MISSONI Surface Conversion
Angela Missoni presents: I Feel So Crazy
by Raul De Nieves & Jessie Sted
On view:
May 22- September 30th
Opening Reception:
May 22 // 6 – 8
Missoni boutique, NYC
Back in 2016, Missoni launched Surface Conversion, an art project conceived by Angela Missoni, converting the Missoni Madison Ave. boutique into an art gallery. Fusing art, culture and fashion at a single location, Missoni asks artists to develop a site-specific project, integrating artworks into every single corner of the shop. Ultimately, the projects aim to transform the scale of the Missoni boutique into a creative stage, a platform reaching large audiences and communicating the ever-changing relationship between culture, fashion, and art. The program rotates artists/exhibits every three months – which includes talks, performances, and exhibits crossing all mediums.
The newest edition titled “I Feel So Crazy ” by artists Raul De Nieves & Jessie Sted will be held from May 22 through September 30th with an opening reception on Wednesday, May 22nd (invite only). The first show, which opened in 2016, featured the work of Brooklyn-based artist Servane Mary, who transforms midcentury photographs of women—some of whom are her heroes, some of whom are misunderstood tragic figures.
Conceived in collaboration with A Palazzo Gallery, the exhibition is the stage where the two artists will present a body of works they realized for this show in relation to the space of the boutique. The collaboration between Raúl de Nieves and Jessie Stead with their performance art band Hairbone with the fabulous Nathan Whipple, I Feel So Crazy celebrates a 10-year-and-counting archive of live event ephemera with image and video documentation collaged into grid patterns. Creating quilt-like patchworks of recorded improvisational performances, the arcane history in these media time-capsules showcases the band’s signature makeshift props, fashion, destructions, and many music venues long since closed down.
About the artists:
Raúl De Nieves traces his artistic practice back to his childhood in Mexico: at school and alongside family members, he learned traditional Latin American sewing and beadwork that now permeate his art in multiple ways. At the age of nine de Nieves immigrated to San Diego with his mother and two brothers. Later he moved to San Francisco and finally to New York, where his multimedia practice, including painting, sculpture, and performance, has taken shape. De Nieves has presented solo projects and performances at The Kitchen and the Watermill Center, New York (both 2017), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2016). He has participated in major contemporary art surveys, including Documenta 14 (2018), the 2017 Whitney Biennial, and Greater New York at MoMA/PS1 (2015).
Jessie Stead works in overlapping patterns of installation, music, cinema, text, collaboration and other forms of cross-disciplined art. Her work has been presented widely in varied platforms, recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Jan Kaps (Cologne), Jenny’s (Los Angeles), 247365 (NY), and OCDChinatown (NY). Collaborative projects, group exhibitions and performances include the Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw, Poland), Fridericianum (Kassel, DE), the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, and Performa 13 (NY). Stead’s earlier cinematic work has screened at The London Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives (NY), MoCAD (Detroit), and in Greater New York at MoMA PS1 (2010). She is the experimental percussionist in the artband Hairbone (formerly Haribo). Hairbone’s debut LP Earth To Momma, produced by Stead, was released in 2018 by Blank Forms Editions. Recent work in moving image includes directing two music videos for Hairbone and the editing and sound design for the feature documentary George: The Story of George Maciunas & Fluxus which will screen at Art Basel in June 2019.
