Over four hundred members of New York’s glitterati gathered at the iconic Chelsea Hotel to view the artwork of an arguably even more iconic It Girl: Edie Sedgwick.
Vibrant brushstrokes and neon lettering make for an art piece that invokes all your senses
On Monday, November 14th we were on the scene in Columbus Circle for The Museum of Arts and Design’s most anticipated event of the year: MAD Ball. The gala honored Jeffrey Gibson and Cristina Grajales with a special tribute to Jerome A. Chazen (in memoriam).
Tim Rodgers, MAD’s Nanette L. Laitman Director, welcomed guests before a conversation between Christian Larsen, MAD Windgate Research Curator, and Cristina Grajales in The Theater at MAD. Cocktails were held in the Luminaries Lounge, specially designed with items from the Shantell Martin x HOEK limited-edition collaboration and featuring music by DJ Timo Weiland.
Guests were invited to browse open exhibitions including Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, Chris Schanck: Off-World, and Jewelry Stories, and participate in art-making activities such as fabricating masks with Lexy Ho-Tai, creating brooches with Aimee Petkus, and making jewelry charms with Ashley Khirea Wahba and Ada Chen, in partnership with NYC Jewelry Week.
This event is renowned for the attendees’ eclectic sartorial attire, and the evening did not disappoint. Bold and expressive colors were the night’s theme as creative guests showcased their prodigious ability to be eccentric.
New York comedian, beloved cabaret performer, and actor Murray Hill, hosted the benefit ceremony at the museum’s ninth floor restaurant, Robert, overlooking Central Park.
“When I was growing up in Pereira, a small city in the coffee region of Colombia, I never expected that I would be standing in front of all of you at the Museum of Arts and Design,” said Cristina Grajales, upon receiving her award from celebrated art collector and philanthropist, Beth Rudin DeWoody. After being introduced by art business advisor Colleen Keegan, Jeffrey Gibson shared, “Being honored by MAD for my work and practice is incredibly meaningful for me. The Museum has shown me support for more than a decade and was the first to show the very first punching bag sculpture in Changing Hands 3 in 2012. I am grateful to have shared this night with my husband, many supporters, and collectors of my work.”
Led by MAD Board Chair Michele Cohen, the evening included a special memorial tribute to Jerome A. Chazen, MAD Chairman Emeritus, who passed away on February 6. In attendance were Chazen’s wife, Simona Chazen, and their children, Louise Chazen Banon, Kathy, and David Chazen. MAD Chairman Emeritus Lewis Kruger, joined by his wife, Laura Kruger, was celebrated with a cake for his birthday.
Funds raised at MAD Ball, including the proceeds from this auction, help support the Museum’s exhibitions and educational programs.
What’s the only thing better than a carnival celebrating all things candy? One that ends in a sky-high drone show, of course! Only candy crush can pull off such a thing, and on Wednesday, New York City’s battery park was transformed into the ultimate candy destination. Upon arrival, guests were immediately met with an adult-sized ball pit and a series of slides to slide right into. If you looked closely, you’d see that the balls were modeled after Candy Crush’s iconic color bombs. The cute details didn’t stop there, however, as right past the DJ to the right of the ball pit was the entrance to the game area, which gave the carnival its name. You could play the classic water gun or basketball carnival games and compete for the cutest candy crush-related prizes, including beanies, tote bags, and pillows shaped like the iconic candies. There was a make-your-own hot chocolate station as well as a station where you could be treated to all of the candy your heart desired, and guests enjoyed delicious candy crush-themed food and drinks all night long while listening to a live DJ, Luda Love.
Candy Crush Saga has become a global phenomenon, attracting hundreds of millions of players from around the world. As one of the most played mobile games year in and year out, it’s been downloaded more than three billion times since it launched in 2012. As of Q2 2022, Candy Crush was the top-grossing game franchise in the U.S. app stores for the 20th consecutive quarter. To date, over five trillion levels of Candy Crush Saga have been played in 200 countries and territories.
Over a thousand people joined in on the fun at Battery Park, and for 10 sweet minutes, candies were matched at over 1,000 times the size seen on a mobile phone in a stunning performance by 500 synchronized drones. From electrifying Color Bombs to a larger-than-life Tiffi, some of the game’s most iconic elements took flight in the night sky.
“We are honored to celebrate such an incredible milestone for Candy Crush Saga,” said Fernanda Romano, Chief Marketing Officer at King. “Candy Crush Saga is one of the most beloved mobile games of all time and remains a daily source of fun in millions of peoples’ lives. We wanted to mark this momentous anniversary by showcasing some of Candy Crush Saga’s most iconic elements in a larger-than-life way above the world’s most iconic city skyline. We’re incredibly thankful to our players around the world who have kept us thriving for the last 10 years, and we are committed to continue making the world more playful for many years to come.”
“We wanted to help tell the Candy Crush Saga story in the most breathtaking way possible,” said Jeff Kaplan, General Manager, Pixis Drones. “The game is brimming with beautiful iconography, but bringing that to life required months of collaboration and the full breadth of Pixis’ engineering and design expertise. The end-product is one of the most sophisticated and vibrant performances we’ve executed, and we’re thrilled to have partnered with Candy Crush Saga to help mark such a special moment.”
Follow @candycrushsaga or visit www.candycrushsaga.com to stay updated on all of the incredible global activity to celebrate ten years of Candy Crush Saga.
Wednesday was a DRAG, baby. Netflix x Most put together a rowdy, revelatory soirée in honor of ‘Wednesday,’ their upcoming Addams Family reboot focused on everyone’s favorite moody teen girl. From the clips they showed at the event, this show is whip smart, funny and gorgeous. C’mon, art direction!
TS Madison
The night was hosted by the divine TS Madison, who was absolutely part of my queer awakening back in the day. She got us all riled up and ready for some haunting drag numbers.
Crystal Methyd (Drag Race Season 12) performed in a self-made ‘Thing’ look, aka a giant hand. It was hilarious and fun and a fantastic kickoff to the night’s performances.
Mo Heart (Drag Race Season 10, All Stars 4, UK vs The World) delivered the tightest lip-sync of the night; a sultry, sexy number where she skulked around stage seducing us all.
Photo by Ron Clark
Gottmik (Drag Race Season 13) was all gusto in his goth glam rock number. He had the best look of the night in a witchy black ensemble. Face beat, hair slicked. Here for it.
Photo by Ron Clark
Violet Chachki (Drag Race Season 7) had me sweating with a burlesque performance that hit all the right notes. Damn, ma!
We then danced the night away to spooky mashups of pop hits, took photos at the IG-friendly lil setup and generally had the time of our lives.
Be sure to check out ‘Wednesday’ when it drops November 23rd. It’s gonna be a moment.
As industrialized societies and wealthy entities continue wreaking havoc on the earth’s climate and displacing millions of people in a mass migrant crisis, some artists are looking back and paying homage to how humans used to– and still do– live.
Javier Senosiain, El Nido de Quetzalcóatl (1998–2007). Model fabricated by Enrique Cabrera. © Javier Senosiain / Arquitectura Orgánica
On view now at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens through February 26, 2023, “In Praise of Caves: Organic Architecture Projects from Mexico” is the culmination of decades of work by four Mexican artists-architects who explored the natural landscape of caves and created them in the modern context. Taking over the entire first floor of the museum, the exhibition offers a thought-provoking look at how humans live and move today, and how we might experience the future years to come.
The exhibition, with works by Carlos Lazo, Mathias Goeritz, Juan O’Gorman, and Javier Senosiain, questions how humans might reconnect with nature through shelter, bringing forth environments that came forth in Mexico during the 1900s. The Knockturnal was invited to the exhibition’s opening night ceremony on October 18, where art lovers packed into the museum’s first floor and were joined by the last living artist Javier Senosiain, who described his inspiration for such works and how he interacted with his fellow artists and Isamu Noguchi himself.
“To be an originalist, we have to go back to the origin of things,” Senosiain said through a translator, before asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine themselves in the womb at the time of their birth. “We are like astronauts floating in space, in a round shape with no windows, and feel this urge to be pushed through, with the lights shocking us.”
Senosiain explains that psychologists describe the action of being born as a traumatic experience, and explains this is due to the shape of where we find ourselves in.
“If we are born early, we are put in a glass box,” he says. “When we leave the square room, we take the rectangular train to our boxy apartments in New York, where we get pushed into these cradles with boarded sticks.”
“As we continue to grow, we crawl around the apartment, through the rectangular doors, and see the kitchen with boxes and squares on the wall.”
The artist continues down this path of reasoning until the very end. “And when we die, we get put into a box and lowered into a square in the ground.” Because of this, Senosiain puts forth, “we lose three very important aspects of our career: creativity, spontaneity, and freedom.”
Instead, he offers that we should reconsider how humans live on earth and how we interact with our natural landscape— in a not-so-square-ish way. By paying attention to the earth’s natural shelters and more specifically, its shapes, we can ensure humans, in general, will never lose the most important aspects of our lives, all the while helping mitigate the very crises that [some] humans helped create.
“We can return to the earth again,” Senosiain ended. “We can become human again.”
At the very beginning of October, we were invited to the Park Hyatt New York hotel for the latest art collection featuring Jeffrey Okyere-Agyeii, a contemporary abstract artist and bellman at the hotel. “TeRa-NiSeR ToTeMs” is inspired by Okyere-Agyei’s upbringing in Ghana, where totems are a large part of the physical symbology passed down through generations. Ghana is one of many cultures across the world that have totems embedded in their history through artifacts and storytelling. These totems possess spirits of animals, plants, and various other entities associated with their ancestors.
Marking Okyere-Agyei’s third exhibit at the iconic Park Hyatt New York, the collection titled “TeRa-NiSeR ToTeMs,” is inspired by the artist’s upbringing in Ghana, where totems were a large part of the physical symbology he experienced, as passed down through the generations. Ghana’s culture, artifacts, and storytelling, like many across the world, honor totems as important fixtures embedded in their history, and typically possess spirits of animals, plants, and various other entities associated with their ancestors.
“I have always been intrigued by ancient mythical artifacts and have found their relevance to the human story fascinating,” said Okyere-Agyei. “TeRa-NiSeR ToTeMs has become my creative interpretation of one aspect of our human history, modern art, and its spiritual symbology as a way to connect the past to the present. With the use of resin and vibrant color pigments, each piece has a unique mystical reverence about it.”
Last fall, the hotel presented Okyere-Agyei’s “EDIFICE,” an abstract interpretation of New York City’s incredible cityscapes and famous skyline. Prior to that in September 2019, Okyere-Agyei displayed his first Park Hyatt New York exhibit, “Future Art for the Present,” which reflected his love of movement in nature, space, and geometry.
The artist’s current installation began on September 14 and will be commemorated with a launch event in the hotel’s restaurant, The Living Room, on October 6. “TeRa-NiSeR ToTeMs” will be on display at Park Hyatt New York’s ground-level Avenue Gallery and in The Living Room through the end of December 2022.
Empanadas. Corn on the cob. Open bar with margaritas and mojitos. All surrounded by art and photography to the tunes of DJ’s from New York City.
On Saturday Oct 15, SNIPES in partnership with Converse and Street Dreams put on the “Mi Gente” exhibit in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The events celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month and the launch of the SNIPES x Converse “Mi Gente” sneaker collection, special color ways of the Chuck Taylor All-Start and the Chuck 670.
The spacious white walled room was packed with fashionable Brooklynites, many sporting chic streetwear and Converse. A dance floor, art gallery and photo booth practically all occupied the same space.
Works by Campos, Gabriella Gabriella, Joe Cavallini, Roger Castle and more lined the room as people danced, ate and mingled. Much of the photography and artwork featured everyday Latinos going about their lives. For example, there were photographs of little league teams and street vendors as well as portraits.
Live DJ sets were provided by Odalys, Dana Lu and Dada Cosmic. One of the performers, DJ Odalys, serves as the face of the campaign, starring in the campaign launch video.
In it, she visits where she grew up and talks about what her Hispanic roots mean to her. You can watch the video here.
The Knockturnal attended the LEGO Center for Creative Flow interactive VIP experience, held at Hudson Lofts in Downton Los Angeles. The event was hosted by well-known florist and art director Jeff Leatham and LEGO Brickmaster Jamie Berard.
LEGO transformed Hudson Lofts into a stunning, vibrant arena filled with flowers: both real and Lego-constructed. Guests were fully immersed in the botanical world, with multiple rooms housing different interactive experiences. In one, participants could take photos on a flower-submerged couch complete with a prominent moss-sculpted LEGO logo. In another, guests could have their aura photographs taken and analyzed by professionals, while the last room held a rainbow wall of Legos.
Meanwhile, the main room hosted DJ Ms. Nix, delicious passed appetizers, and a bar with a beautiful assortment of colorful signature cocktails, each one topped off with an edible floral garnish. Tables with small Lego pieces allowed anyone to practice mindfulness and manifestation through building.
Later on, participants had the opportunity to build Lego flower stems and design their unique petals based on feelings they wanted to manifest. Each color was assigned a meaning; for instance, red was linked to passion, or blue to peace. All in all, over 500 guests enjoyed the weekend-long creative and colorful LEGO experience.
Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, feels more like the tomb of a dead pharaoh than a gallery exhibition. The design is quasi-chronological, taking the viewer through Basquiat’s early life and sketches, to his Great Jones Studio and larger canvases. The exhibit is showing on the ground floor of the Starrett-Lehigh building and has been extended until 1/1/23. His two sisters are responsible for the exhibition. Their family and their relationship with Basquiat takes center stage.
I knew very little about Basquiat before King Pleasure. On display is his work, his toys, party photos, a report card, and even a recreation of his childhood living room. T.V’s play loops of his sister’s stories about their younger brother’s antics. The exhibition indicates a human far less eccentric than the legend; the references to the housing crisis, the boxing motifs, the bicycle he had to ride because cabs wouldn’t pick up the young black legend. Eventually, but instantly, the life of a black New Yorker started to speak to me through his work.
I wouldn’t waste too much time on blurbs while viewing King Pleasure. The beauty of the work and the intimacy of the exhibit made the writing about his art very frustrating. Background information and family stories are a welcome addition, but written descriptions of motifs were a real dopamine dump. When you look at Basquiat’s work and see monsters, apartments, police, and philosophers, a short blurb saying that a black artist was concerned with black issues doesn’t add anything. It felt like an explainer for someone who didn’t care about black issues.
The balance between a history exhibit and an art show is a fine line. Overexplaining is always a danger. The art and the artifacts speak volumes. A far reaching wordless commentary on society always smells like magic. I hope that more artists and their work can be entombed in as much context as King Pleasure does for King Basquiat.