Virgil Abloh: "Figures of Speech"

Pyrex Vision streetwear brand creator, architect, DJ, and the first African American artistic director at Louis Vuitton. No matter what you label him Virgil Abloh has made many names for himself. Born to Ghanaian immigrant parents, both artist of their own practices, Virgil grew up in a creative environment. He studied Civil Engineering in undergrad, went on to get his Master’s in Architecture. While in his architectural studies at Illinois Institute of Technology, Virgil gained an inspiration of fashion from the works of dutch urbanist and architect Rem Coolhaas. Virgil went on to intern at Fendi alongside Kanye West in 2009 and the twos collaborative relationship flourished.

Being rooted in streetwear and urban representation, Virgil has grown his brand “Off-White” from paintings and ready to wear fashion to sculpture and high fashion couture. All of the pieces in his “Figures of Speech” collection navigate you through the world of hip hop and art culture. The artist collaborations, music references, and acrylic sculptures grab you in literal and figurative advertisements that you would typically ignore. He redefines the use of labels in”Quotations” to state the obvious existence of our surroundings. Creative genius.

Dr. Fahamu Pecou: Do or Die: Affect, Ritual, Resistance

This interdisciplinary visual artist has set the bar for black male representation in contemporary art. Dr Fahamu Pecou illustrates the young black male figure in his stereotypical attire and appearance in America perfectly. While challenging his ethnical and tribal actualities. These painting reference his deep rooted African heritage and royalties through images of dance, fatherhood, spirituality and tradition.

I can appreciate Dr. Fahamu’s creative dialogue between black men and women, maternal figures shown practicing rituals while crowning, blessing, and praying over him. It inserts the black woman into the black mans life as a yet humbling and balanced necessity to survive in the American culture he is masked for. Dr. Fahamu explains this collections as a story of a masked black male spirit being guided and restored back into the physical world.

His choice of materials in the sculptures of this collection look so live. While re-imaging a 3D male figured mannequin similar to the one in his paintings, crouched in a tribal dance position. He is dressed in white pants and nike sneakers under fabrications covered in the names of black male victims killed by American police officers.

I believe that Dr. Pecou’s personal separation from black masculine stereotypes, as an educated artist and scholar, gives him a clear scope to channel into his work his resilience from what is to be expected of his very gender and racial being.

Yayoi Kusama's : Infinity Mirrors

Infinity Mirrors, Yayoi Kusama, High Museum of Art Atlanta GA, 2018

Variety of large scaled acrylic on canvas pictured

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors was an experience to say the least. I stood in line for three hours for these damned tickets, and I couldn’t even enjoy the experience like I wanted. That’s one of the cons of living in a big city, things can become super trendy super fast. Now don’t get me wrong my heart is in art and education, and I love to see the immersive behavior that is taking place in art and in our communities right now, but as Papa would say “Hype beast we know bout cha”.

What was amongst the crowded High to enjoy were spotted abstract sculptures, repetitious patterned paintings, and some psychedelic trippy light and mirror experiences. The 90 year old Japanese artist has lived a 65 year fulfilling career of creative protest, polka dot paintings, and penis sculptures. Yes penises. The photo featured here was a collection of some of her large scale paintings at the entrance of the exhibit. Painting is one of my favorite mediums to practice and I absolutely love polka dots so Yayoi’s works resonated with me closely.

The chaos was outside of each “Infinity Room” which were small shed-like structures built out inside the museum. With an attendant outside directing traffic, stop watch in hand, museum goers were given an option of groups of twos or threes to enter each room for 30 seconds. One room in particular I could appreciate the sacredness of. Yayoi had a personal attachment to pumpkins, as she titled this work/room “All the eternal love I have for the Pumpkins”. These acrylic pumpkins, lit with LED lighting placed upon black glass and mirrors was a sight to see. This was the only room experience that photography was not aloud on the inside. After a Hirrshorn Museum goer in Washington DC dropped a phone and shattered a pumpkin in spring of 2018, viewers were no longer aloud to take phones inside.

The reflective dotted figures in most Kusama’s works lets you into her world of art, and how she displays them is so relevant to the technological and social conversations in contemporary art today. I personally think its pretty amazing that this post Vietnam war immigrant was brave enough to move to America in the fifties and pursue her art career in New York City, and thrive for decades. Yayoi, the Princess of Polka dots, your inspiration is '“Infinite”, we appreciate you.

Mickalene Thomas Presents: Femmes Noir

Here Mickalene Thomas recreates French artist Edouard Manet’s 1863 painting “Le dejeuner sur l’herbe” which translates to “Lunch on the grass” that depicts a naked European woman sitting in front of two fully clothed men. I can appreciate Thomas’ own ideals in this piece and her choice to clothe the female figures depicted. To me this shows the dominance and confidence among such a sister circle, while saving the nude commentary for more intimate living spaces she illustrates in her originals concepts.

This particular exhibit was one of those wow moments in art for me. I traveled all the way to Toronto in January for starters. It was about 20 degrees and I was alone (figuratively speaking). I stepped off the elevator at the Art Gallery of Ontario and my vision, my emotion, and my translation of sound went to three different corners of the room. I see Static and bright hues; yellow dim lights and female form. I see obvious familiar female faces, and then a few I “could know”.

Mickalene Thomas’ work is the epitome of the black female being in all families. The aunties, the mothers and grandmothers of our histories. The representation of matriarchy in black families is so important, and she archives that in her work very well. I felt like I was in a living room I had visited often as a child, all that was missing was the smell of peppermints and white diamonds. The mix of 70’s fashion fabrics and gaudy rhinestones represents those dwellings perfectly.

The Neon Museum

Tucked away in downtown Las Vegas is a boutique museum with an outdoor trail completely full of…yes, old neon advertising signs. The small exhibit serves as the graveyard to donated old signs from local businesses casinos, and popular shows over the years in Sin city. Some of these signs were massive, others just large enough to fit inside an Iphone photo frame. Amongst these amazing rustic and weather worn signs were the famous Moulin Rouge, the first Clarke County Inn motel, and many more.

What stood out to me as an artist myself was not just the preservation of the pieces but the education that the guides provided on the business and history behind each sign. The Non-Profit museum also has an artist in residency program. This allows the museum an opportunity for collaborating with visual artist to help to restore and recreate more signs, mix media pieces, and paintings to add to the ambience of the vintage light show and exhibit. My visit was quick and sweet in the daytime after leaving the previous installation, but I know would be a real treat to experience at night when the signs that are still able to light up shine and show the nostalgia of old Vegas.

Seven Magic Mountains

Ugo Rondinone, a contemporary artist from Switzerland, teamed with the NOMA (Nevada Museum of Art) to put seven thirty-five foot colorful boulder totems in the desert in Henderson. This beautiful installation is about ten miles off the Las Vegas strip.

My first introduction to Ugo’s work was a smaller version of these boulders in Miami, FL just off South Beach. At the time I wasn’t aware of who the artist was so I googled “stacked colorful boulders” and some of his other works came up in my search. When I first seen images of this particular installation on social media I knew the works looked familiar so I researched the actual installation in Vegas.

Let me just say the images of this installation do it no justice. Standing at the bottom of a thirty-five foot totem is intimidating in itself, but the bright and unnatural colors of the rocks contrasting one off of another is a beautiful experience.

I saw parents picking up their children and placing them on the bottom boulders (as far as they could reach lol) to photograph them. I saw children stacking loose rocks in the distance to emulate Ugo’s design. The surrounding area is actual desert so it was beautiful scenery to take pictures of the mountains, cactus, and dry land. The watch for snakes signs were a bit scary at first but I never did come across any.

My biggest goal in documenting all of my artful trips is to expose my followers and viewers to art events, museums, scenes they weren’t aware of. I want my people to begin to look at art as a source of entertainment and not just an extended form of education.