Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/122433
SILJA MAGG On the Cover Last year, we held our breath when Houston's first-ever art fair was launched. The verdict? Ten thousand visitors and more than 70 international, national and Texas dealers turned out for the debut of the Houston Fine Art Fair. Sales were stellar, as collectors, curators, nonprofit folk, media and the art curious vied for modern and contemporary masterworks, from an unforgettable six-figure Jasper Johns flag — scooped up by a discerning type from Hiram Butler Gallery — to a towering inflated steel sculpture of candy-colored cubes by William Cannings, acquired by an astute collector at Anya Tish Gallery. Year two of the Houston Fine Art Fair The design-minded beau monde is walking on sunshine, thanks to brightly hued soles for men, care of multiple footwear créateurs. Seth Vaughan IMAGE COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TALLEY DUNN GALLERY, DALLAS We are living in — and loving — French designer Coco's supersized silk or cashmere scarves that feature intricately detailed drawings and watercolor imagery using digitalprinting techniques. The totems for her Forget Me Not scarves and turbans, which are produced in Como, are literary imagery, ranging from children's books to fin-de-siècle novels, surrealism, montages and enchanting collage works of the modernist avant-garde. The scarves have been featured in Numero, Nylon, V, L'Officiel and Grazia, and we are winding them into pareos, sarongs, capes and halters. At Barneys New York, Dallas. Fair Fever Tripping the Light Fantastic Snobs red-soled Francesina leather brogue lace-up $229, at lusiaviaroma.com Cole Haan fuchsiasoled LunarGrand wingtips $248, at Cole Haan; colehaan.com Trenton Doyle Hancock's Campbell's Streetlight, 2010, at Talley Dunn Gallery, HFAF What to Covet Now: beckons next month, September 13 through 16, and it's expected to be even stronger. Opening night again benefits the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Glassell School of Art; you can even shop current Core artists in residence at a special MFAH booth. What's new? An expanded venue: the light-rail-accessible Reliant Stadium (park at the MFAH and take the train). There's also a new curatorial effort: MKG Art Management's Melissa Grobmyer and Janet Hobby join Fair developer Rick Friedman's team. (Friedman's other art endeavors include fairs in Aspen, the Hamptons, Palm Springs and San Francisco, but it's his Houston venture that has the most potential in terms of the prominence of our city as a visual nexus.) PaperCity steps up as media sponsor for 2012, so watch these pages next month for your insider guide to all the Fair action. Hint: Fahrenheit (hot emerging dealers), Focus (provocative solo shows), Latin American art and photography are some of the leitmotifs for 2012. Amping up the aesthetic, internationally noted Texas-based interiors architect Lauren Rottet of Rottet Studio has been tapped to design the VIP lounge. And at press time, twotime Whitney Biennial-exhibited, Houston-based Trenton Doyle Hancock, a former Core Fellow, has just been announced as the HFAF artist-honoree. Thursday, September 13 Opening Night Preview Party; Fair days Friday – Sunday, September 14 –16, at Reliant Center. Opening-night ticket from $75 (includes three-day Fair admission); VIP ticket $125 (includes early-access Opening Night and three-day Fair admission); individual Fair tickets from $25; info houstonfineartfair.com. Catherine D. Anspon Pert, Perfect and Prada T-shirts have often been the domain for artist statements. I love my Louise Bourgeois hipbones-emblazoned number and am still coveting the Jean Paul Gaultier sexy textbearing shirt that I missed acquiring at last fall's Gaultier extravaganza at the Dallas Museum of Art. Now the perfect retailer has stepped up to the tee plate: Prada, which deployed Americanborn, Paris-based artist/graphic designer Vahram Muratyan for a project entitled Parallel Universes. Muratyan's commission yielded a collection of both saucy and succinct images — sunglasses, handbags and shoes that morph into pools or skyscraper roofs, and even a ring depicted on a well-manicured hand — which march across the canvas of Prada's latest tees. The enigmatic, stylized abstraction of the Vahram Muratyan's Parallel Universes artist's vision, executed in eye-popping shades Collection for Prada of tangerine, Palm Beach blue and golf-course green, also reference the science of semiotics and global communication media. And they're exactly what we'll be wearing for opening night of the Houston Fine Art Fair. $235 each, through prada.com. Catherine D. Anspon Dot Matrix SocialWhirl We're 30 days out from the epicenter of the season. Watch these pages for our must-save Fall Social Calendar, coming next month — the definitive datebook of where to be, who to see and which nonprofits to support. It's the Holy Grail of the charity circuit. Meanwhile, get an early start in August with five events that have the PC seal of approval. Party Like a Rock Star is always a blast; '70s- or '80s-era costuming recommended on Saturday, August 11, at House of Dereon Media Center (2204 Crawford), benefitting Planned Parenthood (ppgulfcoast.org/ rockstar) … Next up, Astros Wives Black Ties and Baseball Caps Thursday, August 16, is the only occasion we know where tuxes and gowns parade along the field of Minute Maid Park, all to benefit Houston Area Women's Center (Judy Nichols, 713.781.0053) … Saturday, August 25, it-gals gather for The Woman's Hospital of Texas 9th Annual Labor Day Luncheon and Style Show. Chaired by Linda Russell and Rishma Mohamed, this fabulous day at the InterContinental Houston raises funds for March of Dimes, with PaperCity as media sponsor (labordayluncheon. com) … On the evening of Saturday, August 25, PaperCity again steps 2011 Labor Day Luncheon chairmen Dee Dee forward as media sponsor for the Guggenheim, Linda Russell World Trade Soirée at Hotel ZaZa. The "Luck Be Houston"-themed eve channels the golden era of the Rat Pack, while toasting our global business leaders and is presented by the Greater Houston Partnership (houston.org/soiree) … On Sunday, August 26, partake of performing arts pleasures at the Theater District Open House (downtownhouston.org/district/ theater.). Catherine D. Anspon AUGUST | PAGE 6 | 2012 GENESIS It's the most memorable marriage of fashion and art since Louis Vuitton enlisted Takashi Murakami for a 2002 collaboration (which reached its apex with a 2007 show at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art that saw the building of a full-on Louis Vuitton boutique in lieu of the typical museum store). Now, LV's artistic director, Marc Jacobs, has commissioned a talent well-known to art-world insiders, if not yet the general public: the tantalizing Yayoi Kusama. Louis Vuitton Yayoi Kusama window This Japanese-born octogenarian lived and worked during the heady '60s in NYC, where she painted, rubbed shoulders with Warhol, was praised by Donald Judd, was the paramour of Joseph Cornell and staged wild happenings, including a nude romp in Central Park, where she decorated the skin of fellow participants with her pervading dot imagery. The artist then entered a period of obscurity. When she moved back to Japan in the '70s, she admitted herself into the Tokyo mental hospital where she still lives, albeit leaving daily to work in her nearby studio. Her last big moment was a solo show at MoMA in 1998. Now she's back with a touring international retrospective that began at the Reina Sofia in Madrid, traveled to the Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Modern in London, and concludes with a flourish at the Whitney Museum of American Art this summer (through September 30). But it's arguably Louis Vuitton's project with Kusama that will imprint her yellow-and-black and red-and-black dot obsession on the popular consciousness. Watch for the artist to take over LV store windows worldwide, coinciding with the launch of an intensely covetable collection of ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry and leather goods including the statement bag, which is the tip-top of this scribe's wish list for an entrance-making arrival at any art opening. (FYI: Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama Collection Kusama also has a Texas connection. In 1997, Houston's Rice Gallery mounted one of the first American shows for the rediscovered artist, and top Texas collector Lester Marks owns a pair of dot-covered Yayoi mannequins.) At the Louis Vuitton boutique; louisvuitton.com. Catherine D. Anspon