Lifestyle

Rapper, skincare ambassador, jewelry aficionado, fashion icon — Pharrell Williams has wore many hats over his career. A new book aims to capture the creative process that underpins each of his endeavors through quotes said by the larger-than-life personality. Published by No More Rulers (NMR) and Princeton University Press, Pharrell-isms is the latest entry in the ISMs series, which includes past volumes on Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai Weiwei, Virgil Abloh, and Daniel Arsham. Playing in line with past titles, the book is edited by NMR founder Larry Warsh and comes in a sleek purple pocket-sized format.Select quotations from the book:Self-awareness is a muscle that needs exercise. It needs a regimen.You’ve got to continue to reinvent yourself today, all the while thinking about tomorrow.Music i...

New York-based artist Erik Foss will soon be presenting his first-ever solo show in Japan at Kaikai Kiki Gallery later this week. The exhibition, titled Carnival, will be Foss’ first solo show since 2021 and will showcase a selection of new paintings, sculptures as well as drawings he worked on over the past six months.Raised in the deserts, Foss is a self-taught artist whose early artistic influences stem from his religious upbringing, the American cultural landscape, underground music, skateboarding, and other subcultures. Even in his more recent works, cultural identity remains to be a prominent theme that the artist explores and expands on.In Carnival, Foss depicts snakes with smiley faces in his signature airbrushed style and almost fluorescent color schemes. Carlo McCormick, curator,...

Ruttkowski;68 is playing host to a new joint exhibition by Japanese-American artist KATSU and Belgian artist Frédéric Platéus. Housed at the gallery's Cologne flagship, DAS INTELLIGENCE is a collaborative effort that fuses their unique approaches to material, form, and technique.Platéus' dynamic work harks to the world of supercars and motorsports. The Belgian artist sources an array of branded material, from fake leather, nylon, and mesh, to create quixotic forms that are aesthetically rooted in the present, but veer towards the future, such as his monochromatic MK12-325 Punch.KATSU on the other hand, employs drones to assist in the creation of his hybridized portraits and landscapes. In the past, he has tapped into the metaverse through an ambitious NFT project, along with collaborating ...

"What if Noguchi sculpted the letter N? Or Hilma af Klint painted her own initial?" A new book by designers Andrea Trabucco-Campos and Martín Azambuja seeks to find out as the two worked with AI platform Midjourney to imagine what each letter in the alphabet would look like if created by 52 historical artists. Entitled Artificial Typography, the book is as much a meditation on art history, as it is on the current hysteria surrounding AI, and the very nature of communication. By using text prompts, the two former Pentagram alumni took on the role of curator as they meticulously sifted through a pool of AI-generated imagery to guide readers along a creative journey through the alphabet. “It puts an emphasis on art direction and the idea, which is what some of the best image makers spend thei...