The first ever Style Noir giveaway has arrived just in time for the holidays! Deborah Willis' recently released Posing Beauty: African-American Images from the 1890s to the Present features hundreds of inspired-- and inspiring-- depictions of Black Americans, beginning with the turn of the century and continuing to the present day, and I've got a copy to give away to one lucky Style Noir reader. Keep it for yourself or gift it-- although this will be difficult after you thumb through it, I promise-- to your favorite budding shutterbug.

Entry is simple: leave a comment about the best holiday gift you've ever received by midnight on Friday, December 11th. On Saturday, I'll toss all the gracious participants' names into a virtual hat and randomly select a winner. For two entries and two chances to win, fan Style Noir on Facebook, where I'm prone to posting lil' tidbits that don't appear here.

Bonne chance!

WINNER: Congratulations to AMINA, who doubled her odds by becoming a fan of Style Noir on Facebook. Thank you all for your participation-- some of the answers were truly lovely! Bryant, have fun in China! Amina, email your mailing address to stylenoir at gmail dot com and we'll ship your treasure out to you ASAP. Enjoy!

2009 MacArthur Fellow Mark Bradford creates massive collages out of found materials he gathers in his neighborhood in South Central LA. End papers, remnants of signage, string and other interesting bits are assembled into modernist master works that suggest not only literal cartography, but also figurative map making of the cultural and psychological varieties.

Bradford's first sale was his painting, "Dreadlocks caint tell me nothing," which was purchased by collector and philanthropist Eileen Harris Norton in 2001.

The artist is represented by Sikkema Jenkins.

I've been head over heels-- I mean straight bananas-- for these prints by DC-based artist Michael Platt for a while now. Not sure what's taken me so long to post them. Platt calls himself an "image maker" whose work is "grounded in the human condition." I prefer the simplistic but wholly appropriate, "visionary."

Most of this work, which features some familiar faces, is for sale. To view more work from this series or to inquire about making a purchase-- highly encouraged-- visit the artist's website, Platt Studio.

A piece of jewelry is in a sense an object that is not complete in itself. Jewelry is a "what is it?" until you make it relate to the body. The body is a component in design just as air and space are. Like line, form, and color, the body is a material to work with. It is one of the basic inspirations in creating form.

Art Smith

You made certain to high tail it over to the Brooklyn Museum for the Yinka Shonibare show, which closed on on September 20th. But did you get a chance to ogle any of Art Smith's creations? The modernist jeweler (d. 1982) was active during the middle of the 20th century, when he worked exclusively-- and to great, largely undocumented acclaim-- out of a storied workshop and retail space on West 4th Street in New York's West Village. He worked with copper, silver, gold and semi-prcious stones and was heavily influenced by his jazz musician friends and acquaintances.

21 magnificent pieces, along with some of the Cooper Union trained artist's tools, photographs, sketches, and other archival material are on view at the Brooklyn Museum until March 14, 2010. If you won't be making a pilgrimage to NYC anytime soon, you can get your fix with a purchase of the exhibition catalog, From the Village to Vogue: Modernist Jewelry of ART SMITH.

Photos are from the Flickr stream of egotechnique.

Clicked into Habitually Chic today (as I do everyday and from whence these photos were culled) and caught wind that artist Glenn Ligon is featured in the latest J. Crew catalog, along with rising star Lucien Smith and five others. Find out what Glenn and company think about the interplay between art and fashion on J. Crew's Open Studio site.

I can't remember when, where, or how I first came across the work of Frank Bowling, but what a treat it is. The Guyanese-born, British painter (b. 1936) has been turning out his ethereal abstract paintings for over forty years. Shown above are, "Sheep's Head (1960)," "Fishes, Wishes, and Uncle Jack (1989)" and, "Flambouria's Choice (1983)," respectively. Bowling is represented by Rollo Contemporary Art in London and in 2005 was elected the first Black member of England's 200 year-old Royal Academy of Art.

"If I hadn't gone to New York [in the 60s]," Bowling says in Rose Jones' documentary on the painter, "I wouldn't have been able to develop as an artist." The consensus in England at the time was that there was "no room" for an "unusual, Black artist." In New York, "there were oodles of artists who also happened to be Black and who were having their struggles with the scene there." Bowling felt an immediate kinship with this group, and also discovered that the "sharpness" of the critical American art world provided-- and continues to provide-- "sustaining energy."

Images culled from ArtNet, where you can view much more of Bowling's work, as well as the work of the other artists in Rollo Contemporary's portfolio.

I absolutely love these electrifying but still vaguely haunting paintings by Senegalese artist Soly Cissé. His work was featured at the Milan furniture fair last month as part of Stephen Burks' "M'Afrique" installation for Italian furniture manufacturer, Moroso. Read about it on iconeye. Also part of the installation was the work of Nubian artist Fathi Hassan (whom I'll be featuring shortly) and the photographs of architect David Adjaye.

A sexy little collaboration between photographer Piper Carter and artist Ogechi Chieke. Model is Cody Thronton. Complete credits can be found at Ogechi's space on Vimeo. Piper says this is one piece of a series that will be exhibited-- probably at her new gallery in Detroit.

I love these plates from William Ismael, a motion director and graphic artist based in Paris. They're a functional marriage of delicacy and masculinity-- and so would probably make a great wedding gift. Purchase them-- or a smattering of other Ismael-designed products-- from his online boutique.

A global citizen, director/designer Ismael was born in the south of France and raised in Paris, Milan, New York and Los Angeles. And he's a polymath of serious proportions: he's earned a couple degrees, had a record deal with Warner Bros. France at 16, and has appeared in Vogue-- as a model.

As I wrap up preparations for my trip to Liberia, I leave you to enjoy this collage-- aptly titled, "Stay Strong"-- by French-Senegalese photographer/art director/painter/designer Delphine Diallo.

J. Michelle Hill-Campbell is a pioneer of digital print on cloth. She designs texiles for use in home furnishings, fashion, and theater (see Lion King, Aida). Hill-Campbell is based in New York, received her MFA from Howard, and teaches several classes at Parsons-- one of which I've been meaning to enroll in for a couple of years. I can't find much information on the Africa- and Asia-inspired designer on the interwebs, but would of course love to see more of her work. Photo from the Museum of Arts and Design.

Patricia Coffie is a Ghanaian photographer based in New York. I missed her recent show at the Mary Boone Gallery, but look forward to having an opportunity to get up close to her thrilling work soon.

A photograph by Xaviera Simmons-- one of the many works on offer at the Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction next Tuesday. The Brooklyn-based Simmons received her BFA from Bard College, completed a two-year actor training program at Maggie Flanigan, and is a co-founder of Tuffness Crew, a DJ collective.

Visual and performance artist Rashaad Newsome stages his cerebral, wildly amusing Shade Compositions 2009 tonight through Saturday at The Kitchen. Newsome says much of his work is "an interrogation of the notion of class," and that he is interested in exploring "the desire for power by people in subalterian positions." Me, too.

Shade Compositions strikes me as a sort of post-modern "Four Women"-- although tonight's presentation will involve twenty lovelies. The work hinges on the re-presentation of familiar gestural movements and sounds-- the teeth sucking, the foot stomping, the eye rolling, and the guttural expressions of disdain birthed by Black women and ironically expropriated across racial, cultural, sexual, and socioeconomic lines. Newsome is interested, he says, in marrying so-called high culture with so-called low culture-- in injecting "ghetto elements into the canonized white box" and adding new language to discourse of contemporary art.




Shade Compositions 2009 will be presented alongside performance artist Kalup Linzy's Comedy, Tragdy, Sketches of Me. If you're in New York:

Kalup Linzy and Rashaad Newsome
February 12 and 13 at 8pm
February 14 at 5 pm
The Kitchen
512 W. 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Get tickets

"It’s not a surprise that the director of a prominent, important gallery is black or is young or is a woman,” said Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum, which has showed two of Ms. Vassell’s artists. “But when you run the three together, it sends a very important signal."

Deitch Projects director Nicola Vassell is the subject of an article in The Times, A Shaper of Talent for a Changing Art World. The piece is the fourth in the paper's "Breaking In," series, which explores the ups and downs of trying to begin a career in the arts. Previous subjects were a dancer, a musician, and a music promoter.

30 year-old Vassell (whose face you may recognize; she was an oft-booked model in a previous life) joined the Deitch empire as an intern three and a half years ago. She moved through the ranks, impressed owner Jeffrey Deitch with "an artistic vision that is embedded in her personality," and became a director in 2007. Needless to say, the landscape has shifted a bit since Vassell began her new post. The Kingston, Jamaica native credits having survived her country's recession with her unshakable poise and verve in today's dwindling market. "Even as a newbie," she says, "I knew the center couldn't hold."

Vassell represents Kehinde Wiley, who'll be designing a collection of clothing and accessories for Puma, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Wiley says of Vassell, "In the last few years, it’s like somebody who abides with you. She’s got a nose for really great art. She comes by the studio, and we talk, and I can paint. It’s a conversation that turns into an ability to communicate to the public what I’m trying to do."

I'm not as interested in pop artist Hulbert Waldroup's dealings with a now defunct, high-end escort agency-- or his subsequent jail time-- as I am in this necklace he made. I want one. Calling Barneys-- hop on this, please? Photograph taken a couple of summers ago by Altamira.

Former Studio Museum director Edward Spriggs has organized a major retrospective of New Jersey-based artist Ben Jones at the Jersey City Museum. The 67 year-old artist is little known outside of New Jersey, where he's spent his entire adult life. A professor at New Jersey City University, Jones is as inspired by his Roman Catholic upbringing as he is by his heritage.

The retrospective, which was the museum's largest and most successful opening, includes some of the artist's better known, iconic works like "Black Face and Arm Unit" (1971), his "Blood Series," some trippy female figure studies, and a new, site-specific installation. I discovered yesterday that my local museum, which I've never visited (even though it's across the street from my preferred grocer) has some Ben Jones; I do need to pick up some veggies today. I should stop in. (Snow day.)

If you're in the New York area:

Deliverance: The Art of Ben Jones 1970-2008
September 18, 2008-February 21, 2009
Jersey City Museum
350 Montgomery Street
Jersey City, New Jersey 07302

I'm rather late to the party, but this shall not deter me from singing the praises of artist/designer Alicia Piller, whose work is just bananas. Her paintings and drawings-- which bear titles like "Rebirth," "Apparition," and "Lasting Existence"-- are perfectly bizarre and alluring, but I'm particularly drawn to her wall hangings and jewelry, both of which are crafted of suede and beads and crystals and wood and love. Lots of love. Can you feel it? I can.




As if this wasn't enough, Piller, who is as stunning as her work, uses her singular vision to create hand painted apparel-- also bananas, also made with love. View it-- and loads more art and jewelry-- at designsbyaliciap.com.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm looking forward to getting a closer look at artist Nick Cave's "soundsuits"-- wearable, mixed media sculptures of the most fantastical proportions. Constructed of materials like found fabric, metal armatures, plastic bags, twigs, sequins, and hair, the sculptures are a marriage between haute couture and African ceremonial costume. So, Carnaval's more cerebral cousin on very good acid.

Cave's journey to the role of visual artist has been a slightly but admirably circuitous one; a dancer at Alvin Ailey, he previously produced his own clothing line. He currently serves as the chairman of the fashion design department at the Art Institute of Chicago. Interestingly, his first soundsuit-- which had not yet been christened a "soundsuit"-- was created in response to the Rodney King beating and the riots that followed the acquittal of the government sanctioned perpetrators. It wasn't until Cave actually donned the suit, which was intended to stand on its own, that the artist realized it produced sound.

Naturally, "[Cave] is as interested in fashion and cultural, ritualistic and ceremonial concepts as he is in politics, a domain that has always been part of his work as demonstrated by acts of collecting and reconfiguring elements and concealing the identity, race, and gender, of those who wear his suits. Rendering them faceless and anonymous the suits help these individuals transcend the political realm in order to enter the realm of dreams and fantasy" (jackshainman.com).

Having just spent a couple months in Japan, I could definitely stand to relax, relate, and release. Even if it's just vicariously. Also, the ski mask at the top there? I'd wear that.

If you're in New York:

Recent Soundsuits - Nick Cave 2009
January 8 - February 7
Jack Shainman Gallery
513 W 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
www.jackshainman.com