Chamber is an exciting new boutique of limited edition design, objects and art, which opens today in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The space’s unique concept and retail experience is the vision of Argentinian-born Founder Juan Garcia Mosqueda. Critically acclaimed architectural practice MOS has designed the interior of the space. Taking the Renaissance-era Cabinet of Curiosities as its inspiration, Chamber will be a twenty-first century reliquary for unusual objects and a platform for design experimentation. Every two years, Garcia Mosqueda will choose a different designer or creative to curate the shop’s entire program, bringing their unique viewpoint to Chamber through specially commissioned works, and rare and vintage items. For the inaugural curatorial period, he has selected designers Studio Job, who are working closely with a dynamic group of established and emerging designers and artists to create Chamber Collection #1. [ Continue reading ]
Although there had been earlier clues towards it, last Friday one of our favorite artists of the moment, Ashkan Honarvar, announced that the collage works which have been released under the pseudonym Who Killed Mickey for the last three years were also the product of his fascinating mind and that the project now has ended. The idea for Who Killed Mickey, which progressively grew over the period of the last years, came up in order for Honarvar to have an output where he could use all his leftover scraps from his regular work, but also to create collages just for the fun of it. These prerequisites translated into some of Honarvar's most bold work, using familiar images from the fashion industry and pop culture combined with pornography and anatomical images, without a clear overall concept to be observed, but with his incredible signature aesthetic written all over it. [ Continue reading ]
At the initiative of the OstLicht Gallery and Peter Coeln in Vienna, 'Araki Teller, Teller Araki' which took place from the 4th of April until the 25th of May of this year, brought together two of the most important photographers of our times, showing new works conceived for this joint exhibition and entering into an artistic dialogue. The exhibition presented the encounter between two attitudes of extraordinary photographers, who are united in their radical artistic attitude and their almost insatiable hunger for images as reflections of their personal experience of the world. The elementary interest at the core of their work is the spiritual and physical ambivalence of human existence. To coincide with the exhibition Antenna Books in a collaboration with Araki's own eyesencia released Nobuyoshi Araki's and Juergen Teller's first jointly conceived and designed book. The publication assembles more than 300 photographs, including those works shown as part of the exhibition which were previously unpublished. In addition, Araki and Teller have each dedicated a text to the other. [ Continue reading ]
Last Thursday, on the 18th of September, the exhibition named 'Sonic' opened in the Paris-based Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent. It takes a look at 15 years of Hedi Slimane's photographic musical archives, ranging from London to New York, with particular focus on the beautiful Californian cycle begun in 2007, from which came 'California Song', the exhibition at the MOCA / Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in November 2011. In 'Sonic' studio portraits of highly influential and heroic rock figures like Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Pete Doherty, Amy Winehouse and Brian Wilson, stand alongside images of alternative scenes from London or California. The exhibition is completed with a video installation, juxtaposing the musical cycles of London (2003-2007) and California (2007-2014) in a documentary style, painting an alternative portrait of two generations of performers and their fans. This combination of two worlds; that of the icons of rock and roll and on the other side the rock and roll to be found in everyday life, exemplifies Slimane's unique creative vision and masterful observations from which all his work, whether as Artistic Director in fashion or as a photographer, stems. Make sure to visit whenever in Paris! [ Continue reading ]
We recently stumbled upon the thrilling photographic work of New London, USA, based photographic artist Pola Esther, who was born and raised in Lodz, Poland. As an artist Esther uses photography as her main platform for expression, with her fascinating series named 'Mutual Attraction' consisting of diptych collages, clearly showing her love of photographing nature, mostly human. The work of Esther reflects upon her intimacy, femininity and sexuality. Images with the figure can be provocative, encouraging us to peep through the keyhole, where behind lays a romantic and sometimes grim world full of the unknown. She produces a highly diverse color palette moving as broad as grainy, blurry black and white to silky pastelle-like colors in orchestrated romantic settings, sometimes juxtaposing different styles, creating wonderful little spectacles which continue to fascinate us. [ Continue reading ]
Located at the ninth and last level of a building in Beirut, Lebanon, this tremendous three storey apartment is articulated by architect Bernard Khoury through an independent structure capping the building. Structurally, the apartment only shares the building’s vertical circulation core, as well as the perimeter along which its two peripheral walls lie. Beyond the ninth level, the structure of this residence becomes autonomous. The result is what resembles an independent house placed atop a building. Virtually situated on the former demarcation line which separated east and west Beirut, this apartment opens up onto the hell of its city, placing it neither east nor west but in between. Whereas usual preference for Mediterranean roof apartments is to turn their backs on the urban fabric in exchange for a sea view, this apartment is oriented toward the city, taking advantage of the setbacks imposed due to the surrounding projects defining its entire periphery. The result is a thrilling mixture between futurist, reminding of a giant robot, lines combined with a way more classical interior due to the use of wood making it a true gem within the heart of Beirut. [ Continue reading ]
We are extremely proud to elaborately present lifestyle brand GERTRUD & GEORGE: the main collaborator in the very first Our Current Obsession named NOIR. The brand which is the brainchild of the very gifted Nick F. Cerutti, is a tribute to Gertrude Stein and George Sand, whose lives and respective bodies of work never ceased to redefine the art of writing and one's perception of gender. Founded in 2001 to serve bespoke and semi-bespoke purposes prominently in Japan to begin with, GERTRUD & GEORGE nurtures an intrinsic sense of equilibrium between aesthetics, function and execution in order to conceive pristine high-end goods. Since 2011 Nick and his partner Mathieu Annen have shifted their focus towards accessories and bags, which resulted in a perfect jet-black line named The Esquire Suite, consisting of 7 models which come in three different sizes and varying river buffalo grains and depths. [ Continue reading ]
