Slow

BLUEPRINT at Storefront

The impressive exhibition named BLUEPRINT, which opened on the 24th of January in the New York City-based Storefront for Art and Architecture, asks individuals from the world of art and architecture to embark on a trip of self-reflection to identify a place of origination for their work in the literal and metaphorical form of a blueprint. The fascinating curation of 50 pieces, dating from 1961 to 2013, are presented as traces willing to bring clarity to work, practice and the context in which they were created, selected by photographer Sebastiaan Bremer and Florian Idenburg & Jing Liu of design office SO-IL. With the installation which was created for the exhibition by SO-IL, BLUEPRINT leaves the gallery in a totally new organic form, totally open, but at the same time closed and fixed. Wrapped in time and in space, the Acconci-Holl façade opens its doors permanently to the works that –while present in the show by reference– are outside the gallery walls. The space looses its literal operational transparency to become a white, translucent icon of its curatorial aspirations. Rendering everything on either side as a world of shadows, the installation denies the spatial properties and the implications of the processional exit of the platonic cave towards a world of truth. [ Continue reading ]

HANZI • KANJI • HANJA

We have written about the beautiful CITIx60 Art Print Project by Hong Kong-based publisher viction:nary when it was released last November, and they now present another great project in the form of an inspirational book totally resolving around the Chinese character. Considered one of the most intricate writing systems in use, it holds a presence of typographic beauty comprehensible beyond language barriers. Thanks to the growing popularity of Asian cultures, graphic innovations of these centuries-old characters have begun to shine through in the world of modern design, demonstrating excellent skills at crafting ideas and visualizing abstract concepts within complicated forms. The publication by viction:ary gathers works from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and beyond, creating an incredible curation of the most interesting contemporary examples. Stylistically categorized chapters of logo designs and applications offer a close cultural insight into the art of strokes and structure of characters. It then expands the focus to identities, posters, packaging, advertisements and set design. [ Continue reading ]

Maison Kitsuné Autumn/Winter 2015

There are a lot of new developments going on within the world of Kitsuné, with the all-new Condorcet store and Café Kitsuné opening its doors for the first time tomorrow, and more interesting projects to follow later in the year. Yesterday, in the midst of all these exciting new developments, Gildas Loaëc and Masaya Kuroki, the minds behind the brand, also presented a new seasonal collection and it is another win. With the just released Autmn/Winter 2015 collection Maison Kitsuné pays tribute to the mysterious soul and beauty of South Korea. For their latest collection, the brand utilizes a series of sophisticated cuts and details for men. Luxurious, refined and textured fabrics are boldly combined in the season's patterns - houndstooth, stripes, checkered prints - play with the contrasting effects. We particularly love the illustration by South Korean talent Daehyun Kim on one of the t-shirts. In a palette of neutral colors, as always - black, grey and an array of blues - which are offset by pale shades of beige and illuminated with dashes of red and silver, make it one of the strongest collections by Maison Kitsuné ever, still showing growth which will very likely cary the brand even further then where it is at this point. [ Continue reading ]

BACKYARD by | n

At the end of last year's Summer, the super inspirational multidisciplinary Japanese creative studio nendo created this beautiful retailconcept for ‚BACKYARD by | n’ — an original brand exclusive to the Japanese designer’s own products — located in the Seibu Sogo department stores in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro and Shibuya, and in the Yokohama Sogo space. BACKYARD refers both to a shop’s storage space or loading dock and a tiny paradise for children, an outdoor space for free play. The clean minimal white fixtures bring out the beautiful variety of the different products, but what we love most about the inspirational design are the plinths and in stands’ plywood, on which texture appears gradually towards the base, creating a very elegant aesthetic touch within the clean spaces. [ Continue reading ]

Margaret Boozer

American artist Margaret Boozer is internationally renowned for her magnificent sculptural works, whose material hails from the very earth we walk on daily. The artist focuses with her creations on the individuality, history, and geology of clay used as subject matters. She finds her material at areas like construction sites, the direct surroundings of her Red Dirt Studio, in Mount Rainier, Maryland, or basically any place where purple, red, grey, brown, or orange clay might be found. Subsequently Boozer starts creating her works from the natural material without modifying anything. Everything is created by hand, with the sculptures ranging from more traditional forms like her paintings made out of clay, among which is for instance a delicate work of cracked white clay, named 'Winter Landscape', large floor installations like her 'Dirt Drawings' and 'Line Drawings', to constructions like the incredible 'Dichotomy of Dirt' consisting of clay disks, forming a beautiful wall-mounted work, which is our favorite piece by Boozer. [ Continue reading ]

Jocks&Nerds 13

We recently wrote about the inspirational online project of quarterly men’s style magazine Jocks&Nerds together with Detroit-based brand Shinola. Now it is time to shine some light on the core activities of Jocks&Nerds, which recently released its 13th printed issue, for Winter 2014/2015, being another high quality addition to their overal output. The London-based magazine released the very first issue in Autumn 2011, since which it has been producing insightful, photography driven stories, both online and in the printed quarterly on style, history and culture. With as a result topics ranging from pop culture and fashion to literature, art and film, created by Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director Marcus Agerman Ross and his team. The current issue that hit the stands worldwide and online in December features a list of great stories, starting with cover star Wong Kar Wai, who released his film 'The Grandmaster' on Kung Fu myth Ip Man in the USA at the end of last year. Other stories to be found in the 13th release feature musician Brian Wilson, photographer Gordon Parks, a beautiful editorial shot by Ned Wolfgang Kelly, director Martin Scorsese, a story on the history of (professional) basketball in New York City and finally a tremendous story on soul singer Sam Cooke. [ Continue reading ]

Shona Sanzgiri

We recently became familiar with the work of the talented 29-years-old California-based photographer Shona Sanzgiri. Before Sanzgiri put his focus on photography he was writing, dreaming to become a fiction writer, but soon found out he was better suited for journalism —specifically arts and culture reporting— with some of his work published in GQ, Interview, Bookforum, the Paris Review and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Despite the success in his journalistic endeavors he never lost his sincere interest in photography, which had fascinated him since he was a child, but at the same time intimidated him because of the technical side that comes with the craft. Despite these objections some years ago he bought his first SLR, and what was meant to happen happened: he was hooked. Influential thinkers and writers like Susan Sontag, John Berger, Geoff Dyer and Teju Cole have written hypnotically about how photography and writing are both ways to create images, which comforted Sanzgiri as he made the switch from pen to lens, creating warm images by using natural light mostly at sunrise or sunset, clearly inspired by the great street photographers and reminding us of the beautiful work of Phillip Kalantzi-Scope. [ Continue reading ]