Virgil Abloh, creative director of Louis Vuitton men’s wear since 2018 as well as CEO of the Milan-based label Off White, is out now with his first solo show, “Figures of Speech”, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. In collaboration with Samir Bantal of AMO, he set up the exhibition according to a narrative that developes along the different worlds the artist moves in: architecture, fashion, design, music and art.
From his early steps in fashion to his experience as Kanye West’s and now Louis Vuitton’s creative director as well as his work as a DJ, the exhibition provides an overview on Abloh’s influence on contemporary pop culture. This setting is a result of an ongoing and longer-term collaboration between AMO and Abloh on other projects such as the interiors of a new Off White showroom in Miami. It is built for two kind of visitors, the tourist and the “purist”, by alternating narrative halls to more conceptual ones.
According to Abloh, he and Bantal have the same “architectural frame of mind” and a common concept of what architecture is today. Although he is internationally recognized as a charismatic figure and an all-round artist, what the exhibition shows is his architecture training lent to pop culture.
- Exhibition:
- Figures of Speech
- Artist:
- Virgil Abloh
- Architects:
- Virgil Abloh and Samir Bantal of AMO/OMA
- Curator:
- Michael Darling
- Location:
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
- Opening dates:
- from June 12 to September 22, 2019
- Photography:
- Nathan Keay