#Rico creative chic unique

[hibernationfibres]

The long-awaited cushion cover!!! Finally complete!! After many attempts…

I went with a simpler design so happily I didn’t have to frog again, hooray! Pictured on my bed here but I’ve been using it on my desk chair mostly.

Yarn: Rico Creative Chic-Unique - Rainbow

Pattern: just two big flat granny squares sewn together, with an extra strip to fold over!

[vinylexams]

A very special fireside interview with XUXA SANTAMARIA

Check Insta for our thoughts on this landmark album from Oakland duo XUXA SANTAMARIA. Stay right where you are to read a really fun interview I scored with the band this week. They’ve just released Chancletas D’Oro on Ratskin Records out of Oakland and Michael blessed me with my very own copy. It was so good I knew I needed to tell you all about it and I wanted to pick their brains a little bit, too. Without further ado, please enjoy:

//INTERVIEW

You’re still breaking into indie world at large, but you’ve already got a huge following back in California and your home-base in Oakland. What has it been like to be featured in major outlets like The Fader?

SC: We are a funny project; we ebb and flow from being total hermits to having periods of relatively high visibility (relative to aforementioned hermit state). I wouldn’t say we have a huuuge following in CA but I do think that the ‘fandom’ we’ve developed here is really genuine because we don’t play shows out of an obligation to remain visible but instead do so because we feel super passionate about the work and the audience and I think people respond to that energy. I for one, and perhaps this is because of my background in performance, have a hard time performing the same stuff over and over without change which accounts for us being selective with our playing live. That’s also why videos are such an important part of what we’re about. The piece in The Fader was important to the launch of this album because it established some of the themes and, to an extent, the aesthetics of this album in a way that can be experienced outside of a live setting. None of this is to say we don’t like playing live, in fact we love it, we just like to make our sets pleasurable to ourselves and to our audience by constantly reworking it. We strike a weird balance for sure but we’ve made peace with it. If we ever ‘make it’ (lol) it’ll be on these terms.

Chancletas D'Oro is a pretty incredible record and while it reminds me of a few bands here or there, it’s got a really fresh and unique style that merges dance with all sorts of flavors. How would you describe your music to someone who is curious to listen?

MGK: Haha, we generally struggle to describe our music in a short, neat way (not because we make some kind of impossible-to-categorize music, but just because it’s the synthesis of a ton of different influences and it’s hard for US to perceive clearly). But with that caveat in mind - IDK, bilingual art-punk influenced dance/electronic music?

SC: Thank you for saying so, we’re pretty into it :) Like Matt says, we struggle to pin it down which I think is in part to what he says – our particular taste being all over the place, from Drexciya to The Kinks to Hector Lavoe- but I think this slipperiness has a relationship to our concept making and world building. As creative people we make and intake culture like sharks, always moving, never staying in one place too long. Maybe it’s because we’re both so severely ADHD (a boon in this instance tbh) that we don’t sit still in terms of what we consume and I think naturally that results in an output that is similarly traveling. Point is, the instance a set of words - ‘electronic’, ‘dance’, ‘punk’- feel right for the music is the same instance they are not sufficient. I propose something like: the sound of a rainforest on the edge of a city, breathy but bombastic, music made by machines to dance to, pleasurably, while also feeling some of the sensual pathos of late capitalism as seen from the bottom of the hill.

The internet tells me you’ve been making music as Xuxa Santamaria for a decade now. What has the evolution and development of your songwriting been like over those ten years?

MGK: Well, when we first started out as a band we were so new to making electronic music (Sofia’s background was in the art world and mine was in more guitar-based ‘indie rock’ I guess - lots of smoking weed and making 4 track tapes haha), so we legit forgot to put bass parts on like half the songs on our first album LOL. We’ve learned a lot since then! But in seriousness, we’ve definitely gotten better at bouncing ideas back and forth, at putting in a ton of different parts and then pulling stuff back, and the process is really dynamic and entertaining for both of us.

SC: This project started out somewhat unusually: I was in graduate school and beginning what would become a performance practice. I had hit a creative roadblock working with photography - the medium I was in school to develop- and after reading Frank Kogan’s Real Punks Don’t Wear Black felt this urge to make music as a document of experience following Kogan’s excellent essay on how punk and disco served as spatial receptacles for a wealth of experiences not present in the mainstream of the time. I extrapolated from this notion the idea that popular dance genres like Salsa, early Hip Hop, and Latin Freestyle among many others, had served a similar purpose for protagonists of a myriad Caribbean diasporas. These genres in turn served as sonic spaces to record, even if indirectly, the lived experiences of the coming and going from one’s native island to the mainland US wherein new colonial identities are placed upon you. From this I decided to create an alter ego (ChuCha Santamaria, where our band name originally stems from) to narrate a fantastical version of the history of Puerto Rico post 1492 via dance music. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing but I look back on that album (ChuCha Santamaria y Usted - on vinyl from Young Cubs Records) fondly. It’s rough and strange and we’ve come so far from that sound but it’s a key part of our trajectory. Though my songwriting has evolved to move beyond the subjective scope of this first album - I want to be more inclusive of other marginalized spaces- , it was key that we cut our teeth making it. We are proud to be in the grand tradition of making an album with limited resources and no experience :P

We’re a big community of vinyl enthusiasts and record collectors so first and foremost, thanks for making this available on vinyl. What does the vinyl medium mean to you as individuals and/or as a band?

MGK: I think for us, it’s the combination of the following: A. The experience of listening in a more considered way, a side at a time. B. Tons of real estate for graphics and design and details. C. The sound, duh!

SC: In addition to Matt’s list, I would just say that I approach making an album that will exist in record form as though we were honing a talisman. Its objecthood is very important. It contains a lot of possibility and energy meant to zap you the moment you see it/ hold it. I imagine the encounter with it as having a sequence: first, the graphics - given ample space unlike any other musical medium/substrate- begin to tell a story, vaguely at first. Then, the experience of the music being segmented into Side A and Side B dictate a use of time that is impervious to - at the risk of sounding like an oldie - our contemporary habit of hitting ‘shuffle’ or ‘skip’. Sequencing is thus super important to us (this album has very distinct dynamics at play between sides a/b ). We rarely work outside of a concept so while I take no issue with the current mode of music dissemination, that of prioritizing singles, it doesn’t really work for how we write music.

MGK: We definitely both remain in love with the ‘album as art object/cohesive work’ ideal, so I would say definitely - we care a lot about track sequencing, always think in terms of “Side A/Side B” (each one should be a distinct experience), and details like album art/inserts/LP labels etc matter a lot to us.

What records or albums were most important to you growing up? Which ones do you feel influenced your music the most?

SC: I know they’re canceled cus of that one guy but I listened to Ace of Base’s The Sign a lot as a kid and I think that sorta stuff has a way of sticking with you. I always point to the slippery role language plays in them being a Swedish band singing in English being consumed by a not-yet-English speaking Sofía in Puerto Rico in the mid 90s. Other influences from childhood include Garbage, Spice Girls, Brandy + Monica’s The Boy is Mine, Aaliyah, Gloria Trevi, Olga Tañon etc etc. In terms of who influences me now, that’s a moving target but I’d say for this album I thought a lot about the sound and style of Kate Bush, Technotronic, Black Box, Steely Dan, ‘Ray of Light’-era Madonna plus a million things I’m forgetting.

MGK: Idk, probably a mix of 70-80s art rock/punk/postpunk (Stooges, Roxy Music, John Cale, Eno, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Wire, Buzzcocks, etc etc), disco/post-disco R&B and dance music (Prince, George Clinton, Chic, Kid Creole), 90s pop + R&B + hip hop (Missy & Timbaland, Outkast/Dungeon Family production-wise are obviously awe-inspiring, So So Def comps, Jock Jams comps, Garbage & Hole & Massive Attack & so on), and unloved pop trash of all eras and styles.

Do you have any “white whale” records that you’ve yet to find?

MGK: Ha - the truth is that we’re both much more of a “what weird shit that we’ve never heard of can we find in the bargain bin” type of record buyer than “I have a custom list of $50 plus records on my discogs account that I lust over”.

SC: Not really, I’m wary of collectorship. That sort of ownership might have an appeal in the hunt, once you have it do you really use it, enjoy it? Funnily, I have a massive collection of salsa records that has entries a lot of music nerds would cry over (though they’re far from good condition, the spines were destroyed by my Abuela’s cat, Misita lol, but some are first pressings in small runs). For me its value however, comes from its link to family, as documents from another time and as an amazing capsule of some of the best music out of the Caribbean. I’m glad I am their guardian (a lot of this stuff is hard to find elsewhere, even digitally) but I live with those records, they’re not hidden away in archival sleeves, in fact, I use some of that music in my other work. Other than that, the records I covet are either those of friends or copies of albums that hold significance but which are likely readily available, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Love’s Forever Changes, or The Byrds Sweetheart of The Rodeo as random examples

Finally, is there a piece of interesting band trivia you’ve never shared in another interview?

SC: haha, not really? Maybe that we just had a baby together?

//

Congrats on your new baby, and also for this wonderful new album. It was a pleasure chatting with you and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you and your music!

[theuncurrentdispatch]

“How long did it take to grow that mustache?”: Gender identity in Napoleon Dynamite

This summer marks the 15th anniversary of Napoleon Dynamite, a film so unique and divisive that computer scientists now use the term “Napoleon Dynamite problem” to describe the difficulty of predicting an eccentric movie’s likeability. From thrift-shop chic to nerd culture, Napoleon Dynamite lingers in the millennial identity— for proof, check out the comic book sequel coming this September. 2019 feels like the right time to analyze how the movie portrayed gender and sexuality to a generation that has since navigated high school, pushed for LGBT rights, and championed the #MeToo movement. 

 In this essay, I rely on the fraught, stereotypical terms “feminine” and “masculine”. It’s an imperfect schism-- women don’t have a monopoly on emotional sensitivity any more than men hold a lease on courage. But these terms accent how the adolescent Napoleon forges his adult identity through gender performance and subversion of stereotype, and I wanted to exploit those connotations. Subvert gender stereotypes, and all your wildest dreams will come true.

***********

After the opening sequence of hand models presenting food (MTV insisted the casts’ hands were too ugly), Napoleon Dynamite boards a school bus of children. The ages are uncertain, but the age gap is obvious. (It helps that Jon Heder was 27 during filming.) The gap in maturity is less apparent with the film’s first lines. “What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?” “Whatever I feel like I wanna do, gosh!” Then, in the movie’s framing thesis, Napoleon throws a toy wrestler out the window to drag it behind the bus with fishing line, an adolescent boy exercising a cathartic sadism on the image of masculinity.

Napoleon is frozen in a boyish immaturity, and he is crushingly isolated. At school he’s bullied, taunted and laughed at by various incarnations of that plastic wrestler, until he calls his brother Kip to plead for rescue. Kip is just as important to the film’s point as his titular brother, because his quest offers an inversion of Napoleon’s journey. Kip is Neville Longbottom to his brother’s Harry Potter, his quest foundering in delusion while his brother successfully marries his masculine and feminine identities. The Dynamite brothers embark on separate journeys for the film’s central motifs: companionship and, most importantly, adult masculinity. The two grails overlap frequently in the form of various role models and gender performances the brothers engage with.

While Pedro and Deb are vital to Napoleon’s journey to selfhood (and one wonders whether Kip wouldn’t have gone astray if he’d had friends like them), the critical intrusion into the Dynamites’ stasis is Grandma’s removal. Grandma has been the orphan brothers’ anchoring role model, a sexless matriarch providing shelter in a sea of gender performativity and social isolation. The brothers’ first conversation shows the stark contrast of these two worlds as the wounded Napoleon seeks refuge with the school receptionist (herself a Grandma-type haven) to call Kip at home, where he “chats online with babes all day” and revels in the freedom to remotely assume an identity so far from his real-world grasp. When the hypermasculine Uncle Rico replaces Grandma (an unwelcome intrusion in itself), he reveals that she’s been adventuring across dunes with a secret boyfriend. Now lacking Grandma’s ostensible solidarity, the Dynamite brothers begin their quests to find the companionship and adulthood they’d convinced themselves they were successfully living without.

Napoleon latches onto Pedro. The day after Rex Kwon Do’s emasculating karate demonstration, Napoleon echoes the macho-man and asks if Pedro has his back. Pedro’s confused “What?” evokes a rare moment of vulnerability as Napoleon looks off and breathes “Never mind.” To Napoleon, Pedro is an enviable specimen of masculine maturity, possessing bike pegs, confidence with women, and the ability to grow a mustache. When Pedro says he intends to ask Summer Wheatly to the dance, Napoleon attempts to match Pedro’s masculinity by showing off his made-up girlfriend. “I like her bangs,” Pedro says. “Me too,” Napoleon replies, staring at a picture of a stranger.

Kip’s identity is even less stable than his brother’s. Despite being older, Kip is physically and emotionally weaker than Napoleon. Uncle Rico becomes Kip’s first stable companion and masculine role model. Kip, happy to play the toady instead of the victim (voyeuristically watching the steak hit Napoleon rather than receiving Rex’s slap himself), becomes a tool for Rico’s deluded ambition. Rico’s masculinity exudes the usual toxicity: Self-absorption, disrespect for women, a desire to get ahead. His fixation on his life’s masculine peak as a young athlete is particularly telling, revealing both his worship for manhood and his own stunted maturity. In their first one-on-one hangout, Rico and Kip talk about women, and it’s Kip’s turn to try on masculinity as he describes his own incredibly suspect girlfriend. She has a vague, “pretty good-looking face,” as well as “sandy-blonde hair” that Lafawnduh doesn’t have.

Like so many “Magical Black” characters, Lafawnduh is interesting and underdeveloped, entering the story to provide solutions for White characters. In this case, it’s Black identity itself that offers Kip an answer. Just as Rico’s retro style embodies his antiquated vision of manliness, Kip’s transformation reflects the widespread early 2000’s appropriation of Black fashion and music to express White masculinity: Third wave ska bands like Reel Big Fish, clothing trends like pants-sagging, and white rappers like Eminem all brought Black culture into vogue to an extent unseen since the 1950’s.

Meanwhile, backed by the proper companionship and cultivating a respect for the feminine, Napoleon continues to hone in on his adult identity. Napoleon’s companions, largely devoid of the White (or Black-appropriated) masculinity Kip is chasing, are feminine archetypes, compassionate and artistic. The duo serve as surrogate parents for Napoleon, with Deb demonstrating the power of feminine vulnerability and creativity and Pedro teaching Napoleon that a mustachioed, socially confident man can exude femininity. Pedro’s head-shaving provides a key lesson in Napoleon’s education. The replacement wig, provided courtesy of Deb’s pink-draped studio, exposes gender identity as performance, malleable and superficial. “I think this matches your season,” Deb declares. Pedro responds with a soft smile.

The next day brings another lesson as Napoleon offers a bullied student one of Deb’s boondoggles to symbolize Pedro’s protection-- A feminine craft symbolizing a masculine strength. The boondoggle’s promise is quickly called upon, and Pedro’s cousins chase off the bully. Napoleon witnesses the paradox of masculinity, one that CJ Pascoe observes in her theory of “fag discourse”: Though masculinity offers endless ways to dominate and police others, even the manliest identities are never secure. Masculinity is a never-ending performance, a contest that can’t be won. (Uncle Rico learns this lesson as well, and his broken arm, along with his broken masculine delusion, ushers a female energy into his life that the gentler Rico welcomes with Pedro’s soft smile.)

Napoleon’s perception of Rico and the adult manhood he represents continues to sour as the adolescent realizes what misery and delusion the grown man brings in his wake: Clogged toilets, electrocuted groins, and superficial relationships. Rico shames Napoleon for not having a job, and the subsequent chicken-cooping work earns Napoleon a dollar an hour and a Hamlet-level resentment toward his uncle. He courts Summer’s popular friend Trisha, only to find the relationship with her brand of femininity unfulfilling and unsustainable. When Napoleon and Rico finally come to blows in an impasse that can only be described as Oedipal, two important revelations emerge. Napoleon realizes he has reached his tolerance for toxic masculinity, and that that toxicity is, when elbowed, vulnerable to Napoleon’s own masculine strength. Napoleon is no longer willing to lie about wolverines or supermodel girlfriends to survive within masculine discourse-- now he knows he can harness the power of his emotions. (It’s been suggested that the Tree of Knowledge provides Eve not with a magic apple, but with the indelible knowledge that she has the ability to disobey. Does it seem fitting that Napoleon initiates this confrontation by throwing fruit?)

The identity struggles within Napoleon rise up for a final confrontation at the school election. Napoleon’s relationships with his masculine and feminine pillars, Rico and Deb, have been thrown into jeopardy, and Napoleon realizes which character’s energy is most important to him. With proper guidance from his companions, his masculinity has taken the form of a quiet strength that protects others and knowingly performs gender (i.e., the brown suit he takes off a female mannequin), and his femininity carries an emotional intelligence that can’t be acquired from Uncle Rico’s herbal supplements. And once again, Black gender identity arrives to save a White character, but now Black femininity rather than masculinity supplies Napoleon with the tools for victory. D-Qwon’s dance tape gives Napoleon the feminine power of dance as physical expression (contrast this with Kip’s physical outlets of Rex-Kwon-Do and cage fighting), and Lafawnduh herself gives Napoleon the soundtrack he’ll have on hand at the election. (That said, I’m aware that Napoleon’s dance moves are incredibly White.)

Napoleon’s dance, a triumph of femininity over masculinity, performs a vulnerability that brings the previously blank-faced student body to its feet. The students see themselves not in Pedro’s or Summer’s campaign speeches, but in Napoleon’s harrowing self-expression. Napoleon gambles his physical and emotional self on his friend’s behalf, in an act so free and selfless that Deb realizes this person would never fall prey to a “Bust Must+” brand of femininity. But the fact that the audience connects with the dance, the fact that it wins Pedro the election, doesn’t matter. What’s important is that, like Spirited Away’s Chihiro or Russian Doll’s Nadia, Napoleon confronted a final test and produced a correct answer. The prize is an immutable inner truth that will endure any bullying or masculine taunts.

After the climax, with one at the end of his journey and the other hopelessly lost within it, the Dynamite brothers cross paths one last time. (The wedding was a campy, fan-service ending tacked on after MTV’s acquisition, and I don’t consider it canonical.) Kip, in full hip-hop regalia, doesn’t notice his brother as he and Lafawnduh board a bus (in an ending reminiscent of Ghost World). Napoleon watches helplessly from across the street. This scene always makes me sad, partially because we don’t see Kip telling anybody he’s leaving-- it seems like another confused, uncharacteristic move. These brothers, having started the story together in their sexless grandma’s stasis, have ended in completely different worlds, and Napoleon, after painstakingly forging his adult identity, can only watch as his lost brother continues his own quest for meaning.

This article has been published in Entropy Magazine.

[stratismorfogen]

Stratis Morfogen

URL:

Description

New York, November 21 2006 - Entrepreneurial mastermind Stratis Morfogen, CEO of Philippe Restaurant Group Inc., is one of the country's fastest evolving restaurateurs. Since opening the first Philippe Restaurant the chic contemporary Chinese restaurant located at 33 East 60th Street, last December 2005, Morfogen has built a diverse portfolio of highly successful ventures and continues to expand upon his success.

Philippe Restaurant Group redefines the Chinese dining experience by combining traditional ingredients with a contemporary vibe, presenting the celebrated cuisine of culinary master Philippe Chow, former Mr. Chow veteran of more than 27 years, in an accessible, chic style. The menu includes large dishes of creative Chinese cooking, ideal for sharing between two and four customers. A highlight is the nightly noodle-making show presented on the restaurant floor by Noodle Chef Wai Ming Cheng, also a native of China. Since its opening, Philippe has attracted an international clientele including many celebrities, social leaders, fashionistas and sports figures, and has seen a steady increase in business.

Plans call for opening three or four Philippe restaurants a year in select cities, often partnering with boldface named investors, who Morfogen says were customers who believed in the concept.

Partnering with record mogul Tommy Mottola and his wife, Latin music sensation Thalia, and Mexico's renowned restaurateur Pablo Moctezuma, Morfogen opened a Philippe in Mexico City at Paseo de Reforma in the Lomas neighborhood on November 22.

In June 2006, Morfogen scored big with a $10 million partnership investment deal with a group of leading National Basketball Association players and sports agents to open Philippe restaurants in select cities in North America. Players include: Sebastian Telfair, Boston Celtics; Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess, Detroit Pistons; Tyronn Lue, Atlanta Hawks; Al Harrington, Indianapolis Pacers and Stromile Swift, Houston Rockets. The group is managed by agent Chris Brantley. Locations will include: Charlotte, NC in March 2007, East Hampton in May 2007, and Miami at the Gansevoort South Hotel (August 2007); casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Las Vegas all in 2008; and, in 2009, in Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

While the cuisine and minimalist dicor are reminiscent of their NYC counterpart, each new endeavor will incorporate unique elements distinctive to the area. Features in Mexico City include an outdoor lounge, two cascading waterfalls, a mezzanine overlooking the first floor dining room, and a private wine cellar dining room to accommodate 35-40 people, while the Miami branch dissolves boundaries between the kitchen and dining room, allowing guests to observe the creation of their meal with an open-air viewable kitchen. At Philippe perfection and pleasure, indulgence and minimalism, seamlessly co-mingle bringing the highest quality to contemporary dining.

Opened October 19, 2006, Morfogen also unveiled his most recent innovative concept for New York City nightlife, The Grand, 41 East 58th Street, a special event space and nightclub with in-house catering by Philippe on the Upper East Side.

With an average of 450 - 600 covers per night, 11- 12 million volume of sales in the past year at Philippe New York, and a 28% increase in net profits this past year, prove that future endeavors will be highly successful. The average check per person is $70 for dinner and $30 for lunch, with sales recorded as 70% food and 30% for bar. Philippe has also made the list for the top five largest grossing restaurants per square food in New York. Sixty people are currently employed at the New York City restaurant, and this number has increased significantly with the rise of Philippe Restaurant Group's newest developments.

Morfogen attributes the impressive success in just one year of openin

Contact

For Immediate Release

Contact: M. Young Communications

212-620-7027

Emily Nordee ext 310/ enordee@myoungcom.com

Monica Glass ext 335/mglass@myoungcom.com

[templeofgeek]

The Her Universe Fashion Show celebrated its 5th anniversary at San Diego Comic-Con International. We have collected a gallery of all of the 24 designs that walked the runway at the show! The 5th annual Her Universe Fashion Show took place on Thursday, July 19th at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego. Host, actress, author of “It’s Your Universe” and Her Universe Founder, Ashley Eckstein, debuted a special gown created by 2013 fashion show winner, Andrew MacLaine. The gown was inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas and was made with over 400 Funko Pop heads.

2013 Winner Andrew McClain

Presented by Her Universe, Hot Topic and Loungefly in partnership with BoxLunch, Cartoon Network, SINGER® Sewing Company and Zenni Optical this year’s event presented a group of 24 aspiring designers who will created original “geek couture” for the event. Three winners were awarded the opportunity to design a fashion collection with Her Universe and Loungefly for leading pop-culture retailer Hot Topic – a judges’ winner, audience choice winner and, for the first time, a SINGER® Sewing Company winner chosen for excellent sewing and construction. Past year’s winners have created designs for some of Hot Topic’s most popular and best-selling collections.

The guest judges for the Her Universe 2018 Fashion Show were Cindy Levitt, Senior Vice President of Licensing for Hot Topic, Todd Keller, Merchandising Manager for Loungefly, Joanna Fogt-Sohn, Senior Creative Director for Licensing and Merchandising at Cartoon Network, Olivia Mears, SINGER® Sewing Ambassador, Jane Francisco, Editor-In-Chief of Good Housekeeping and 2017 Her Universe Fashion Show winners Rose Ivy, Grace Duval and Lindsay Orndorff .

THE DESIGNS

SARAH HAMBLY

KING COUTURE – BLANK PANTHER 

https://www.instagram.com/OFFICIALhambly/

SKYLER BARRETT

SUBJECT 89P13 – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 

https://www.instagram.com/skycosplays/

STEPHANIE FLOR

ZINTHOS – TEEN TITANS

https://www.instagram.com/grimmancer/

MELISSA LYNNETTE

YIBAMBE – BLACK PANTHER

https://www.instagram.com/melissalynnette/

HARMONY LEIKER

BEST.DRESS.EVER! – TANGLED

https://www.instagram.com/harmonylanddesigns/

KELSEY MICHELE

STYLE ON SPACE MOUNTAIN – DISNEY PARKS 

https://www.instagram.com/toughtink/

KIMBERLY BURNS

SEAMSTRESS SALLY – THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

https://www.instagram.com/kberry723/

CHATAM GRAY

COLORS OF COUTURE – POCAHONTAS

PHOEBE PING

DIRECTIVE? – WALL*E

JANE BURSON

HOWL-IN’ FOR YOU – HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE 

https://www.instagram.com/janemakesstuff/

AALIYAH FRYE

MY ALEBRIJE – COCO

https://www.instagram.com/fabulous_frye_designs/

CANDICE MILLER

CONVOR COUTURE – STAR WARS

https://www.instagram.com/candicedunlapmiller/

CYNTHIA KIRKLAND

THE COUTURE OF WATER – THE SHAPE OF WATER

https://www.instagram.com/athel_artistry/

ERICKA ANGIULI

BEETLESUIT V:1 – BEETLEJUICE

https://www.instagram.com/eangiuli/

RACHEL ROTH

NERF THIS – OVERWATCH

https://www.instagram.com/raierae/

TANYA APUYA

GODZILLA, QUEEN OF THE MONSTERS – GODZILLA

https://www.instagram.com/sewgeeky535/

LYNNE MARTENS

FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX – HARRY POTTER

https://www.instagram.com/classylookingnerfherder/

http://templeofgeek.com/classy-looking-nerf-herder-returns-to-san-diego-comic-con/

SARAH TIMM

COFFEE AT LUKE’S – THE GILMORE GIRLS

https://www.instagram.com/breathcue/

LYNLEIGH SATO

BESPOKE BARBER OF SUBURBIA – EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

https://www.instagram.com/lynleighlove/

JILL N NOFZIGER

COURAGE, DARING, NERVE AND CHIVALRY – HARRY POTTER

https://www.instagram.com/jillnndesign/

ADRIA RENEE

REBELLION REBORN – STAR WARS

https://www.instagram.com/adria.renee/

CHRISTOPHER LOPEZ

DARKNESS RISING – STAR WARS

https://www.instagram.com/clopezdesigns/

KRISTI SIEDOW-THOMPSON

PWL CHIC: RIPLEY IN THE POWERLOADER – ALIENS

https://www.instagram.com/ksiedowthompson/

CARINA LANGLEY-LACY

VINCENT AND EXPLODING TARDIS – DOCTOR WHO

https://www.instagram.com/carinaterra8787/

THE WINNERS

https://twitter.com/HerUniverse/status/1020374062386667520

See more from the Fashion at San Diego Comic Con! 

Jodie Whittaker Surprises Fans at the Her Universe Fashion Show

The Fashion at San Diego Comic Con

Clone Wars Saved!

ABOUT HER UNIVERSE Her Universe was launched in 2010 by actress, entrepreneur and author of “It’s Your Universe,” Ashley Eckstein. Her Universe markets to female sci-fi and fantasy fans by developing and producing collections of female-centered apparel and accessories for top franchises including Star Wars, Marvel, Disney, Doctor Who, DC Comics and Studio Ghibli. In 2018, Eckstein launched Our Universe, fashion for men and boys with the mission to offer fashion for all. You can learn more about Her Universe and Our Universe and purchase the current line of apparel and accessories by going to http://www.heruniverse.com and by following Eckstein & Her Universe online @HerUniverse on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Her Universe is a stand-alone subsidiary of Hot Topic, Inc.

ABOUT HOT TOPIC Hot Topic, headquartered in City of Industry, CA, was the first retailer to make alternative apparel and accessories available at malls across the country. Today, Hot Topic is the fandom haven for guys and girls obsessed with music and all things pop culture. Founded in 1989, Hot Topic operates 693 stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico and an online store at http://www.hottopic.com. For more information, visit hottopic.com and follow @hottopic on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram and Snapchat.

ABOUT LOUNGEFLY Founded in 1998, Loungefly is a designer of a variety of licensed pop culture fashion handbags, small leather goods and accessories. Acquired by Funko, Inc. (Nasdaq:FNKO), a leading pop culture consumer products company in June 2017, it has become a design driven lifestyle accessory brand. Constantly striving to be innovative and aiming to inspire. Based in Southern California, Loungefly is available in specialty stores, boutiques and department stores nation-wide. Loungefly designs and sells a wide selection of unique licensed bags, and accessories including Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Sanrio and Pokémon. Learn more at http://www.loungefly.com.

ABOUT CARTOON NETWORK Cartoon Network is Turner’s global entertainment brand and the #1 animation network in the U.S., offering the best in original content for kids and families with such hits as, Adventure Time, The Powerpuff Girls, Steven Universe, We Bare Bearsand The Amazing World of Gumball. Seen in 192 countries and over 400 million homes, Cartoon Network is known for being a leader in innovation with its approach to engaging and inspiring kids at the intersection of creativity and technology. Its pro-social initiative, Stop Bullying: Speak Up is an acknowledged and often used resource for kids and adults looking for tools that can assist in dealing with the ongoing issue of bullying.

Cartoon Network is part of Turner, a WarnerMedia company, a global entertainment, sports and news company that creates premium content and delivers exceptional experiences to fans whenever and wherever they consume content. These efforts are fueled by data-driven insights and industry-leading technology. Turner owns and operates some of the most valuable brands in the world, including Adult Swim, Bleacher Report, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, ELEAGUE, FilmStruck, Great Big Story, HLN, iStreamPlanet, Super Deluxe, TBS,Turner Classic Movies (TCM), TNT, truTV and Turner Sports.

About SINGER® Sewing Company Since 1851, the name Singer has been synonymous with sewing. We are thrilled to carry the spirit of creativity and innovative design into the Cosplay and costuming community where we strive to inspire and delight artists of every level. From the sewing expert to the sewing-curious, we can provide the tools to bring your creations to life. Visit singer.com and follow SINGER Sewing Company on all major social media platforms to learn more.

ABOUT BOXLUNCH BoxLunch is a specialty retailer offering a curated collection of licensed pop culture merchandise. With every $10 spent across the retailers’ themed product offering of apparel, accessories, home goods, gift and novelty, and collectibles BoxLunch will provide a meal* to a person in need through its philanthropic partnerships. To join the movement and help in the fight against hunger visit BoxLunch in-store or online at http://www.boxlunch.com to learn more on how you can get involved in your local community. BoxLunch is headquartered in CA and currently operates over 100 stores throughout the US. For more information, please visit http://www.boxlunch.comand follow @boxlunchgifts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

*For every $10 spent, BoxLunch will donate at least one meal to Feeding America. $1 helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America® on behalf of local member food banks. BoxLunch guarantees a minimum of 5,000,000 meals (monetary equivalent of $500,000) to Feeding America and member food banks February 1, 2018-January 31, 2019. Meal claim valid as of 7/1/17 and subject to change.

#GETSOMEGIVEBACK @boxlunchgifts

ABOUT ZENNI Zenni Optical pioneered the online eyewear business in 2003 to make premium eyewear affordable and accessible to everyone. Based in Marin County, California, Zenni offers men, women, and children the freedom to express their personal style and individuality through high-quality prescription glasses and sunglasses. With its curated collections and thousands of frames, Zenni has sold more than 20 million pairs of glasses since its founding. For more information, visit http://www.zenni.com or connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

ABOUT SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL Comic-Con International: San Diego is a nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. For more information on this year’s San Diego Comic Con go to http://www.comic-con.org/cci

All 24 Designs From The 2018 Her Universe Fashion Show The Her Universe Fashion Show celebrated its 5th anniversary at San Diego Comic-Con International. We have collected a gallery of all of the 24 designs that walked the runway at the show!

[plaza13]

Three local fashion designers presented their collections during the most important runway in the big apple; and it was all good. Naldo Montañez who has been written up by the New York Times, Wanda Beauchamp who is an amazing designer and fashion designer, and fashion school owner Lisa Thon who presented an eclectic collection showed what they are made of.

Naldo Montanez, Photo by Kevin Mock.

Lisa Thon

Wanda Beauchamp

The NYFW scene is nothing new for Thon, as a matter of fact New York city was where the business woman went to school, and created her signature style.

  Lisa Thon

‘Sérénité‘: I spoke to Naldo Montañez about this new proposal, the designer was quoted saying: The collection is entitled ‘Sérénité‘ and the Fall / Winter 2018 Women’s wear, was inspired by the beauty hidden in the apparent calm and tranquility that can be  appreciated and communicated by the negative and positive spaces in the arts and in life.

Naldo Montanez. Photo by Kevin Mock.

That silence and tranquility after Hurricane Maria produced in me so many mixed feelings, especially when I spent days without knowing about my family and friends. In that apparent calm, the voices of resilience and positivism were louder and more resonant even if we had tears in our eyes.

Naldo Montanez. Photo by Kevin Mock.

Naldo Montanez. Photo by Kevin Mock.

Naldo Montanez Photo by Kevin Mock.

Together, the island is recovering  filling those gaps with joy and memorable moments that unite us as a people and family.

Naldo Montanez photo by Kevin Mock.

Naldo Montanez photo by Kevin Mock.

Naldo Montanez photo by Kevin Mock.

That fighting spirit motivated me to create a uniquely feminine collection, in tune with how brave the Puerto Rican woman is, and her desire to move forward.

The fashion show was  part of the Fashion Gallery production that took place at the Stewart Hotel in Manhattan, NYC.

The New York Fashion Week powered by Art Hearts Fashion took place at the  Angel Orensanz Event Space; a place I love to go watch fashion shows.  Over 30 international designers showcased their collections on one of the most visually stunning runways during NYFW.

Wanda Beauchamp  presented a couture collection for children and for pre teens, and it felt like a beautiful fantasy, filled with red carpet numbers for the very young. This made the presentation unique and pretty unforgettable.

Wanda Beauchamp

Luxurious fabrics,knits, draping and ingenious craftsmanship were part of the deal for a collection that shows what this fashion designer who is the owner of Pop Corn Kids & Teens Boutique is capable of achieving.

I do hope we get to see more of this very talented designer.

Lisa Thon

Lisa Thon

Lisa Thon

Lisa Thon presented a collection that was all about the thrift shop vibe, a hobo chic innuendo, with a gypsy flavor tossed into it.

Tops made out of ties created from scratch and the combination of fabrics such as linen, cotton, knits were defined by a fusion of silhouettes that created contrast in rich colors taken from downtown, uptown, and nature.

Thon gave us an urban and organic collection, probably one of the most complete Ive seen;  taking the theme of vintage all the way, in clothes women can wear more than once.

Just in case you don’t know who is Ms. Thon let me tell you: This designer started her fashion studies at Altos de Chavón in the Dominican Republic and completed her Bachelors Degree at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Since 1996 she is CEO of Centro Moda School of Design, in San Juan P.R.

In 2006 Thon was the first Puerto Rican designer to feature a collection during the prestigious New York Fashion Week. She was awarded the ‘Puerto Rican Heritage Award’ by the Comité Noviembre in New York City.

Lets hope we get to see more from these amazing local talents, who are breaking ground in NYC.

Fashion designers from Puerto Rico infuse the runway with their creativity at #NYFW Three local fashion designers presented their collections during the most important runway in the big apple; and it was all good.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: A Movie Remembers the Artist Who Made Fashion Illustration Fashionable Again

Eija Vehka Ajo, Juan Ramos, Jacques de Bascher, Karl Lagerfeld and Antonio Lopez, Paris, (1973), from Sex Fashion & Disco directed by James Crump

Speaking candidly to the camera, the actress Jessica Lange remembers the time when she worked as a model for the fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez during the 1970s. She can’t hide her smile: “Everybody at that time got swept into Antonio’s world. There was something magical about it. He had this way of bringing joy into people’s lives.”

Lange is just one in a long list of Lopez’s collaborators who appear in James Crump’s seductive new documentary, Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, screening this Friday as part of Doc NYC. And their admiration and devotion toward the artist are key in understanding the magnitude of his work.

“Donna Jordan, for 20 Ans” (1970), drawing by Antonio Lopez (© copyright the Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, 2012; from Sex Fashion & Disco directed by James Crump. Used by permission.)

Born in Puerto Rico in 1943, Lopez moved to New York as a child and grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Bronx. When he was 12, he won a scholarship for the Traphagen School of Fashion’s Saturday children’s program, and attended the High School of Art and Design on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Later, he was accepted into the Fashion Institute of Technology, but never completed his degree. While at school, Lopez started working for John’s Fairchild Women’s Wear Daily, and within just a few months, his illustrations were featured on the cover of the prestigious publication. He quit school to work for Fairchild full-time, when his work was noticed by Carrie Donovan, the legendary fashion editor for the New York Times. She offered him freelance work, and that exposure eventually turned him into a regular contributor for some of the most influential fashion publications of the time, such as Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Along with his collaborator and boyfriend-turned-lifelong-friend Juan Ramos, Lopez is credited with saving fashion illustration from extinction. Starting in the late 1930s, photography had started to overshadow illustration, as the work of Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, and Irving Penn became more prominent in fashion magazines. “The first photographic cover of [American] Vogue was a watershed in the history of fashion illustration and a watershed mark of its decline,” fashion historian Laird Borrelli-Persson writes in her book Fashion Illustration Now. When Lopez brought his style to the glossy pages of magazines and portrayed his models dancing and moving across the page, breaking with the old tradition of stagnant poses, he injected life and fantasy into the work. Speaking in the movie, Vogue’s creative director-at-large Grace Coddington explains: “Until he came along, a fashion drawing was just like a very stiff couture model. Antonio brought this thing where he put them in a fantasy.”

“Carol LaBrie,” for Italian Vogue, (1971), drawing by Antonio Lopez (© copyright the Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, 2012; from Sex Fashion & Disco directed by James Crump. Used by permission.)

Directed, written, and co-produced by Crump, who’s also an art historian and collector, the film is an unapologetic love letter to Lopez’s work and to the glorious days of the art and fashion worlds of downtown New York during the 1970s (a theme the director has already visited in his 2007 debut feature Black, White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe).

Crump doesn’t try to hide how he feels about his subjects. He became fascinated with Lopez and Ramos when he was a young teenager living in rural Indiana and read about their “magical lives and milieu” on Interview magazine. You can feel the urgency the director feels in telling the story of an artist who’s been unfairly overlooked. The film feels personal without being too sentimental.

Through interviews with Lopez’s entourage and incredible archival footage, Crump documents the duo’s creative process and intense appetite for the nightlife: From wild parties at Max’s Kansas City in Manhattan to wilder parties at Club 7 in Paris; from a trip to St. Tropez with Karl Lagerfeld to a shoot in Jamaica with Norman Parkinson and Jerry Hall; from the set of an Andy Warhol film shot at Lagerfeld’s Rive Gauche apartment, to the legendary designer Charles James’s home at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. (Jessica Lange memorably describes going into “Charles’s strange little studio living apartment with this obese beagle called Sputnik that lived in the bathroom.”)

Bill Cunningham and Antonio Lopez, New York City, 1978 (photograph by Juan Ramos © copyright the Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, 2012; from Sex Fashion & Disco directed by James Crump. Used by permission.)

His entourage, by the way, is an impossibly impressive collection of powerhouse names in the industry on both sides of the Atlantic: magazine editors (Vogue’s Joan Juliet Buck, Interview’s Bob Colacello), legendary models (Jane Forth, Donna Jordan, Pat Cleveland), living icons (Karl Lagerfeld, Jerry Hall, Grace Jones) and the soul-touching Bill Cunningham — the late New York Times photographer and one of Lopez’s closest friends — who gives his last interview before passing away in 2016. (The film is fittingly dedicated to Cunningham.)

Enhanced by a soundtrack that nears ‘70s dance floor perfection (Donna Summer, Chic, Marvin Gaye) and subtle visual effects by Andre Purwo that alternate between Lopez’s drawings and jaw-dropping images of decadent lifestyle, Crump’s movie delivers its message of 1970s glory — sex, fashion, and disco — without ever feeling gratuitous.

Lopez was also a champion of diversity and inclusion, and the film underscores how this was a unique attitude for the high fashion world at the time. While the American public was just starting to discover the new phenomenon of the top model and was going crazy over the sweet perfection of the all-American girl (made official by a 1978 Time magazine that featured Cheryl Tiegs on its cover), Lopez was challenging stereotypical modeling poses and celebrating nontraditional beauty with his models: Donna Jordan’s gap toothed-smile, Jane Forth’s shaved eyebrows, Grace Jones’s extreme haircuts. Over time, he developed a following among a group of models, who became known as “Antonio’s Girls” (a somewhat patronizing term popularized in an essay by Jean-Paul Goude that appeared in a 1973 issue of Esquire).

Juan Ramos, Paris (1972) (photo by Antonio Lopez, © copyright the Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, 2012. From Sex Fashion & Disco directed by James Crump. Used by permission.)

“Race, ethnicity, sexuality have become the primary underpinnings of their art, as opposed to fashion, which has always been how everybody perceives Juan’s and Antonio’s work,” the artist Paul Caranicas says in the film. Caranicas was Ramos’s partner from 1971 until his death in 1995, and he’s the executor of the Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos.

When Lopez passed away from AIDS complications in 1987, a New York Times obituary described him as a “major fashion illustrator [whose] always flamboyant style has influenced the work of many other fashion illustrators since the 1960s.” But Lopez was more than that. His vision, which was multicultural and glamorous, made him a unique artist in the high fashion world. His life was cut too short and Crump wants the world to remember that. As he said to me, “[Lopez’s] older contemporary [Andy Warhol] successfully made that jump from illustrator to being considered a studio artist. I think that Antonio might have been successful [at that] had he lived longer.”

Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco had its world premiere in October at the BFI London Film Festival. Its North American premiere will be on Friday, November 10 at DOC NYC.

  The post A Movie Remembers the Artist Who Made Fashion Illustration Fashionable Again appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[hibernationfibres]

Simple granny infinity scarf!! It’s made out of the leftover yarn from my cushion cover and I love the way the colours turned out on a long round like this. It’s so fun and colourful and already one of my favourite winter warmers! :D

Yarn: Rico Creative Chic-Unique - Rainbow

Pattern: improvised - a few rounds of ribbing each end and granny clusters in the middle, length eyeballed.

[nofomoartworld]

Crocheted Cowboys, Nature Nudes, and Elmo Wind Chimes: 9 Highlights from the Dallas Art Fair

Having spent a lot of time in mid-size American cities as of late, I posit the question: is there a corner of our United States where artists aren't fostering vibrant, exciting communities and doing vital, challenging work? Deep in the heart of Texas, at the Dallas Art Fair, that city's creative class was on resplendent display for members of the arts industry flown in from places as predictable as New York and Paris, and as unexpected as Puerto Rico, Dubai, and Guadalajara. 

The 2017 fair had the tastefully-assembled panache of The Armory Show or Art Basel, with works by Juergen Teller and Catherine Opie among the heavy-hitters. But it was the fair's relatively small size, the presence and openness of artists, and supplementary studio visits and fetes thrown by local institutions that fostered an intimate, convivial vibe. The by-no-means exhaustive list below highlights artists from all over, but the Dallas scene deserves some extra shine: Arthur Peña's kaleidoscopic paintings mine the artist's emotional landscape. Michelle Rawlings excavates memory and identity through painted, collaged, sculptural works. Studio-mates and frequent collaborators Jeff Gibbons, Jesse Morgan Barnett, and Greg Ruppe dream up esoteric, gritty, musical artworks that defy categorization and even documentation. (One of their projects last year involved inviting the Dallas arts community to a mysterious, one-off game of laser tag.)

Dallas is establishing itself as a hotbed for art, turning what most people think about the city—oil money, Lee Harvey Oswald, the Cowboys—on its head. The Dallas Art Fair is at the forefront of spreading the word in that regard, and these were a few of our favorite works on view:

1. Nina Chanel Abney at Night Gallery

Nina Chanel Abney Untitled, 2017 Diptych, acrylic on two panels 110 x 52 in. Images are courtesy of Night Gallery

Few works on display were as viscerally arresting as Nina Chanel Abney's diptych of bold paintings confronting race and power in America. For her senior thesis show at Parsons in 2007, the artist painted herself as a white, gun-toting prison guard and her classmates, who are all white, as black inmates wearing orange jumpsuits, commenting on both the lack of diversity in academia as well as the overwhelmingly African-American prison population in the US. Her subsequent work is equally vital and searing.

2. Jonathan Rajewski at Reyes Projects

Installation view of Jonathan Rajewski's work in the Reyes Gallery booth. Photo by Daniel Driensky

I'll be honest: I didn't expect Garfield and Elmo wind chimes to be this dynamic, but Detroit-based artist Jonathan Rajewski's playful mobiles fixed me in their googly muppet eyes and handily dispatched my assumptions. The artist was showing work in the booth of newly-minted Michigan gallery Reyes Projects, whose debut exhibition Undercover Boss opens April 21.

3. Derek Fordjour at Luce Gallery

Derek Fordjour, 'No. 73,' 2017 and 'What will you do to help us Win?' 2017. Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery

Born in Memphis, TN to parents of Ghanian heritage, Derek Fordjour was one of the artists selected by the Dallas Art Fair Foundation Acquisition Program, which chooses a handful of works from the fair each year to join the Dallas Art Museum's permanent collection. His nuanced, textural paintings and sculptures are literally multilayered; words on yellowed pages peek out beneath the paint. He's an artist of unique perspective, and certainly one to watch.

4. Emmanuel Van der Auwera's Study for Shudder VideoSculpture XIV

"Study for Shudder" VideoSculpture XIV, 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Harlan Levey Projects

This work stopped me in my tracks and made me WOL—"Woah" out loud. What looks like a blank white screen, on further inspection, reveals itself to be a coded video message discernible only when viewed in reflection upside down.

5. Caroline Wells Chandler at Roberto Paradise

Caroline Wells Chandler's crocheted cowboys and other motifs of the American West were sprinkled throughout this San Juan-based gallery's booth. The characters' goofy, 8-bit grins and technicolor skin belie the work's progressive take on the classic cowboys-and-indians motif. They present a sex-positive, intersectional version of themes heretofore whitewashed by the patriarchy.

6. Jakub Nepras at Waldburger Wouters

Jakub Nepras, Meadow, 2012, video sculpture, plexiglass, natural stones, 4min30s/loop. Courtesy the artist and Waldburger Wouters

The Brussels-based gallery's entire booth was dedicated to the work of Jakub Nepras, a Czech multimedia artist whose video collages projected on unexpected surfaces, like painted drywall and plexiglass embedded with stones, dissect commerce, human interactions, and the flow of energy.

7. Maryam Eisler's Eurydice in Provence and Searching for Eve in the American West

Maryam Eisler, Odina (Mountain), 2015. Giclée print, 112 x 79 cm, edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs. Courtesy Tristan Hoare

Maryam Eisler's black-and-white photographs of nudes in arid landscapes are damn sexy. The contrast of smooth flesh and coarse stone is reminiscent of Bernini's textural masterpiece, Daphne and Apollo. Born in Iran but now based in London, Eisler's striking compositions are inspired by mythology and its application to reality. With two series on view in Dallas, the photographer imbued the proceedings with a welcome dose of divine feminine energy.

8. Jose Dávila and Jorge Méndez Blake at Travesia Cuatro

Installation view of Travesia Cuatro's booth. Photo by Daniel Driensky

First off, Travesia Cuatro, a gallery with outposts in both Madrid and Guadalajara, wins for exuding chic minimalist vibes the entire fair. Their carefully considered selections highlighted four Mexican artists with work exploring themes of physics, literature, and psychology. Jorge Méndez Blake's Dearest Max, My Last Request is a meditation on Kafka's dying wish for all his unpublished manuscripts to be burned. (That request was ignored.) And in Jose Dávila's Joint E ort, a concrete block balances at a precarious angle, tethered by a stone and precise geometry.

9. Summer Wheat's Bread Winners

Summer Wheat, Bread Winners, 2017. Acrylic on aluminum mesh, 144 x 68 in. Courtesy of the artist and Fridman Gallery

Another Dallas Art Fair acquisition, Summer Wheat's Bread Winners is an accomplishment of experimental figurative painting. The Oklahoma artist's unconventional aesthetic, achieved by pushing layers of acrylic paint through a mesh screen, appears fiber-like, almost like a carpet or tapestry.

What were your favorite works at the Dallas Art Fair? Let us know on Twitter: @CreatorsProject

Related:

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Our 11 Favorite Works from the Dallas Art Fair

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