Favorite Features from 2022, Part II

This week—the last of 2022—we’re taking the time to reflect on the year that was. Next up, another look at some of our most memorable features in print.

Alex Israel, Summer 2022 Impact Issue

“So long as the dream is alive and well in Los Angeles, I’m sticking around to watch” — Alex Israel

The work of Alex Israel, a native to Los Angeles, is intrinsically linked to the city. His studio is on the Warner Brothers Studio backlot, where he makes paintings with the artists who professionally paint movie backdrops. His signature profile self-portrait is inspired by Hitchcock’s, and he has collaborated with the quintessential L.A. writer Brett Easton Ellis. He has interviewed celebrities for his Access Cable–esque talk show “As It Lays” and appreciates the art and excess of fame, even in genres like reality TV (as we imagine, Andy Warhol would, too). With City of Stars—his latest fragrance collaboration with Louis Vuitton—he celebrates the real stars of Los Angeles—not those in the sky at night but those populating its streets, studios, and Hollywood Hills. They are the stars with the brightest twinkle, full of dreams, some realized and some yet to be achieved. Whitewall spoke with Israel about capturing Hollywood’s stardust in a bottle.

Alexander Andersson Diaz, Summer 2022 Impact Issue

“I believe the design should imply the function of an object, but shouldn’t make it redundant” — Alexander Andersson Diaz

The Swedish-Mexican designer Alexander Diaz Andersson founded the furniture design studio ATRA in 2008 in Mexico City. Filled with one-of-a-kind pieces, the line draws inspiration from Diaz’s own dichotomous heritage and professional background, as well as his appreciation for technology, problem-solving, materials, and connection. Today, in addition to these collectible design objects, ATRA also specializes in interior and architecture projects for private, public, and personal use. Visitors to Mexico City can explore these pieces and other emerging and established artists’ pieces at its gallery in the Roma Norte neighborhood, which opened in 2019. Diaz, photographed in his studio by Tigree, spoke with Whitewall about ATRA’s organic growth, how he thinks about time and travel in relation to design, and his life in Mexico City. 

Katharina Grosse, Summer 2022 Impact Issue

“It is exciting to encounter art by chance” — Katharina Grosse

The German artist Katharina Grosse is known for her immersive visual experiences accentuated by color and scale. With an expansive creative practice that hinges on spray-painting various canvases, she employs architecture to blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Over the past three decades, working between studios in Berlin and New Zealand, she has layered sensational colors on an array of surfaces and spaces around the globe, including buildings, interiors, landscapes, and more. Her work was on view in “Apollo, Apollo” this year timed to the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale with Fondation Louis Vuitton and “Chill Seeping” at the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art (SCAD MOA). Whitewall spoke with Grosse in Savannah about how she strategically approaches her projects with curiosity and responsibility in mind.    

Tahnee Lonsdale, Summer 2022 Impact Issue

“I feel like I’m touching on something that feels a little scary but also really important and expansive” — Tahnee Lonsdale

Art is always a reflection of life for Tahnee Lonsdale. At one point, that meant an exploration of interior spaces and domestic life with a surreal vision of a bedroom or a kitchen table. As of late, her work has become untethered from earthly mundanity, reaching toward the celestial and otherworldly, pared down in color (though still rich) and subject.  

Her solo show of new work “True Romance” was on view in the spring at Night Gallery in Los Angeles. There, lush color fields of larger-than-life figures filled the composition—on bended knee, huddled together, head tilted. They directly address our relationship with ourselves, and perhaps a higher power. Inspired by Lonsdale’s growing spirituality, they wonder what it might mean to fall in love with yourself. What if we could match that first high of falling in love with someone else, internally? While the body of new paintings was coming together Whitewall spoke with the artist about paring down her palette and turning inward.

Eamon Ore-Giron, Fall 2022 Harmony Issue

“These paintings are like maps to my positioning, where I stand, and what direction I’m facing” — Eamon Ore-Giron

Eamon Ore-Giron‘s abstract, geometric works shimmer in gold, with rays of blue, orbs of black, and teardrops in peach radiating from the center. Dancing with symmetry but never quite achieving it, they feel both futuristic and of a time gone by. All made over the past two years, they are part of the Los Angeles–based artist’s “Infinite Regress” series, started in 2015. He sees the series as a conversation, with one painting building off the next, exploring a dialogue between color, form, and depth, as well as past and present.   

The composition and connections forged in “Infinite Regress” stem from research into the roots of abstraction outside the Western art-historical canon. Ore-Giron told Whitewall recently that as a Peruvian he was never taught his people “had anything to offer the contemporary art world.” Not buying that narrative, he looked southward and found a rich visual record to pull from. With a creative practice that includes video and music as well, Ore-Giron spoke with Whitewall about finding liberation and freedom within a set of parameters that embraces the constant of our histories.

Faye Toogood, Fall 2022 Harmony Issue

“There’s something really magical and special about that moment of creating, and I just wanted to bottle it, develop it, and expose it” — Faye Toogood

This summer, Faye Toogood’s first monograph was published by Phaidon, entitled Faye Toogood: Drawing, Material, Sculpture, Landscape. It showcases not just the scope of the artist’s multidisciplinary practice—encompassing design, interiors, objects, art, clothing, and illustration—but the guiding principles of her studio (which she lovingly has called a place for misfits).

In October, Toogood presented “Assemblage 7” at Friedman Benda’s Los Angeles location, debuting new pieces installed alongside the paintings of Christopher Le Brun. Entitled “Lost and Found,” the group of tables, stools, a chair, and more feel like they’ve been unearthed from an ancient archaeological site. As if straight out of Stonehenge, the making of “Assemblage 7” follows a recentering of her creative practice, where Toogood worked to get back to the childlike freedom of making. The fruits of those efforts are obvious in these pieces—they are full of intuition and originality. Whitewall spoke with the artist and designer over the summer about staying true to that first creative spark.

Pierre Yovanovitch, Fall 2022 Harmony Issue

“Art becomes a reflection on the space and on the story of its inhabitants” — Pierre Yovanovitch

Whether in meeting the needs of private clients or collaborating with brands like Dior Maison, Pierre Yovanovitch likes to create what he calls “beauty marks”—the moments that make something totally unique. The designer’s interest in art is central to his work and life. He is both a collector of art and collaborator with artists, eagerly pursuing the chance to immerse himself in their minds and freedom. His breathtaking Château de Fabrègues has become a playground for site-specific commissions, boasting frescoes by Claire Tabouret (in the estate’s chapel) and Matthieu Cossé. He sees the intersection of contemporary art and design as integral not just to the success of an interior space, but to his practice. 

Whitewall visited Yovanovitch at his stunning studio in Paris to learn more about finding  that oh-so-charming balance of quality and quirk. 

Derrick Adams, Fall 2022 Harmony Issue

“The idea of leisure or happiness, all those things, to me, is political” — Derrick Adams

A bright white fence gleams against the sun on a residential street in Baltimore. Behind its gate is a large white house with a wraparound porch overlooking a green lawn dotted with black-and-white animal spring riders (like you’d see at a playground), a black talk bubble by Hank Willis Thomas, a colorful mural by Zéh Palito, and a white hanging sign that reads: The Last Resort Artist Retreat. 

This is the creative getaway dreamed up by Derrick Adams. After purchasing the property a few years ago, he’s spent time renovating the interior and exterior. As the design came together, he realized it was something he needed to share, imagining a space where artists can come to connect, relax, check out, and recharge.

Isaac Julien, Fall 2022 Harmony Issue

“I see the works as being a form of political lyricism” — Isaac Julien

Once Again (Statues Never Die) by Isaac Julien was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation for its centennial and curated by executive director Thom Collins. It looked at the legacy, friendship, and critical dialogue between the collector and philanthropist Dr. Albert C. Barnes and the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance,” Alain Locke. Barnes was an early patron of African objects, material we know at the turn of the 20th century sparked a revolution in the direction of visual art and culture at large.

Julien’s film aptly uses that quote, alongside words from Locke, songs by Alice Smith, writings by Aimé Césaire, and more to addresse our current conversation around monuments and issues of repatriating historical objects. The newly knighted artist is known for works like Playtime (2013), Ten Thousand Waves (2010), and Looking for Langston (1989). Footage from the latter, set during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, makes its way into this latest work, as well as its visual language. Whitewall sat down with Julien to hear more about gaining unrestricted access to the Barnes collection and bringing its archives to life.