‘Contemporary art is a part of my daily life – I’ve been following it for many, many years,’ muses Angela Missoni on the eve of the launch Surface Conversion, a new art programme which has been brewing for two years.
and launched this week in the fashion label's New York flagship on Madison Avenue. The Italian creative director recalls seeing galleries like Emmanuel Perrotin's arriving in the area and thinking: ‘those huge windows can be used for more than just fashion.'
In terms of volume and surface space, the store is exceptional – hence the project’s title. Missoni is literally converting the shop floor and putting it to a different use. The idea is to create a multi-faceted creative platform where diverse interventions can take place: from exhibitions through to talks, book launches and live performances.
At yesterday’s launch event, two of these initiatives could already be ticked off. Servane Mary, the Brooklyn-based artist who kicks off the programme, filled the corner windows and a series of lightboxes with her visual art, press and publicity images from the 1940s and 1970s, riffing on female mis-representation and identity. But Mary also performed live with her band, The Cornichons.
‘I was twelve in 1970,’ says Missoni, ‘so I took the revolution for granted. Even so, I know it’s still necessary to have a voice and give other women a voice.’ The feminist message in Mary’s work is something Missoni feels close to – consider her mission accomplished.
The label’s creative director Angela Missoni has always had a keen interest in contemporary art
The first artist to feature in the programme, Servane Mary re-appropriates advertising images from the 1940s and 1970s.
Untitled (Woman on a Fence), 2015
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Missoni website
ADDRESS
1009 Madison Avenue
New York
NY 10075
-
After the floods, Valencia’s design community unitesValencia's design community launches ‘Auction for Action’ and 'Interioristas en Acción' (IED), initiatives to raise money for those effected by the floods in Spain
-
In Helsinki, Pauline Curnier Jardin has created the grotesque amusement park of her dreamsFrench artist Pauline Curnier Jardin celebrates otherness at Kiasma, Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art
-
A celestial New York exhibition showcases Roman and Williams’ mastery of lightingLauded design studio Roman and Williams is exhibiting 100 variations of its lighting ‘family tree’ inside a historic Tribeca space
-
Olfactory Art Keller: the New York gallery exhibiting the smell of vintage perfume, blossoming lilacs and last night’s shameOlfactory Art Keller is a Manhattan-based gallery space dedicated to exhibiting scent as art. Founder Dr Andreas Keller speaks with Lara Johnson-Wheeler about the project, which doesn’t shy away from the ‘unpleasant’
-
Kohler plunges into the world of wellness with an ice bath for your homeKohler has teamed up with Remedy Place to design an ice bath for the home, marking the brand’s first move into the wellness space
-
‘Remembering without nostalgia’: Giorgio Armani presents his S/S 2025 collection in New YorkGiorgio Armani returned to New York for his S/S 2025 show, which coincided with the opening of a flagship boutique on Madison Avenue
-
Discothèque perfumes evoke the scent of Tokyo in the year 2000As Discothèque gets ready to launch its first perfume collection, Mary Cleary catches up with the brand’s founders
-
Filippo Grazioli to exit Missoni, succeeded by a veteran of the Italian houseIn a week of fashion musical chairs, news comes from Milan this morning that Filippo Grazioli is leaving Missoni, replaced by veteran designer Alberto Caliri
-
Fashion’s favourite bookstore, Climax, opens a ‘sexy, angry’ New York outpostWallpaper* catches up with Isabella Burley, founder of Climax, as she inaugurates a New York outpost of the cult bookstore and showcases a playful new collaboration with fashion label Chopova Lowena
-
Henry Zankov is the knitwear non-conformist making fashion’s favourite sweaters‘It's about pushing the boundaries of what knitwear can be,’ says Henry Zankov, whose exuberant New York-based label is already beloved by fashion insiders
-
New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 highlights: Tory Burch to Michael KorsWallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss selects the best of New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 in our ongoing round-up, from a reinvention of sportswear at Tory Burch to Michael Kors’ Italian escape
