10 New York Creatives You Should Follow Right Now
By Something CuratedCovering a breadth of fields, including music, art, fashion, architecture and food, Something Curated highlights ten inspiring New York personalities you should follow this month.
Tess Herbert, Stylist || @tess_herbert
New York-based stylist and fashion editor Tess Herbert has styled editorials for numerous publications, like Bon Magazine, Tank, Dis, Wonderland and more in recent years. Herbert’s playful and often provocative approach to fashion has seen her collaborate with brands, including Barragán, and artists, like A$AP Ferg, on campaigns and special projects.
Sondra Perry, Artist || @sondraperry02
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfTrD44jvWW/?taken-by=sondraperry02
This spring, the Serpentine presents the first European solo exhibition of American artist Sondra Perry, who explores the intersection of black identity, digital culture and power structures through video, media, installation and performance. Perry makes work about black femininity and African American heritage, often taking her personal history as a point of departure. The artist is also currently exhibiting at Bridget Donahue gallery, New York.
SO – IL, Architects || @solidobjectives
Founded in 2008 by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, SO – IL, or Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu, is a Brooklyn-based architecture firm. In 2010, the practice won the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program; shortly after, they designed Seoul’s AIA New York award-winning Kukje Gallery, completed in 2012. In Spring 2013, SO – IL won a competition to design the new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis. The museum was completed in 2016 and incorporated a 50,000 square foot permeable canopy roof.
Alex Stupak, Chef & Restaurateur || @alexstupak
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfbsysuFyPZ/?taken-by=alexstupak
Having gained international acclaim by the age of 30 as one of the world’s most renowned pastry chefs, Alex Stupak gave up his job at Alinea, Chicago, to pursue his ambitions of becoming a restaurateur. In 2011, he opened Empellón Taqueria, a restaurant devoted to high-end Mexican food, in New York’s West Village. Following its success, the chef opened a second branch in the East Village and today the franchise spans across New York City’s midtown neighbourhoods.
Walter Pearce, Casting Director || @walterpearce
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfMwMEDHZHk/?taken-by=walterpearce
Co-founder of casting and management agency Midland, Walter Pearce has been working to alter the industry’s often predictable aesthetic, casting unusual faces for shows and campaigns for brands including Hood By Air, Balenciaga and Helmut Lang. Midland was launched in 2016 by Pearce and photographer and friend Rachel Chandler. Pearce began by connecting brands with friends he knew, including HBA founder Shayne Oliver, who became something of a mentor to him.
vhvl, Music Producer || @vhvl
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTv1lUxDdcY/?taken-by=vhvl
vhvl is the recording alias of Harlem-based beatmaker, Veronica Lauren. Making her debut in 2013, with a self-released digital album titled Myrrh, Lauren’s 15-minute track “Fvrfew” took up the entire B-side of Seat of the Soul (2014), a split cassette with Ras G, released by Leaving Records. While working on her next release, Lauren suffered from a spine injury, and was bedridden or wheelchair-bound for much of 2015 and 2016. After regaining the ability to walk in June, Leaving Records released her EVN EP.
Luis Miguel Bendaña & Sam Lipp, Gallerists || @qtgallery
Back in 2015, Luis Miguel Bendaña and Sam Lipp, the directors of Queer Thoughts, an enterprising gallery housed in an unassuming apartment in Chicago’s Pilsen neighbourhood, relocated to their current space in New York. They are currently showing work by artists Ser Serpas and Bri Williams in a joint show entitled Bare Teeth, running until 25 February. Recently, as part of this year’s CONDO 2018, local gallery Carlos/Ishikawa hosted Queer Thoughts in London.
Sarah Gerard, Writer || @mothtomouth
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcKsxJrAeIH/?hl=en&taken-by=mothtomouth
Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, a New York Times critics’ choice, the novel Binary Star, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times first fiction prize, and two chapbooks. Her short stories, essays, interviews, and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, Granta, The Baffler, Vice, BOMB Magazine, and other journals, as well as anthologies.
Victor Barragán, Fashion Designer || @barragannnn
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfSF9KohCrA/?taken-by=barragannnn
While he now lives and presents collections for his label Barragán in New York, designer Victor Barragán distinctly incorporates his Mexican upbringing into his work. For his SS18 campaign, he took a group of models to his mother’s hometown of Xochimilco, considered Mexico’s version of Venice. Barragán takes advantage of the indistinct line between art and fashion, resulting in a symbiotic combination of the two.
Sanya Kantarovsky, Artist || @skantily
https://www.instagram.com/p/BawnTpYDaji/?taken-by=skantily
Russian-born, New York-based visual artist, Sanya Kantarovsky has a far-reaching artistic practice that encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture and occasionally film. Kantarovsky participated in the exhibition Notes on Neo-Camp at Studio Voltaire, London back in 2013, and was more recently included in the group exhibitions The Eccentrics, Sculpture Center, New York and Over you/you, The 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana.
Feature image: Ashes for Three Monitor Workstation (2017) by Sondra Perry. Photo: Kevin Kline (via Visual Studies Workshop)