Peretti to establish in 2000, “Europe was not ready for a woman who decided to be an artist, who decided not to get married, not have a family.” To her family’s dismay, she was just getting warmed up.

    Peretti’s modeling agency sent her to New York in 1968, and, despite what were viewed as considerable drawbacks—“When I came here, what they liked was the blonde girl. With big blue eyes and very young. I was very tall, very dark, very skinny.… I was everything too very,” she later remembered—she became a favorite of designers like Halston, Charles James, Issey Miyake, and Giorgio di Sant’Angelo, who loved her lanky frame and cropped, slicked-back hair. But modeling was a means to an end. When a silver bud vase pendant she designed on a whim for one of di Sant’Angelo’s runway shows proved to be an unexpected hit, she knew she had found her true vocation.

    At the time, silver had a down-market reputation that made it a risky choice for fine jewelry. Peretti, however, insisted on using it in her collections. She sensed that grand, formal jewels were as passé as girdles and white gloves; in their place, she offered ease. Her earrings and necklaces were meant to be put on and forgotten about, with no sharp points to catch on sweaters or hair, no warnings about not getting wet, and the designer’s blessing to wear them to sleep. Moreover, she wanted women to feel like they could buy her jewelry for themselves instead of waiting to receive it from a man. “I design for the working girl,” she proudly proclaimed. The response was so overwhelming that Peretti single-handedly turned silver into a viable alternative to gold, netting a 1971 Coty Award for jewelry and her own corner at Bloomingdale’s in the process. When she began collaborating with Tiffany, the venerable house had not sold silver jewelry since the Great Depression.

    Peretti’s design process was highly personal, but her biomorphic shapes gave her jewelry a rare timelessness that Tiffany’s customers continue to appreciate. “Elsa used to say, ‘Jewelry is not fashion,’ ” said Palumbo. “It does not have to be discharged as soon as something new comes along.” Her Bone Cuff, for example, which was inspired by religious relics she saw as a child and is so true to human anatomy that it must be bought to conform to one wrist or the other, is as relevant today as it was when it was designed. Her Bone Candlesticks, a riff on an X-ray of her own femur, still look modern, as does her Henry Moore–inspired Open Heart pendant. Her Diamonds by the Yard, shimmering chains that, as the name implies, can be bought at various lengths, were rooted in memories of the way her grandmother casually wore her own diamonds. Now, in addition to the long-standing classics, Tiffany is offering special limited editions of some of Peretti’s favorites to mark the 50th anniversary of this fruitful partnership. These include a diamond pavé Amapola brooch, named after the Spanish word for “poppy” and featuring a black silk bloom, and large 18-karat yellow gold High Tide earrings, which ripple like water.

    Halston was instrumental in introducing Peretti to Tiffany executives. He and Peretti were close, and the fashion icon was initially delighted by his friend’s success. When he launched his fragrance, he asked Peretti to design the bottle; she obliged with a curvy flacon shaped like a chic gourd. But once her fame began to rival his own, their relationship, always intense—as Peretti liked to point out, they were both Tauruses and took slights seriously—soured. The low point came during an argument in 1978, when Peretti hurled a sable coat Halston had given her in lieu of payment for the bottle design into the fireplace of his townhouse, on East 63rd Street. She had wanted to deepen their connection with more personal conversation, she later explained, while Halston preferred to keep things superficial, a stance she found…unsatisfactory.

    Even by the standards of a famously louche era, incinerating sable was impressively bad behavior. And, indeed, Peretti held her own in those years. She palled around with Andy Warhol, Stephen Burrows, Marina Schiano, Berry Berenson, and Joe Eula. She walked the runway at the Battle of Versailles. She vamped in a Playboy Bunny costume on a terrace for her then lover Helmut Newton, a scene that resulted in one of the decade’s most electrifying images. She was who Victor Hugo, Halston’s streetwise boyfriend, turned to when he needed fast cash. When Studio 54 cofounder Steve Rubell had the temerity to call her “honey pie,” she smashed a bottle of vodka in protest. Halston stepped in, and the showdown turned so heated that Warhol noted in his diary that it was enough to make him want to stay home for the rest of his life (as if).

    But even while she was living dangerously in Manhattan, Peretti was building a refuge for herself in the abandoned Catalonian village of Sant Martí Vell, which she vowed to make her home after glimpsing it in a photo in 1968. As soon as she earned the money, she bought and renovated two of its decrepit buildings, then two more, until she had put her stamp on the entire village. She created workshops for the artisans who crafted her jewelry, guest quarters, and living spaces for herself. Although she owned far more luxurious residences, Sant Martí became her home base. She spent the final few months of her life there.

    When Palumbo first met Peretti, her insistence on art directing her environment was immediately evident. She interviewed him not in an office but at her summer house overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, under a pergola of strawberry grapes. A few days later, the pair traveled to Jordan to attend a summit on environmental conservation. After the conference, Peretti suggested they rent a car and explore the Jordanian desert. As they neared the ruins of the ancient city of Petra, she announced that they needed music. They stopped at a roadside kiosk, where, to the delight of the proprietor, she requested a cassette by the great Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. For the rest of the trip, that was their soundtrack. “Even in the car, she needed to create her own artistic atmosphere, ‘a room of one’s own,’ as Virginia Woolf wrote,” said Palumbo.

    Rebecca Dayan, the actor who played her in Netflix’s Halston, thought Peretti deserved her own show. Palumbo has an even bigger idea. Describing Peretti as a jewelry designer, he said, doesn’t begin to encompass her impact. Instead, “she is a protagonist of history. She belongs not to the history of fashion or design but to the history of art.”

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  • Unbelievable facts

    Unbelievable facts

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    The Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, attracting more visitors to the Louvre to view the empty space…

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  • Art Basel Paris Is Finally Here. Will It Upend the Global Art-Fair Order?

    Art Basel Paris Is Finally Here. Will It Upend the Global Art-Fair Order?

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    The first sign something unusual was going down at the Grand Palais in Paris was the small wooden house, plopped on the steps of the 150-foot-tall Beaux Arts dome. Things got stranger. The home was actually constructed in a matter of days, and it was no simple abode, but one of the demountable structures designed by Jean Prouvé that exists in the space between conceptual art, modern design, and a thing you can literally move into. The dealer Patrick Seguin was selling it for $2 million, which isn’t even that outrageous for a Prouvé house. André Balazs bought one in 2007 for just about $5 million. But it’s still a bit unreal to walk up to Art Basel Paris at the newly restored Grand Palais and be confronted with an austere Prouvé that was constructed overnight.

    And then out of the house stepped Owen Wilson.

    Why was the artist-loving actor in the City of Light, hanging out in a seven-figure design-object-slash-art-domicile? Well that’s just the magic of Art Basel Paris. Even before stepping foot inside the main event—the global fair company’s first edition at its permanent home in the Grand Palais, the fulcrum point of a week that is now a vital part of the collecting-as-lifestyle global tour—there are celebrities doing art stuff.

    At this moment, in this town, an art fair really seems to be seeping into the mainstream. Art Basel ads blanket the Métro stops on Line 1. Multiple Uber drivers googled “art basel paris tickets” on their phones while driving—eyes on the road, mon frere! All week, the city’s cultural offerings seemed logjammed and bustling, as if the surge in tourists never receded after the Olympics. In fact, a Paris resident told me that October in Paris is actually more crowded than it was during the summer games, when many Parisians retreated. Now everyone’s back and the art tourists are here too.

    It was so crowded on Sunday afternoon that Larry Gagosian and David Zwirner coincidentally ended up at the same tiny room for lunch: Bar Vendôme, the posh spot nested inside the warren of luxury that is the Ritz Paris. A cold war went down while each party pretended the other wasn’t there. It was so crowded that, the following night, Zwirner actually teamed with a third mega-gallery, Hauser & Wirth, to do a joint dinner at Loulou to avoid making their clients choose between bashes. Both global powers have outposts in Paris, of course. The French capital has risen as a gallery hub in the years after Brexit and all of the foreigners who planted flags here. And it was so crowded that they all opened on the same night, Monday. Gagosian offered a Harold Ancart show of gigantic landscape paintings, Zwirner new paintings by Dana Schutz, and Hauser & Wirth paintings, sculpture, and video by Rashid Johnson. The latter was the most in-demand show in town, according to private dealers trying to get their hands on some for clients.

    All the galleries took over a small strip of Avenue Montaigne. At a certain point in the evening, a mob had formed in front of the Takashi Murakami show at Perrotin—a group of fans were desperately seeking a selfie with the artist, one of the rare few who can spark a photo frenzy. But actually James Turrell whipped his fans into a similar fever right next door at Almine Rech, where he sat behind the desk and greeted gallery goers. White Cube had an opening next door, and I followed Eric Fischl and KAWS up the stairs to Skarstedt, where Per Skarstedt had a Warhol show up.

    Upstairs, the collector and music industry vet Josh Abraham introduced me to a friend he had brought along on the gallery hopping: the actor and musician Hilary Duff.

    “I’m here on a girls trip and I’m in Paris, and I wanted to make sure Josh shows me all the art,” she told me.

    So thank you, Hilary Duff, for making me realize something that’s central to the appeal of Art Basel Paris. Say you’re not a big collector but you buy things occasionally, and maybe you’ve been to Miami Beach for the fair but are kind of over it. The idea of traveling to Paris during Art Basel isn’t a daunting immersion into contemporary art symposia, but suddenly a great idea for a girls trip. Art Basel is just one of the things you do while you’re in town. You book a nice hotel, go to museums, go to an art fair, and have a primo bragging-rights reservation that your concierge or credit card can help you snag. Everybody wins. Art Basel can establish a world-class fair where the dealers bring A-plus work in line with Paris’s vast institutional and gallery landscape (something Miami Beach lacks), but also lure in wealthy folks who want to make an art fair part of a vacation lifestyle (impossible in Basel, Switzerland, with its institutionalized VIPs and dearth of buzzy boîtes and chic places to stay.)

    “They have hotels here, they have good restaurants, you can make a reservation, and that’s part of the whole experience,” said collector and dealer Adam Lindemann, who’s shown at various Art Basel fairs and bought from all of them.

    Perhaps that’s why the Americans in Loro Piana ball caps and On sneakers seemed at times to outnumber the Europeans in designer loafers. Craig Robins, the Miami developer and collector who helped build the Design District, looked perfectly at ease sitting in a chair with Philomene Magers at the Sprüth Magers booth. The Rubells were there from Miami, and the Horts were there from New York. I spotted a quartet of museum directors—Melissa Chiu from the Hirshhorn, Jeremy Strick of the Nasher Sculpture Center, James Rondeau of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Max Hollein of The Met—all leading museum groups around. The NFL player turned collector Keith Rivers wasn’t just visiting for the fair; he’s fully moved to Paris.

    And the actor Natalie Portman was casually taking in a long tour of the Mariane Ibrahim booth from the gallery’s namesake, before a dealer from a booth over grabbed me for an introduction.

    “I’m really looking forward to getting to the Jeu de Paume, for the Tina Barney show,” Portman said, and she’s right to, because the Tina Barney show is really that amazing.

    Even at the Paris Internationale satellite fair, the venue was packed with collectors such as Prada cocreative director Raf Simons and the Paris-based Susanne van Hagen, plus directors from Gagosian, Lisson, and Zwirner, to see what the young galleries were showing. The Hotel Costes, the traditional after-hours hang for collectors such as the Mugrabis and the Nahmads, was jam-packed late Tuesday, hours before the opening of the fair. (Vanity Fair also had a little party that day, more on that later.)

    Rashid Johnson/Walla Walla Foundry.

    During the VIP opening day of the big fair, once I got past the Prouvé house, the $500 million renovation to the building really smacked me in the face, the fresh paint job popping and the golden banisters of the dome glistening in the light. Even James Murdoch, whose Lupa Systems has acquired a serious chunk of Basel’s parent company in the last few years, was spotted staring up at the ceilings of a palace so vast it looks almost fake, like AI-generated.

    There’s been endless bickering about Art Basel Paris versus Frieze London, and Art Basel Paris versus the original Art Basel, and that line of inquiry kept the chattering classes busy at the opening of the fair. “This is going to bury Art Basel in Switzerland,” one adviser told me. “The idea of London being replaced is pretty ridiculous, the museum shows are better there,” said a collector. And so on.

    But more relevant was the fact that right before our eyes, art works were selling for numbers that far eclipsed anything that went down in London, at least at the fair. Dealers brought serious stuff, and there was an appetite to buy. I saw collector Wendi Deng Murdoch and her adviser, the art dealer Xin Li, engaging in a chat with Jay Jopling at White Cube. A massive 2013 Julie Mehretu painting at the booth was eventually sold to another buyer to the tune of $9.5 million. (The gallery declined to comment on the purchaser’s identity.)

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    Nate Freeman

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  • Fake News: No, We Did Not Report on a Trump Painting Selling for $5 Million

    Fake News: No, We Did Not Report on a Trump Painting Selling for $5 Million

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    On Friday, an Instagram follower reached out to me asking about an article I supposedly wrote in August that they couldn’t find online. The screenshot they sent was of a story called “Historic Trump Painting Could Fetch $5 Million at Auction,” complete with my byline and the Observer’s header…

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    Carly May Gravley

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  • Mary Cervicato is changing the SFX game through her makeup artistry (25 Photos)

    Mary Cervicato is changing the SFX game through her makeup artistry (25 Photos)

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    Handicaps be damned. Mary Cervicato isn’t letting the fact that she’s deaf get in the way of her passion. Cervicato is serving up some of the most frightening, gnarly, and downright impressive make-up artistry you’ll find anywhere on the internet.

    How she doesn’t have a million loyal fans is beyond me, but just take a few minutes to enjoy the Hollywood-caliber SFX projects from the one and only Mary Cervicato.

    Give her a follow!

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    Zach

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  • The Time Is Now: 14 Artists Envision Political Posters for the 2024 Election

    The Time Is Now: 14 Artists Envision Political Posters for the 2024 Election

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    Eight years ago, as the United States faced an unprecedented presidential election, we asked a group of artists to create the political posters they’d like to see. Four years after that, as Black Lives Matter protests roiled the country, artists of color shared with us their points of view. Astonishingly, we now find ourselves at an even more critical crossroads. With so much hanging in the balance, we are showcasing 14 original posters made by artists over the age of 70—members of a generation that understands firsthand just how important it is to vote. The fact that they took the time to participate—June Leaf passed away at age 94, just days after submitting her contribution—underscores the existential nature of the moment. Proud as we are to publish these works, we hope that in the next electoral cycle we will be in a position where this project won’t feel quite as urgent.

    To check your voter registration, find your polling place and make your plan to vote, visit whenweallvote.org.

    This message was approved by June Leaf.

    Courtesy of June Leaf.

    This message was approved by Jessie Homer French.

    Courtesy of Jessie Homer French.

    This message was approved by Katherine Bradford.

    Courtesy of Katherine Bradford and CANADA, New York.

    This message was approved by Ben Sakoguchi.

    Courtesy of Ben Sakoguchi.

    This message was approved by Robert Longo.

    Courtesy of Robert Longo.

    This message was approved by Betye Saar.

    Courtesy of Betye Saar and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles.

    This message was approved by Yvonne Wells.

    Courtesy of Yvonne Wells.

    This message was approved by Marilyn Minter.

    Courtesy of Marilyn Minter.

    This message was approved by Peter Saul.

    Courtesy of Peter Saul.

    This message was approved by Willie Birch.

    Courtesy of Willie Birch.

    This message was approved by Deborah Kass.

    Courtesy of Deborah Kass.

    This message was approved by Lita Albuquerque.

    Courtesy of Lita Albuquerque.

    This message was approved by Dorothea Rockburne.

    Courtesy of Dorothea Rockburne.

    This message was approved by Scott Kahn.

    Courtesy of Scott Kahn.

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  • ACLU sues Vail over Indigenous artist’s canceled residency – The Cannabist

    ACLU sues Vail over Indigenous artist’s canceled residency – The Cannabist

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    The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is suing the town of Vail over its dismissal of artist Danielle SeeWalker from an artist-in-residence program, following an April complaint about SeeWalker’s past work.

    The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, states that the town violated SeeWalker’s First Amendment rights in canceling her residency over political reasons before she’d even painted a single brushstroke.

    “… SeeWalker’s free speech rights under the federal and state constitutions were violated when the town of Vail abruptly canceled her residency after she expressed her personal views on the war in Gaza on her social media page,” according to an ACLU of Colorado statement.

    Read the rest of this story on TheKnow.DenverPost.com.

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    John Wenzel

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  • After Hurricane Helene, East Fork Pottery and Asheville Artists Set a Course Forward

    After Hurricane Helene, East Fork Pottery and Asheville Artists Set a Course Forward

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    Look inside the kitchen cabinets of influencers like Emily Mariko or chef and writer Samin Nosrat, and you’ll find East Fork Pottery’s signature thick-rimmed, contemporary wares, offered in an array of poetically named proprietary glazes (the seasonal burgundy is “wine dark sea”; a speckled earth tone is “morel”). Launched in 2009 by Alex Matisse, the 40-year-old great-grandson of Henri Matisse, the beloved brand is emblematic of aspirational homemaking.

    “I started East Fork as not anything like it is today: as a potter making pots,” Alex Matisse told Vanity Fair over Zoom from one of the company’s factories. “I was trained in this very specific school of making here in North Carolina. Went out on my own and set up a pottery in very rural North Carolina, outside of Asheville, and was making very different work than we make today.”

    Now, with a workforce of over 110 employees making close to 600,000 pieces a year, East Fork’s wares are so popular online that limited or deadstock color palettes can resell for 16 times their original prices and collectors have fan-operated buy, sell, and trade markets. When Hurricane Helene—which made landfall on September 26, impacting Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina—reached the mountain region of western North Carolina, East Fork’s candid social media updates took on a new urgency. Notions of a “climate haven” (as Asheville has been labeled given that it’s inland, at a high elevation, and has cooler-than-average temperatures) were dashed. The shifting behaviors of tropical storms amid climate change now makes the so-called unprecedented more normal.

    Water damage surrounding East Fork’s coveted pottery pieces.Courtesy of East Fork.

    “For people up here who live in a place that they thought was sort of untouchable from climate change to be touched so drastically, so quickly, that’s a big one,” Matisse said.

    Matisse echoes what climate activists and scientists routinely emphasize: that climate change impacts everyone. “The most disadvantaged populations feel it first, and then other people start to feel it. And I think this is one of those examples.”

    For East Fork, the lessons of an earlier calamity provided a roadmap for handling this one as the team followed, what he calls, their COVID “playbook” to ensure employees remain paid as the region recovers. Given East Fork’s large-scale operation, Matisse felt it was inappropriate to crowdfund, so the company opted for a familiar option, hosting a sale instead. “We make and sell pottery,” Matisse said. “So let’s do that.” East Fork has focused its social media presence on spotlighting the fundraisers, mutual aid calls, and raffles of other smaller makers and artists of the area and beyond, including Atlanta where there is an East Fork brick-and-mortar store.

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    Arimeta Diop

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  • Cape Ann School of painters still going strong

    Cape Ann School of painters still going strong

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    J.P. Boudreau of Folly Cove Fine Art in Rockport has always known the allure of the Cape Ann School of painters for collectors around the country.

    But he did not expect to be contacted by the brother of a collector in the Albany, New York area who has a 350 Cape Ann School artworks. The Cape Ann School refers to past masters of this historic style of plein air painting who were drawn to Cape Ann.

    The collection of David J. Nyhan included the leading artists of the day almost a century ago, such as Frederick Mulhaupt, Emile Gruppe, Lester Stevens, and Harry Vincent among many others.

    In fact, Boudreau recently drove to Minnesota to deliver a large painting by Gruppe purchased by another collector of the Cape Ann School.

    The gallery, which he runs with Jill Guthrie, specializes in the Cape Ann School, but offers a mix of other celebrated schools such as the Hudson River School and the New York Ten, as well as living artists.

    When asked about the continued popularity of the Cape Ann School, Boudreau noted that these artists’ works capture the beauty of Cape Ann, which continues to draw artists to these shores even today.

    Perhaps that is why Cape Ann is home to three thriving historic art organizations: the Rockport Art Association & Museum, North Shore Arts Association, and the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester.

    “What attracted these artists to this area is the same reason that continues to attract artists today — the scenic nature of Cape Ann,” said Boudreau, who serves on the Board of Governors of the Rockport Art Association.

    The Rockport Art Association’s current show, the American Impressionist Society’s 25th annual National Juried Exhibition, has 16 artist members of the Folly Cove Gallery represented among the 206 artworks in the show, which runs through Oct. 26.

    Raised in Hamilton and Cape Ann, Boudreau has worked many jobs on the waterfront, from commercial fishing to sailing on schooners — often the subjects of these painters.

    His fascination with historic things began when he was a child, always in search of items of interest, and he began collecting paintings. Now he has a headquarters at the gallery at 41 Main St. in downtown Rockport.

    He grew up surrounded by art from Cape Ann, whether in his home or in the countless homes of Cape Ann that have historic artworks hanging on their walls.

    “This area is — and long has been — a mecca of art for both historic and living artists alike,” he said.

    His work and interest with artists of the Cape Ann School continues to grow. Boudreau is now handling the estates of two renowned artists, Paul Strisik (1918-1998) and Don Stone (1929-2015), both of whom achieved the status of National Academician, as well as Robert Gruppe, a Rocky Neck artist and third-generation artist.

    Gail McCarthy may be contacted at 978-675-2706, or gmccarthy@northofboston.com.

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    By Gail McCarthy | Staff Writer

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  • Is Atlanta the Country’s Next Great Art Hub?

    Is Atlanta the Country’s Next Great Art Hub?

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    Amid a slowing art market, a sweep of gallery closures, and layoffs, Atlanta is proclaiming itself another destination on the map of contemporary art with the inaugural Atlanta Art Fair. Taking place through October 6 in Pullman Yards, the fair features 63 exhibitors: galleries, cultural partners, nonprofits, and institutions from throughout the South (25% of the featured galleries being homegrown in the city), greater US, and abroad. The weekend’s programming will center on its theater, where American Southern Art as it pertains to collecting, culture, artists’ legacies, environmental crises, and the city’s “renaissance” will be the themes of a series of talks.

    Art Market Productions director Kelly Freeman set the scene during a recent call with Vanity Fair: “There’s something about creating that blank canvas that then our gallery partners, our cultural partners, our artists get to come in and program,” she says. “There’s so much energy in the air, and of course that’s Atlanta for you.”

    The Atlanta Art Fair runs concurrently with Atlanta Art Week (held September 30 through October 6), which was founded by art adviser Kendra Walker. Now in its third year, Walker’s project not only landed her a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30 list, but signaled Atlanta’s rise to the larger art community. While there isn’t overt collaboration between the two events, there isn’t competition either—instead an overarching desire to cultivate longevity prevails. The Atlanta Art Fair therefore is simultaneously a response to the city’s massed attention and a call for more interested parties to stick around.

    “Once people are engaged, I hope that they stay engaged with the offerings that Atlanta has outside of October, outside of that week,” Lauren Jackson Harris, guest curator and cofounder of Black Women in Visual Art, said. “It’s just visibility and consistency that I’m hoping to see, because we’re not a New York or LA, but we can create our brand by people just being consistent and intentional about feeding the arts.”

    This is the refrain of those with a more optimistic outlook of the current market. As the scramble to readjust unfolds, those with robust commitments to community, art, and artists themselves, rather than to a game of assets and numbers, will stand the test.

    “Letting Atlanta be Atlanta—it’s what I think we do best as an organization,” Freeman said. “We have no ego in the project. I know I will have done my job correctly if an attendee learns about some exhibition happening at Spelman College in January and decides to go because of an interaction they had at the fair.”

    Here, a conversation with the curators of the Art Fair about the state of Southern art and Atlanta’s growing part in its continued presence.

    Vanity Fair: Can each of you speak to the dynamic of the American South in the contemporary art world?

    Lauren Jackson Harris: It was a funny comment from one of our friends, she mentioned people sometimes revere Atlanta’s art scene as the hillbilly of the South. I think once people come to the city and experience the vastness of talent that is here, even though you have to dig a little bit more—it’s not as concentrated in pockets as New York or LA.—but once you do find the richness that’s in Atlanta, you really see the value that we offer to the platform as a whole.

    People always talk about this “Atlanta Renaissance,” but I’m like, Atlanta has been the Renaissance for many years. Whether it’s music, acting, dance, visual art, creative industry. We always have created that energy and that fire, and people have capitalized off of that.

    I don’t want to be compared to New York or LA. Because Atlanta, we are our own child, we are our own entity, and we have our own brand of what we offer. And to compare us to major cities such as New York and LA. does us a disservice.

    Karen Comer Lowe: We’re treated like this stepchild, as if there has not been an active art scene in Atlanta for decades. When I entered, I came during the National Black Arts Festival, which was this, at the time, biannual festival that brought people to Atlanta every other year for visual arts, dance, and film. Everything Black and in culture. I’ve seen this art community thrive.

    If it’s new to you, that’s great. But what I would like is for people to come here, and like Lauren said, just experience it for yourself so that you can see what we have here, because there’s so many artists who live here and show outside of Atlanta. What we need in Atlanta are resources put into these spaces that we have so that we can develop new spaces.

    What were the early conversations about curation, the narratives you wanted to present, and choice of artists to feature?

    Harris: I sometimes work backwards, but my title didn’t come until after I started really working and having conversations with the artists and seeing what their work made me feel. The work of genteel/gentle has been haunting me from another exhibition that I wanted to do.

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    Arimeta Diop

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  • LGBTQ+Ñ Literary Festival kicks off this week in Los Angeles

    LGBTQ+Ñ Literary Festival kicks off this week in Los Angeles

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    Washington State-native Travis Holp is a psychic medium with close to 300 thousand followers on Instagram and 500 thousand on Tik Tok.  Known on social media as the Warrior Unicorn – a nod to his fighting spirit toward LGBTQ and mental health awareness issues, combined with his effervescent personality – Travis connects with those who have passed over and delivers messages to their loved ones in the physical world.  

    Through one-on-one readings and large public events, he says he does it with one aim in mind:  that clients leave their time with him feeling a new sense of connection, clarity, closure and healing. He’ll make his Los Angeles debut at The Vault in the Beverly Center on Sunday, September 29, at 7pm.

    Holp doesn’t recall when he discovered his psychic ability.   He simply remembers being very young, maybe four-years-old, and having long conversations with what people around him assumed were his imaginary friends but, he now realizes, were his Spirit guides.   “I can’t say there was one specific moment, but more like many moments throughout my life.”

    It wasn’t until his early 20s when he decided to turn his skill into a profession.  “Early on in my journey, I read as many books on mediumship as I could find,” he continues. He quickly found himself inundated with Spirit hoping to connect with loved ones in the physical world.  

    One of his biggest concerns became protecting his energy and learning to keep boundaries with the spiritual world.  

    “My now mentor and friend MaryAnn DiMarco wrote this great book called Medium Mentor, and she has some great exercises for spiritual protection.”  

    He also takes steps to nurture his special gift. “I regularly meditate and do things to raise my vibration like dancing to music.”  A favorite song of his to listen to before readings and live events is Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth”.

    He believes most people have psychic abilities.  Some, like himself, are born with it, and others access it later in life. “Like any other ability, it is absolutely possible for a person to learn to connect for him or herself,” he says.  He often teaches people how to do it during sessions and at live classes.

    The best way he has found to enhance mediumistic abilities is to actively participate in one’s own emotional healing.  He says the connection we have with ourselves is the foundation for mediumship.  “Like anything, it takes some training but I have gotten really adept at understanding the messages Spirit tells me,” Holp explains.   He sees Spirit in his mind’s eye, and he hears and feels their communications. “Spirit uses my own frame of reference and symbols to help me convey their messages.”

    His main purpose with Spirit is being a vessel.  He views himself as the Guncle (gay uncle) of the Spirit world.   “I always tell it like it is,” he says, “but I’m careful to deliver information with kindness, joy, and hope.”  

    Though both of his grandmothers “pop in” from time to time (he’ll feel their warm and loving energy and always enjoys it when they come to say hello!), he typically won’t read for close family members because he knows too much information about them.  However, sometimes Spirit does present itself for a loved one.  

    When it does, Travis will thank the Spirit for coming but let them know that he prefers not to send a message. It’s all about keeping healthy boundaries between himself and his loved ones.

    He does the same thing while on dates.  

    “I don’t date much, but when I do and I tell a guy how I make my living, they often worry that I’m reading them.  I am not,” he insists.    “I may get little nudges here and there, like one time I felt the energy of a mom in Spirit for someone I was on a date with, and a few moments later, he shared his mom had passed from cancer a few years prior, but I won’t stop a date to deliver a reading.  It’s not very romantic,” he laughs. 

    “I believe I am meant to help others along their healing journey,” he continues.  “Whether a client seeks guidance on a specific topic, wants to connect with a loved one in Spirit, or wants to deepen their own spiritual practice, I’m here to help like any great guncle who knows a lot of sh-t would.” 

    He admits that he often surprises himself with the accuracy of his messages. “I especially love it when the two people shared a special word or song and then Spirit reveals that word or title to me so that I can relay it back to my client.  It’s validation, for sure, but it is also a fun feather in my cap.”

    As far as the messages that he most often receives from Spirit, Holp says our dearly departed wish that we would let go of regret, guilt, and shame. “One of the things I have learned from Spirit is that most of what we carry isn’t necessary.  In the end, all that really matters is love.”

    Travis Holp appears at The Vault in the Beverly Center (8500 Beverly Blvd, Suite 860) on Sunday, Sept 29th at 7pm. For tickets, visit: www.travisholp.com 

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    Gisselle Palomera

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  • Artist custom designs sneakers for ultimate fans

    Artist custom designs sneakers for ultimate fans

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    TOMBALL, Texas — For Ranard Hardman, its shoe contact before eye contact.

    “People always pay attention to shoes. For me personally, I look at your shoes before your face,” Hardman said.

    Sneakers have always been a passion for Hardman. He also loves art and found a way to combine the two. Ten years ago he launched Nard Got Sole.

    “I started off doing different Joran color waves,” Hardman said. “Then it gradually went into sports.”

    Hardman added he has done many Astros designs through the years, “my regular clients get a new pair every year and also we have those clients getting ready for the playoffs, it’s a thing.”

    Click the video above to see the story.

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    CCG

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  • Artist custom designs sneakers for ultimate fans

    Artist custom designs sneakers for ultimate fans

    [ad_1]

    TOMBALL, Texas — For Ranard Hardman, its shoe contact before eye contact.

    “People always pay attention to shoes. For me personally, I look at your shoes before your face,” Hardman said.

    Sneakers have always been a passion for Hardman. He also loves art and found a way to combine the two. Ten years ago he launched Nard Got Sole.

    “I started off doing different Joran color waves,” Hardman said. “Then it gradually went into sports.”

    Hardman added he has done many Astros designs through the years, “my regular clients get a new pair every year and also we have those clients getting ready for the playoffs, it’s a thing.”

    Click the video above to see the story.

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    CCG

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