ART CITIES:Beverly Hills-Takashi Murakami & Virgil Abloh
The Japanese artist Takashi Murakami collaborated with the multi-hyphenate creative Virgil Abloh. Working together in Murakami’s Tokyo studio, Abloh and Murakami produced a unique series of works in which their styles and trademarks intersect in a series of vibrant mashups. Their first exhibition was presented in Gagosian Gallery London (21/2-7/3/18).
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery
New collaborative works by Takashi Murakami and Virgil Abloh are on presentation at the exhibition “AMERICA TOO” at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. Undoubtedly, the two artists represent different spectrums of modern culture, and the rapidly blurring intersection between high art, street art, and fashion and streetwear. No strangers to collaboration, Murakami in the past has collaborated with Issey Miyake, Louis Vuitton, and Vans, while Abloh’s equally exhaustive list of collaborators includes Nike, Jimmy Choo, and the furniture company IKEA. During their recent collaboration, Murakami and Abloh have produced works in which their respective styles and trademarks intersect in a stream of freewheeling, punkish mash-ups. Takashi Murakami says about their collaboration “We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don’t completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call art”. In the exhibition, new works include multimedia works such as “animated” and illuminated paintings, which play on cultural references, ideas of production and reproduction, and concepts of linear time. Virgil Abloh said “We are driven by an innate ambition to make artworks that are shaped by societal observations -in a variety of media- which by their existence produce a new cultural impact”. This exhibition represents the artists’ first collaborative show in the U.S.A,, and one notable work is “Material Too” (2018), their unique interpretation of the American flag, defined by both artists’ signature styles and trademarks intersecting for a vibrant mash-up. In addition to this work, a selection of paintings, sculptures, and neon works will also be displayed at the Gallery. In his protean oeuvre, Murakami draws from sources as diverse as traditional Japanese painting, otaku subculture, Western art theory, Hollywood cinema, and hip-hop. His expansive art production spills over into fashion, film, and commercial commodities both luxurious and cheap, erasing entrenched divisions between high art and pop culture. Abloh, trained as an architect and engineer, works across fashion, architecture, performance, and consumer products, often deconstructing the creative process in public to challenge and analyze existing aesthetic systems and their distribution. The street-couture label Off-White, which he founded in 2013, combines conventional tailoring with more subversive references.
Info: Gagosian Gallery, 456 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, Duration: 10-25/10/18, Days & Hours: Mo-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://gagosian.com
