By Shazia Khurshid on Thursday, July 8, 2010
MUJER FATAL MURAL
Shepard Fairey has a powerful and varied integration of design that covers all aspects of our visual popular culture from political art and fashion to street art and museum installations. Fairey works in a wide variety of media such as screen prints, stencils, stickers, illustrations, collages, and works on wood, metal and canvas. The core content of Fairey’s work is to draw attention to the hierarchies and all the abuses of power, politics and the commodification of culture.
EYE ALERT RED COLLAGE
I find it inspiring that Fairey is committed to creating work that has a powerful meaning for his audience. He has created a cultural phenomenon through his art and, more importantly, stimulates conversation and political discussions world wide.
DUALITY OF HUMANITY II
In this piece, The Duality of Humanity II, a child holds a gun in his hand and wears a flower in his hat. A part of the Duality of Humanity series, this work focuses on anti war propaganda influenced by Vietnam war. His works showcases women, children soldiers and weapons bearing peace signs, or peace signs comprised of military effects. It’s clear that Fairey sees a strong parallel between the Vietnam war and the Iraq war and creats art that highlights the tragic similarities between the two.
Fairey feels his work exemplifies, “the human struggle between good and bad, hope and fear”.
MAKE ART NOT WAR
What I love is the way Fairey builds off of precedents set by artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Through doing so he disrupts what is socially ‘approved’ about art and business, muddling the distinctions between fine art and commercial art.
The artist explains his driving motivation: “The real message behind most of my work is ‘question everything’.”
Images via Obey Giant
Object, Joanne Greenbaum, 2005. Oil and flash on canvas, 62 x 60 in.
This weekend, check out Lush Life – a nine-part exhibition based on Richard Price’s iconic novel, Lush Life. Nine Lower East Side galleries have partnered with 50 artists to explore themes in each of the nine chapters of the book. The book captures the contradictions of the recently gentrified area and the exhibition builds on its themes—change, the commercialization of culture, and connections to our past, future, neighbors, friends, bars, reality.
Other Halves, Nanna Debots Buhl, 2007
Curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Franklin Evans, the organizers recognize the exhibition’s potential to perpetuate the erosion of LES by becoming fodder for bar-hopping trustifarians or to altogether fall flat as effective commentary. Lush Life invites LES dwellers past and present to discuss the fine points or pointlessness of the exhibition in what could become an interesting conversation on the evolution of one of New York’s most beloved areas by those who transformed it.
Totem, Derrick Adams, 2010
The nine galleries are hosting a collective opening this Thursday from 6-9PM—see Lush Life for more info.
Image via Sue Scott Gallery
By hwcole on Wednesday, June 30, 2010
This weekend marked the end of the Men’s SS Fashion Weeks as the last catwalks in Paris were taken down on Sunday. The shows in both Milan and Paris were wildly unique and enthralling. Here are 5 trends we noticed.
1. HINTS OF COLOR
Moschino, Prada, Giorgio Armani
Classic silhouettes accented with vibrant colors were a popular choice on the runways this year. For Giorgio Armani, chartreuse was the shade of choice to add that extra pop.
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2. DOUBLE BREASTED
Hermes, Junya Watanabe, Versace
Double-breasted blazers and jackets reigned supreme. Nearly every designer offered their personal take on the style, though a common thread throughout was trim and slim cuts, offering clean and tailored silhouettes.
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3. CROPPED
Frankie Morello, Trussardi 1911, Calvin Klein
Whether it was flood length trousers or cropped top shirts, sartorial shortness was in.
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4. LINEN
Corneliani, Ermenegildo Zegna, Dolce & Gabbana
Combining both function and fashion, designers chose lightweight linens to help consumers beat the heat and stay cool.
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5. PATTERN ON PATTERN
Etro, Thom Browne, Issey Miyake
Stripes on plaids, florals and checks; Both Milan and Paris saw patterns being mixed and matched this year. Particularly nice is Etro’s mixing patterns of minimal color to achieve a unique, yet elegant look.
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All images from GQ and NYMag
By Olivia Campana on Tuesday, May 25, 2010
More and more high-end perfumers want you to smell like something other than flowers.
In 2007 perfume company Demeter, sought to create familiar “everyday” scents. Including:
Since these unconventional scents began to emerge it wasn’t long before other perfumers followed suit.
Some of our favorites this season include:
Nasomotto
Black Afgano, a scent intended to evoke the scent of high-grade marijuana:
The “secret” ingredient is smuggled hash herbs, and marijuana-as-incense.
Etat Libre D’Orange
Jasmin et Cigarette, and Fat Electrician, are just a few of the many skeptically delicious scents put out by Etat Libre D’Orange.
This perfume company gained notoriety by using actress Tilda Swinton as their muse for their latest perfume Like This.
CB I Hate Perfume
Perfumer CB seeks to develop scents reminiscent of particular experiences or familiar environments.
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By Alyssa Bishop on Thursday, March 18, 2010
Photos courtesy of Dave Pinke, my amazing friend and amateur photographer.
I’m always jealous of Dave’s amazing adventures. Check out our last blog post on his travel videos. Thanks Dave, we love/hate you.
By Laura Schilling on Monday, March 1, 2010
The WWD accessories book came out – just the drug we needed to snap us out of our seasonally affected wardrobe stupor. And this one was AWESOME – a big bowl of I Want That (with convenient shopping details on every page). Below, the best of the best. We die.
Shoes
Sigerson Morrison, Roberto Cavalli and Louis Vuitton
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Purses
Temperley London, Trussardi 1911, Stella McCartney
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Pretty Things
Defiles, Naga, Wu York
Images via WWD
I was browsing through the Shop Class page of the WWD accessories book, the one featuring chic woodworking for the well dressed – hey, that could be me! (?) – when I saw a clutch by Nada Sawaya. Intrigued, I went to her website and found the following internet treasure.
florence, da vinci and trevi
Nada calls her clutches minaudieres (that’s French for “small carrying case for cosmetics and jewels”… or candy and pills!). Her goal is to “penetrate an oversaturated market by creating a collection for people who had already given up on uniqueness in the fashion world, a collection with a strong enough impact to fascinate bored shoppers.”
positano, san marco and la scala
What I find personally fascinating are her references to vintage design and her supporting use of exotic materials. In these designs she uses stainless steel, brass, black shell, mother of pearl, bone, horn, python and wood.
renata, diane and moumou
You can check out the minaudieres in person at Jennifer Miller in Manhattan and Sarah Vicci in Brooklyn.
Images via Nada Sawaya
