Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech

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That journey is essentially what we’re putting on display here so that kids coming to the city have a reflection of what they see in the outside world in a different context,” he says. In undertaking projects in new fields, he not only influences the conversations within them but also expands their traditional audiences, reaching millions through social media. When asked what he learned from navigating the industry alongside West for his mentor’s ill-fated stint at Nike, Abloh shares a short and enigmatic answer: “I always enjoyed any type of design opportunity that bled into my own projects. See Dezeen Events Guidefor an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

At the entrance to the exhibition are a few long tables, designed by Abloh, that display early sketches and works in architecture alongside fashion design prototypes and Abloh's forays into sound system design through his collaboration with consumer company Braun. Anytime an idea hits a particular surface; a photo print, a screen, a billboard or canvas, it seems like fact. Tinker Hatfield, the Nike design legend behind the Air Jordan III, Air Max 1, and countless others, has seen this firsthand.Remember Abloh’s first Paris Fashion Week, which was documented in an iconic Tommy Ton photo (also on display at the exhibition) and lampooned on South Park? New York had a special meaning for [Abloh], in the sense that it really was the place that he in some ways became the artist that we have come to know," Sargent told Dezeen. The catalogue section offers an overview of Abloh's interdisciplinary practice by Michael Darling and features essays and interviews with key voices in art, fashion, design, and architecture, including Taiye Selasi, Lou Stoppard, Michael Rock, Samir Bantal, Rem Koolhaas, and Anja Aronowsky Cronberg. Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” is the first museum exhibition devoted to the work of the genre-bending artist and designer Virgil Abloh (b.

Depending on how much you know about Abloh, or whether you want to consult the brochure the museum hands you upon entry or make your own assumptions about the items displayed, you can land in either of the camps. Abloh used collaged elements, transparent materials, self-referential labels, tabs, and zip ties to emphasize the shoes’ construction, inviting people to take a second look at these iconic sneakers.This special edition comes in a cloth slipcase with “”Personal Copy”” silkscreened on the book fore edge. Abloh is passionate about advancing pathways in art and design for young black designers and those from non-traditional backgrounds. He has made himself ‘Virgil Abloh,’ an object in this pursuit, aware that how he labels and positions himself—whether at the helm of a luxury house, as the artist at the opening of a gallery exhibition or on the red carpet of fashion’s most-watched event, the Met Ball, wearing Air Jordans—challenges stigmas, conventions and canons and, in one way or another, moves culture onward.