UPCOMING:
VANESSA BEECROFT, JAKE & DINOS CHAPMAN, ROBERT KNOKE, MARY MCCARTNEY & KIM GORDON
ARTIST IN FOCUS: MICKALENE THOMAS
Image: MICKALENE THOMAS, Racquel Come to Me, 2019.
Mickalene Thomas, portrait by Lyndsy Welgos
Titled Racquel Come to Me, the rug is adapted from a unique photo drawing collage created for specifically this project. The shape is irregular and free-form and combines visual elements that create a landscape of references from art history, popular culture and politics. Various levels of pile heights, carving and cutting techniques have been utilized to create an exquisite work of art. Each hand-made piece in the edition run is inherently unique due to the artisan practices used in the design’s 6-month making. The nature of the media at hand, a hand knotted rug, is a natural complement to components utilized in Thomas’ immersive installations that utilize textiles, wallpaper, furniture and decor objects to reconstruct the 1970s domestic aesthetic that was formative to her visual narrative. Thomas’ work stems from her long study of art history and classical genres of portraiture, landscape, and still life. Inspired by various sources that range from the 19th century Hudson river school to Édouard Manet, Alice Neel, and Romare Bearden, she has created a true signature style and continues to explore notions of beauty from a contemporary perspective infused with the more recent influences of popular culture and pop art, redefining contemporary ideas of portraiture. In combining traditional genres with African American female subjects, Thomas makes a case for opening up the conventional parameters of art history and culture. Thomas’s layered process of fragmentation, in which she begins with a photographic portrait and moves to collage and then on to painting, is the result of discreet borrowings from our twenty-first century language of mass culture. Strategically placed objects in her photographs come into sharper relief during the collage stage as deliberately exposed tape and abrupt lines between forms frame our perspective, focusing us on the distinct cultural languages that she puts on view. Mickalene Thomas first rug for Henzel Studio, titled Candy Crush, was unveiled at Barneys New York Madison Avenue during Frieze Art Fair in 2014. Racquel Come to Me debuts at Rossana Orlandi.
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HENZEL STUDIO COLLABORATIONS FEATURING OVER 30 OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS AND ESTATES
Since the launch of 'Henzel Studio Collaborations' at Barneys New York Madison Avenue in 2014 during Frieze Art Fair, Henzel Studio has developed art rugs with over thirty leading contemporary artists including Ashley Bickerton, Sanford Biggers, Olaf Breuning, Scott Campbell, Leo Gabin, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Jonathan Horowitz, Robert Knoke, Helmut Lang, Linder, Bjarne Melgaard, Marilyn Minter, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Tony Oursler, Richard Phillips, Jack Pierson, Richard Prince, Anselm Reyle, Wilhelm Sasnal, Juergen Teller, Mickalene Thomas, Lawrence Weiner, Jwan Yosef and AVAF. Via 'Henzel Studio Heritage' extensive collections have also been developed in collaboration with artist estates, that to date include Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Tom of Finland Foundation.
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Image: Andy Warhol, self-portrait, 1986
© / ® / ™ The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
GALLERY STORE / ARTIST DESIGNED OBJECTS AND WORKS BY LEADING INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
FROZEN PALMS GALLERY C/O HENZEL contemporary program features the work of leading international artists and offers a selection of unique and curated artist designed objects that uphold definations pertaining to creative disciplines and utility. FROZEN PALMS selects works that mirror a subjective view and stance in the world of art and design. Featured artists are all groundbreaking and leading forces within their respective fields and media, ranging from sculpture, drawing, textile, collage, photography, installations, reliefs and video art. Their mark has not only been honored and highlighted at leading galleries and institutions worldwide, but also widely documented and manifested as a mirror of cultural movements.
Image: Anselm Reyle, portrait by Hedi Slimane
HIGHLIGHT: HENZEL STUDIO X ELTON JOHN AIDS FOUNDATION
HENZEL STUDIO is proud to have been supporting the organization by donating a portion of the proceeds from an auction of the studio’s groundbreaking and unprecedented collections of handmade artist-designed carpets. Since its founding over 25 years ago, Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) has grown into one of the most highly respected international nonprofit HIV/AIDS organizations, raising more than $432 million for over 3,400 worthy programs across the globe. EJAF’s grant initiatives are designed around the core belief that every person deserves dignity, respect, and unfettered access to accurate information, prevention methods, treatment, medical care, support services, and advocacy no matter who they are, where they live, what they believe, what they do, or who they love. For more than a quarter century, EJAF grants have enabled countless community-based organizations around the world to improve and protect the health and lives of millions of people every day. Over the years, EJAF has worked closely with contemporary artists across disciplines to help support their mission.
Elton John Aids Foundation
Image: Elton John and David Furnish by Greg Gorman Courtesy of Elton John AIDS Foundation.
AD: CALLE HENZEL DESIGNS FEATURED IN THE HOME OF ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
Designs by Calle Henzel is included in AD100 designer Joe Nahem's project for Robert Downey Jr. "We wanted something we haven't seen a million times," the Iron Man star says, describing the property itself as well as the decorative ministrations of AD100 designer Joe Nahem and the team at New York City-based Fox Nahem. We didn't set out to do something conspicuously wackly. We just enjoy a bit of whimsy and fun. And we definitely don't like boring," he adds.
View Diamond Dust by Calle Henzel
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Image: Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan Downey. Courtesy of Fox Nahem / AD
NAN GOLDIN AND MICKALENE THOMAS SELECTED AS THE YEAR'S MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS
We're pleased to announce that Nan Goldin and Mickalene Thomas, part of Henzel Studio's artist program HENZEL STUDIO COLLABORATIONS are selected as two of the most infuential artists of 2019. According to Artsy; "The year’s most influential artists drove unprecedented crowds to museums, incited heated debates, spurred Instagram sensations, and set splashy auction records. Some harnessed innovative digital technologies, while others took centuries-old craft techniques to new heights." Nan Goldin was this fall named the second-most powerful person in the art world by ArtReview. Thomas continued to be a force within the art world, as well, with solo shows at Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris during FIAC, at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and a striking survey, “Better Nights,” at The Bass, which opened the week of Art Basel in Miami Beach.
View Nan Goldin
View Mickalene Thomas
Image: NAN GOLDIN, Wine and Roses, 2014 (in-situ) / Ad featuring MICKALENE THOMAS Racquel Leaned Back, 2013. Color photograph and paper olage on archival board, 8.25 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Mickalene Thomas, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
A CURATED PROGRAM FOR EMERGING CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
Founded by Asa and Calle Henzel to support artists the A/C.H. collaboration program serve as a curated platform for internationally recognized and emerging contemporary artists to seamlessly translate their work through an alternate media and to present their work to a wider community.
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Image: CALLE HENZEL x A/C.H. Collective Alta Caletta (81), 2020
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