Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 27 - Art/Spring 2023 i L'OFFICIEL USA

Venezuelan sculptor Marisol Sol Escobar had a clear influence on Andy Warhol’s early work, and yet her rightful place in the Pop art pantheon has never been fully noted or celebrated. An upcoming exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum Miami endeavors to change that, documenting their friendship and its lasting effects. Opening April 15 and on view through September 5, Marisol and Warhol Take New York looks at the dawn of Pop art in the early 1960s and juxtaposes Marisol’s work with Warhol’s. “Marisol’s work has been interpreted as and included in international Pop exhibitions for many years, but this exhibition [shows her to be] a Pop artist who was part of the New York Pop origin story,” says PAMM’s Maritza Lacayo, who curated the exhibition alongside Jessica Beck, the…

Curator Legacy Russell grew up in the East Village, being dragged to the same institutions she now programs. So, if you’ve been going to exhibitions in New York and are reading the introductory plaque text, you cannot have missed her—Russell is a force in the city, of the city. Last June, experimental art venue The Kitchen announced Russell would be their new Executive Director and Chief Curator. In September, she unveiled a sculpture with Thomas J. Price in Marcus Garvey park, and then followed that up in November with four exhibitions at MoMA PS1 for this year’s Studio Museum artist-in-residence cohort: Jacolby Satterwhite, Texas Isaiah, Widline Cadet, and Genesis Jerez. December was Russell’s solo exhibition with Kahlil Robert Irving, curated in partnership with The Studio Museum Chief Curator Thelma Golden.…

This year’s Spring Art Issue is dedicated to the fearless women who are fully inhabiting the worlds of art and culture in imaginative and transgressive ways. From Cecilia Alemani’s visionary curation of the Venice Biennale, to abstractionist sculptor Kennedy Yanko’s audacious, almost otherworldly communion with Hilma af Klint, women are occupying their rightful bold stances. Our cover star Gillian Anderson is also no stranger to strong positions, having so memorably inhabited the persona of “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, and now taking on Eleanor Roosevelt. But her boldest move yet may be her willingness to lose herself in the presence of others’ creativity: “I’ve stood in front of art and wept before.” A strong statement of vulnerability, and a fitting introduction to L’OFFICIEL’s art pages. Enjoy, and feel free to lose…

Mire Lee’s sculptural installations are often unsightly and heavily material, most often reminiscent of intestines or dissected body parts that exude liquids that allude to bodily fluids. Despite the feelings of repulsion, her works come to life with movements that attract viewers instantly engaged by the mechanical and visceral lexicon: cascades of offal combine with kinetic devices composed of industrial materials such as silicone tubes, chains, concrete, and steel structures contrasted with the consistency of glycerin splashes, sticky liquids, natural clay, and the audiovisual languages of video. In its entirety, the artist’s compositions create atypical entities and dysfunctional organisms that move away from the canons of objective beauty. Detached from all kinds of social media, the contemporary artist prefers anonymity: she lives and works between Amsterdam and South Korea and…

Precious Okoyomon thrives on chaos. The artist, who builds large-scale installations utilizing unpredictable, natural materials, creates portals to new environments—an introduction into their dreamlike world. Recurring elements include the earth, the sun, wool and clay dolls, stuffed bears, trees with dangling nooses, and culinary experiments designed to challenge the limits of our comfort zones. “I grew up in a house imbued with a strong religious sense. As a child I was obsessed with Christian mysticism; I was devoted to the point of writing prayers in the form of poetry which I then went to bury in the woods,” says the artist. Born in London, Okoyomon spent their early childhood with their mother in Lagos, Nigeria, and then moved to the US at the age of 7—first to Houston and later…

HEVEN, USA Founded by musician, actor, and director Breanna Box and model Peter Dupont during the Covid lockdown (when they were trying to make their home “heaven”), Heven features vases, glassware, and signature devil-horned carafes, all hand-blown in Brooklyn. The multi-hyphenate couple recently collaborated with Coperni on blown glass Swipe bags, and look forward to further expansion: “Expect more pieces for the home besides glass; we want to make a world people can be fully immersed in.” Portrait and bags photographed by Richie Talboy. Makeup by Julian Stoller. Carafes photographed by DEADHUNGRY. ZANINI DE ZANINE, Brazil Since 2003, Zanini de Zanine has produced furniture and other design objects with a deep appreciation for Brazilian culture, processes, and raw materials. Committed to sustainability, the designer uses sustainably sourced wood and discarded…

For Kennedy Yanko, it all started in 2018. Not her art career, but a new chapter—the real chapter, the one she’d been searching for. After nearly a decade of creating sculptured marbled paint skins intertwined with found objects or shaped using rubber, the artist was left wanting. So, in 2018, she poured her first monotone paint skin, almost identical to the version she’s gliding her hand over now, asking me to feel. It’s an intimate invitation from an artist. Frankly, I’m hoping to not offend by noting the general sensuality of the medium. Instead, she looks up at me and says: “It completely is. It’s beautiful, soft, responsive, and directing. Sensuality is this experience of life; it is how you feel your senses, and it’s not just about this,” she…

“I was going through a very difficult personal period, I felt extremely limited physically and, consequently, mentally,” says the artist Chiara Enzo, discussing what led her to an artistic practice. “I wondered, what was the reason for the suffering that these constraints brought with them? How could I find meaning in what was happening to me? Desperate for an answer, I encountered my own concept of existence. In contrast to the widespread representation of the demiurge artist who creates great works and has a great vision of the whole, I focused on a different reading of reality. Couldn’t I embrace it all? I shifted my attention to something more tangible: my body. The skin, our edge, what separates ‘you’ from the outside. Thus began my exploration and, consequently, my fragmented…