|
|
“When you use an artist’s work in a deeper conceptual context, something greater than fashion or art comes out. I look to do the same in my own work.”
|
|
| | 
| Remembering Virgil Abloh, an Unstoppable Force in Fashion and Beyond
|
|
The world reacted with shock and sadness at the news that Virgil Abloh, a pioneering force in any creative field he touched, died at age 41 yesterday after a battle with cancer. The multi-hyphenate designer, entrepreneur, and visionary enjoyed a meteoric rise from his early beginnings in Chicago, where he was born to Ghanaian immigrants and fearlessly pursued his obsessions with streetwear, art, and culture, eventually becoming one of the fashion industry’s most influential voices.
His unlikely success story emerged as the central theme of his prolific career: “Virgil was driven by his dedication to his craft and to his mission to open doors for others and create pathways for greater equality in art and design,” reads a message posted to his Instagram. “He often said, ‘Everything I do is for the 17-year-old version of myself,’ believing deeply in the power of art to inspire future generations.”
Since he burst onto the scene as Kanye West’s creative director in 2009, Abloh garnered much attention for his multitude of gigs and creative collaborations. Spearheading his own label Off-White, which he launched in 2012, he went on to serve as the menswear artistic director at Louis Vuitton, formed partnerships with artists like Jenny Holzer and Arthur Jafa, and designed champagne bottles, turntables, rugs, sneakers, furniture, and everything in between while moonlighting as a lauded DJ. His artistry—and commercial prowess—was even celebrated in a retrospective.
Below, we track five key achievements from his illustrious career.
| |  | Abloh earned his master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where a building by OMA’s Rem Koolhaas galvanized his interest in fashion. He then began interning at Fendi, striking up a creative partnership with Kanye West that disrupted the Italian house’s status quo and captivated Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke. Following the stint at Fendi, Abloh became artistic director at Donda, West’s creative agency, and art-directed the album Watch the Throne by West and Jay-Z, earning him a Grammy nod.
|
| |  | In 2012, Abloh launched his first brand, Pyrex Vision, by selling deadstock Ralph Lauren shirts screen-printed with the word “Pyrex.” Next came the debut of Off-White, a Milan-based fashion label that combines ideas of streetwear, art, and music and, as he put it, hovers in “the gray area between black and white.” Off-White quickly became a fashion-world force, showing men’s and women’s collections during Paris Fashion Week as early as 2014 and being named a finalist for the LVMH Prize the following year.
|
| |  | Abloh was tapped to succeed Kim Jones as Louis Vuitton’s top menswear designer in 2018, becoming its first Black artistic director and one of a very few to ever helm a French heritage house. Even while keeping up with fashion’s nonstop seasonal calendar with critically and commercially successful collections, Abloh continued working with West, leading Off-White, and securing collaborations with Evian, Nike, and Takashi Murakami.
|
| |  | At this point, Abloh was shaping culture. His name had become synonymous with his many collaborations—Möet, Vitra, and Moncler among them—that almost always sold out within seconds. In 2019, he enjoyed a landmark retrospective at MCA Chicago that documented his commercial prowess. “His projects unfurl with intention, precision, critique, historical awareness, and cultural sensitivity,” chief curator Michael Darling said at the time. “When taken out of the buzzy, frothy context of luxury fashion, celebrity mannequins, and hip-hop one-upmanship, a very measured vision emerges.”
|
| |  | Meanwhile, Off-White was charting new territory, with Abloh making forays from fashion into homewares and experiential retail. His gains attracted the attention of e-commerce giant Farfetch, which purchased New Guards, the ownership company whose crown jewel was Off-White—for $675 million in 2019.
|
| Surface Says: Rest in peace to one of fashion’s most important figures—and the voice of a generation.
|
|
| | 
| Maestro Dobel Brings the Artpothecary to Design Miami/
|
|
This year, attendees of Design Miami/ will get a taste of Mexican art and hospitality thanks to Maestro Dobel, which has announced a multi-year partnership as the design fair’s official tequila. The Maestro Dobel Artpothecary, a creative platform and series of immersive experiences, will come to life at the fair through “The Fruit Chemist,” an epicurean and design-centric experience in which rare Mexican fruits are paired to complement the brand’s smooth range of tequilas. Anónimo Colectivo creative director Alejandra Martinez curated the experience, in which guests can enjoy an exclusive menu by globally renowned chef Jorge Vallejo while lounging on minimalist furnishings by Mexico City–based studio Atra Form.
|
|
| |
| Aorist, a Climate-Forward NFT Marketplace, Launches in Miami
|
| Non-fungible tokens have polarized the art world; some hail them as heralding the next frontier while others chide their inaccessible price points and extremely high carbon emissions. Billing itself as a new cultural institution offering a climate-forward NFT marketplace, Aorist seeks to change how NFTs are perceived—and make them more approachable. It’s powered by Algorand, a highly advanced next-generation blockchain technology that partners with ClimateTrade to offset emissions and make sure that every project achieves a negative carbon footprint.
“We believe in the long-term growth of the NFT ecosystem and want to broaden the audience for digital art while also staying committed to sustainability,” says Andrea Bonaceto, who founded Aorist with Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Ximena Caminos. “Our intuitive yet advanced platform is highly curated and will lead the movement in climate-forward creative technologies.”
The platform kicks off during Miami Art Week with “Crossroads,” an interactive exhibition of works by artists like Refik Anadol, Nancy Baker Cahill, and Andres Reisinger that often straddle the digital and physical realms. Corresponding NFTs will be released for auction on Aorist starting Nov. 30. Proceeds benefit The ReefLine, a marine sanctuary and underwater sculpture park designed by OMA that provides a habitat for endangered reef organisms and enhances coastal resilience.
|
|
| |
| Fotografiska Plots Expansion to Berlin, Miami, and Shanghai
|
|
When Fotografiska announced an expansion to New York two years ago, the Stockholm photography hub was laying groundwork for the future. Its new home occupies all six floors of Church Mission House, a landmarked Park Avenue building whose restoration by CetraRuddy won an award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy for its “extraordinary contributions in preserving the city.” Now, as Fotografiska announces expansion plans to Berlin, Shanghai, and Miami by mid-2023, it’s looking to replicate that tried-and-true formula while aiming to become the world’s largest privately owned art museum by number of locations, exhibitions produced per year, and total indoor size.
Each museum will be housed within restorations of historically significant buildings. In Berlin, it’ll take over Kunsthaus Tacheles, an early-1900s structure formerly used as a Jewish Quarter department store renovated by Herzog & de Meuron. The Miami outpost, located in a former industrial factory revamped by Rockwell Group, will neighbor Superblue and the Rubell Museum. In Shanghai, it’ll move into a warehouse complex renovated by Neri & Hu in a rapidly developing cultural district near the site of the 1937 Battle of Shanghai. Leadership and curatorial plans for each location are still under wraps for now, but if the past is prologue, expect programming equally as ambitious as its expansion plans.
|
|
| | 
| My Name Is Maryan
|
| When: Until March 20
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
What: Drawing upon a new trove of never-before-shown works, this retrospective zeroes in on all periods of Pinkas Bursztyn’s life and work—a prolific oeuvre that represents a monument to human perseverance and the power of art to cope with loss. In the 1930s, the Polish-born artist’s family was imprisoned at forced labor camps by Nazis. His family’s sole survivor, he immigrated to Palestine and began making art in both Paris and New York, changed his name in an act of self-redefinition, and gained renown for painting fictitious figures named “personnages” that explored psychosexual tropes. By positioning Maryan alongside his contemporaries, the show seeks to insert his unsung oeuvre into the narrative of postwar European and American art.
| |
|
| |
As founder and creative officer of the women-led design firm Studio Plow, Brit Epperson brings a discerning eye to the manifold projects under her direction. Whether it be the rustic gifting mercantile, Weavers Studio, in Montana, or sprawling industrial-grade headquarters for Faire in San Francisco, Plow navigates disparate worlds—a reflection of her own experience growing up on a wheat farm in Oklahoma and living in the City by the Bay.
| |
|
| |
For the past five years, Congruent Space has been galvanizing Chicago’s creative sphere through art, fashion, and multimedia activations that create a community hub for youth and design talent to come together and thrive. The space, co-founded by multidisciplinary artist Preme, has now opened a temporary storefront in the Miami Design District with that same mission—and a hypnotic entry that’s sure to thrill. In addition to the shop’s standard roster of rising designers, Congruent Space Miami will feature new A/W collections by Walter Van Deirendonck and Heliot Emil.
| |
|
|
Reach the design world every morning. Find out more about advertising in the Design Dispatch.
|
|
| |
| Member Spotlight: Norman Kelley
|
| Norman Kelley is an architecture and design collaborative founded by Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley in 2012 with offices in Chicago and New Orleans. The firm’s work ranges from interior alterations and exhibition design to bespoke furniture.
| Surface Says: Tasked with telling the backstory behind Chicago’s rich comics history through exhibition design, local firm Norman Kelley deftly employs color, scale, and proportion, finding a kinship with cartoonists in the process.
| |
|
|
| Today’s Attractive Distractions
|
|
New York City will start building densely packed walls of oysters to fend off floods.
The Peanuts always encouraged its readers to think deeply about the bigger picture.
In South Korea, people are relieving stress by paying a premium to stare at clouds.
Flight attendants at LAX have had enough with bad behavior from boozy passengers.
|
|
|
|
