Recently we discovered the stunning work of Canadian painter Alex Bierk via Tumblr, which keeps resonating in our minds strongly ever since. Born into a Toronto-based family of artists -his brothers Nick and Charles are also painters, his brother Jeff a photographer- all sons of the now deceased realist painter David Bierk have chosen to follow his example into the arts. In the case of Alex (and Charles) even his technique of braking (photo-)realistic paintings down into a grid while painting them was passed on. Before pursuing his own career in the arts, Alex worked as Kim Dorland’s studio assistant, after which he started his personal journey into painting under the mentorship of his father, who proved to be a inspiring formative force in his son's early artistic practice.

David Bierk's death in 2002 marked the beginning of a particularly challenging period, lasting four years, in which substance abuse shook up the whole Bierk family and Alex in particular. After eventually kicking the habit and making the subject matter (mostly on a level that is not immediately apparent, but reveals itself after some inspection or contextualization of the images) of his experiences in addiction part of his work, the career of Alex slowly starts to take shape. He begins all his paintings by re-working and re-framing photographs from his everyday life, in early years particularly focussing on his years addicted, but in recent years stretching beyond just that part of his life. The scenes he depicts, mostly in dark tones of black and lucent shades of white, tell stories about the acceptance and defiance of the passing of time, faith, youth and escape, regret, dissatisfaction, displacement, lack of closure, loss and longing. Without a doubt, just seeing it on a computer screen doesn't do the work justice,  but until the day that we will be able to see his work first hand we will keep looking at these pieces in awe with an utmost fascination. [ Continue reading ]

A little over a month ago NikeLab presented the debut collection of their collaboration with a new high profile name from the fashion world (are we going to see a focus on this, as competitor Adidas has been doing for the last decade?): British sportswear connoisseur Kim Jones. The colorful collection means the highly anticipated return to athletic sportswear for Jones, after he successfully collaborated with Umbro (owned by Nike) for several seasons some years ago, before he became menswear director at Louis Vuitton in 2011, where he has been marrying athletic influences with luxury. In order to celebrate the union between technology and tradition, our inspirational friends of The Travel Almanac decided to set up an exclusive fashion editorial collaboration with NikeLab and Jones in Rome’s E.U.R. [Esposizione Universale Roma] district which they gave the name 'Saluti da E.U.R.'

Esposizione Universale Roma is a neighborhood in the Italian capital that was planned to host the world’s fair and to exhibit Italy’s latest answers to modern urbanism, architecture, design, and sports. Finally completed for the Summer Olympics 1960 held in the city, the area is famous for its orthogonal city plan inspired by Roman Imperial urban planning and for its monumental white architecture characteristic of Italian Rationalism. The buildings’ traditional materials and revolutionary minimal lines were a simplification and modernization of neo-classical architecture and have influenced the most talented architects, from David Chipperfield to Peter Zumthor passing through Oscar Niemeyer. Today E.U.R. has become Rome’s center for sports, finance, and with its newly opened Museum of Fashion in the iconic Palazzo della Civilta’ Italiana, also known as the Squared Colosseum, also for fashion.

A context proving to be a remarkable fit for the collection's colorful pieces, both caught by The Travel Almanac's founder Paul Kominek and Danish photographer Sara Katrine Thiesen, presenting a perfect hybrid of the classicist Italian exterior and some of the most cutting edge athletic pieces available today created by Jones and NikeLab, forming one of our favorite editorials we have seen in the last few months. [ Continue reading ]

With most of the blogs we have been following over the course of the last ten years stuck on their last post without much reason left to believe more is still to come and some of them even completely dead and buried for ever (or evolved into much bigger content producers/magazines of course), luckily there are still a few people out there sharing what they admire through an individually curated filter. One of those places we have been visiting regularly for over five years that remains to be (relatively) active is Dave Smith's This Is Collate, where he has been sharing his personal favorites for years: creations ranging from graphic design, art, fashion, music and photography projects.

Last week, Smith shared a true gem in the last category — shot by his friend Christopher Martin (opposite page), when they both visited Japan in March, which we feel deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Named 'Undercover Japan'  (the series by Martin has little to do with Jun Takahashi's namesake fashion label although we feel the isolated aesthetic would speak to the punk avant-garde designer) the observations through the lens of the Belfast-based photographer form an extraordinary photographic series, portraying the many car- and motorcycle-covers to be observed all over Tokyo and Kyoto. Intriguingly serene, yet also evoking a feeling of covered up secrets, for us the series represents certain important elements that make up Japan, next to being just incredibly aesthetic captions of the country that has no equal.  [ Continue reading ]

The exhibition of '50 Masks Made in America' by Belgian artist Christophe Coppens at the ever-inspirational Please Do Not Enter ended a little under two months ago, but we can't but still share one of the most impressive projects we have encountered this year, despite failing to do so at the time of the two month stretch when they were actually on display in Los Angeles. Let's hope that the masks will travel somewhere else, anyway...

From May until July, the leading (hidden) concept store/gallery presented the very first Los Angeles exhibition of new works by Coppens, who's former master milliner and in the last decade primarily works in the fields of fashion and the arts, creating special sculptural projects. As the title clearly suggests '50 Masks Made in America' featured 50 new, mixed-media sculptural masks, all made by hand especially for the exhibition by the now Los Angeles-based Coppens. These wearable objects are informed by the artist's unique background at the intersection of couture and performance, and present surreal observations and commentary on his recent relocation to Los Angeles from a European perspective. Having created some of the most haunting and at the same time remarkably beautiful creations, which represent the country they portray in a way which will leave an undisputed (ever?)lasting impression on its spectator.

Coppens on what drove him in his creations:
I’ve been raised with American culture and pop culture, but now that I’ve been living here for three years I see so many faces, so many layers. These masks accompany my journey, far from home, making a new home in a place that feels so familiar and yet so incomprehensible. [ Continue reading ]

Another year, another inspirational Done to Death Projects publication by cultural tastemaker Chris Black, who for the first time collaborated with none less than the very talented Eric Chakeen. After assisting the three legendary New York photographers Terry Richardson, Dan Martensen and Ryan McGinley, Eric Chakeen was ready to produce his own work, which he has been doing in the last decade with great vigour — working on a long list of commissions with big names in fashion and pop culture, but also creating free projects of which the new publication is an excellent example. For the series named 'And Away They Go', Chakeen roamed around the racetrack of his hometown in the suburbs of San Diego; Del Mar. It resulted in a beautiful collection of striking photographs, documenting a subtly disquieting space, with everyone in this world apparently lost in a paradise of nostalgia. Both having a cinematic quality as much as the images being raw in your face observations, the series continues to captivate us profoundly, forming another incredible addition to Chris' Done to Death Projects catalogue. [ Continue reading ]

On the 22nd of July, Berlin-based duo Jacob Klein and Nathan Cowen, the creative forces behind the ever-inspirational online mood board Haw-lin and the accompanying studio Haw-lin Services, presented their very first solo exhibition in Germany at the HVW8 Gallery in the German captical in a collaboration with adidas. For the exhibition, named 'Shows You', Klein and Cowen will showcase a selection of spacial and graphic imagery that reflect their eclectic and detail based process. The German and American creatives founded their online moodboard Haw-lin when they met in 2008 while both working at Eike Koenig's inspirational Berlin-based design studio HORT and started working for clients some years after as Haw-lin Services, building on the reputation they had gained all over the world through their excellent curation of imagery and art projects/collaborations that were created under their Haw-lin eponym. Now for the first time, the exhibition 'Shows You' has created a physical overview of their working process across different mediums and the way Jacob Klein and Nathan Cowen communicate content, which resulted in a unique insight into the minds of these highly inspirational minds, who we hold in the highest esteem.

When in Berlin this Summer, make sure to drop by HVW8 before 'Shows You' closes on the 3th of September of this year. [ Continue reading ]

Last month, American author Dale Hope presented the reissue of his well sought-after publication, first released in 2000: 'The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands'. The inspirational book is a highly comprehensive printed gem on the most enduring souvenir ever invented: the Hawaiian shirt. Seriously enhancing the first edition: over 150 pages were added to the original; the layout was updated completely; some new stories about other important artists, who originally hand-painted the shirts, were written; as well as the whole Pataloha story (Patagonia's collection of Hawaiian-inspired shirts and dresses) with Rell Sunn is told — making the new book more a true second edition than just a mere revision of the original. As beautifully, yet different, illustrated as the original, the new edition features hundreds of images, recounting the colorful stories behind the colorful shirts: as cultural icons, evocative of the mystery and the allure of the islands, capturing the vibe of the watermen culture and lifestyle. Valued by professional collectors and by millions of vacationers and servicemen, in recent years the Hawaii shirts are enjoying a fashion revival, having been reinterpreted on different catwalks by multiple fashion houses in the last decade.

Drawing from hundreds of interviews, newspaper and magazine archives, and personal memorabilia, the author evokes the world of the designers, seamstresses, manufacturers, and retailers of the Golden Age of the Aloha shirt (from the 30s through the 50s), who created the industry and nurtured it from its single-sewing-machine-shop beginnings to an enterprise of international scope and importance. Here, too, are the fun-loving 60s, interviews with collectors who preserve these shirts as fine works of art; and insights into the roles of coconut buttons, matched pockets, woven labels, and exotic fabrics in the evolution of the Aloha shirt. [ Continue reading ]