Julie Verhoeven | G.O.A.T.I.M.O*
Coincidentally, my love for Verhoeven's illustrations followed right after my brief obsession with Egon Schiele's nude figure drawings. While studying abroad in 2006 in the UK, I copped an issue of Dazed x Confused that featured at least six spreads of her illos. Needless to say, I've kept the magazine ever since to maintain my own personal collection of her work. #lovestory
Although Verhoeven first started off as a fashion designer (trained as such and also career-wise), her gorgeous illustrations are what I've always known her for.
Schooled at MidKent College in the 80s, Verhoeven later went on to work under John Galliano and Martine Sibon in Paris. But it doesn't end there—her collaborations are even more impressive and can be summed up with two very familiar names: Mulberry and
Louis Vuitton.
There are a couple of published books that feature Verhoeven's work such as Gas Book 13, which is going for a little over $180 at Amazon.com—so if anyone wants to make my life complete, this would be it (I like to keep things simple). But until then, I'll anxiously await the completion of her portfolio site which is a work in progress as we speak (yesss). www.JulieVerhoeven.com
Images via Daze x Confused, Vol. 2 : Issue No. 38 (June 2006).
*G.O.A.T.I.M.O. stands for "Greatest of All Time in My Opinion." Can you feel the reverence?
Julie Mehretu | Wall Art
"Julie Mehretu's biography reads a bit like an atlas. She was born in Ethiopia, raised in Michigan, educated in Senegal and Rhode Island, and now lives in New York ... her work incorporates the dynamic visual vocabulary of maps, urban-planning grids, and architectural forms as it alternates between historical narratives and fictional landscapes ... " (Excerpt via Walker Art Center)
I saw Mehretu's work for the first time at the ICA in Boston last month and it was love at first sight. My partner at Infashuated likened her work to Kandinsky (of course) and Alexander Calder's 3-D mobiles, which I considered to be a fresh, yet reasonable point of view when you think about the the two different media. However, it was the rich complexities of each piece and luscious layers that drew my attention to Mehretu's work the most.
There's never a place to rest your eyes—and the scale at which these are done is something else at which to marvel (Mehretu created a whole wall space at Goldman Sach's in NYC). The artist also plays with dimension through space, vertigo-inducing shapes, and too many lines to count—it's a kaleidoscopic, chaotic, beautiful mess.
