Celebrated Japanese-French fashion designer Kenzō Takada, born 27 February 1939, passed away earlier this week, on 4 October 2020, following complications with Covid-19. Takada founded his eponymous fashion house Kenzo in 1970, becoming well known for fusing Asian and Japanese influenced styles with constructions traditionally associated with European fashion. He remained prolific until his passing,…
This autumn, from 7 October 2020, Barbican Art Gallery stages the first ever major exhibition on the groundbreaking dancer and choreographer Michael Clark. Exploring his unique combination of classical and contemporary culture, Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer unfolds as a constellation of striking portraits of Clark through the eyes of eminent collaborators and world-renowned artists including Charles Atlas, BodyMap,…
Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was a humanitarian with a deep and life-long commitment to social justice. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, he developed a deeply personal style of photography with a focus on race relations, civil rights and urban life. Parks left behind an exceptional body of work; a legacy that documented…
Born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1979, The BLK Art Group, originally self dubbed the Pan-Afrikan Connection, was an association of young Black artists who, inspired by America’s Black Arts Movement (BAM), sought to empower and amplify Black voices and resources within Britain. All of the members of the group were children of Caribbean migrants largely…
Bulgarian-born artist Christo, best known for wrapping buildings and famous landmarks in fabric, passed away earlier this week at his home in New York, aged 84. Christo’s early education in Soviet Socialist Realism, and his experience as a refugee of political revolution, were influences firmly embedded in the artist’s practice. His 35-year long collaboration with…
An instrumental figure in the history of contemporary Italian art and design, Nanda Vigo was a multidisciplinary pioneer whose diverse career, spanning over six decades, has influenced generations of cultural producers. Vigo passed away earlier this month, on 16 May 2020, at eighty-three years old. The Milanese avant-gardiste was a forerunner of minimalist contemporary Italian…
An architectural collective formed in the 1960s, Archigram’s remit was unrelentingly experimental, neo-futuristic and flamboyantly pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technological advances to conceive new and speculative worlds which existed only as theoretical projects. Born within the Architectural Association in London, the core members of the group were Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton,…
American artist Cameron Rowland, selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2019, endeavours to make visible the institutions, systems, and policies that perpetuate systemic racism and economic inequality through his work. The Wesleyan University graduate’s research-intensive practice centres around the display of objects and documents whose provenance and operations expose the legacies of racial capitalism and…