Our love for art and the culture and self education are among the subjects that keep us inspired. The following is headlines from the world though our peripherals: This past weekend at Art Basel Miami,The Dean Collection presented "No Commission", a free festival space set up by non other than Swizz Beatz. This was a full festival with no commission being charged for artist to display and sell their work. Swizzy aka Mr.Showtime, who hand picked the artist, feels artists usually walk away on the losing end after the galleries profit and the collector owns a masterpiece so this was a way to give back to them for their gifts to the world, check out the full discussion with Elliot Willson. No Commissions became one of Miami's Hottest event, with performances from Pusha-T, Fabolous, DJ Esco and Metro Boomin and a closing set with Dj Khaled and Ruff Ryder alpha dog DMX! This marked a great weekend for art and a fire beginning to an eventful December. For all those who had the opportunity to attend Miami's Art Basel, we promptly admit our jealousy..
Other weekend news ranged from countries dictatorships ending to badass book releases of art tales. Those following social media or any headline got the news of KimYes new addition, Saint West, but we also celebrated the birth of uncle Hova on Friday December 4th who is now 46. Grammy nominees were announced, "Drawing Blood" an interesting new book with ingenious tone and insider tales was released by artist and writer Molly Crabapple. Artist and creative Naturel and Mountain Dew did an amazing interview on their upcoming colab, we highly recommend reading this visual experience on a desktop. Last but definitely not least the possible change to Venezuelas socialist unrest may end with a win by the oppositions in the country's first election since its corrupt leader died. We've composed a list of our favorite quotables rocking the Imperial world and more details on the events below.
Naturel x Mountain Dew-ART OF A CAN
ON WORKING WITH ROCAWEAR
"while Lawrence Atoigue AKA Naturel was at Rocawear he witnessed transition from Dame Dash to Jay-Z... Dame was more exuberant while Jay was more quiet and concise. Speaks when he needs to, puts everyone on his level...lead more gracefully than Dame.. i learned a lot from those brothers"
ON BEST WORK IN THE LOW HUM OF THE NIGHT
"[NATUREL] He works until 2 a.m. most nights to set an example for his daughter: hard work pays off. It makes his morning coffee that much better."
" ...at night thats when i find my solace, thats when everything blanks out, no ones around me, and i can focus on the things I've gathered throughout the day"..hes excited to design a can for DEW...
ON MENTORS, CORPORATIONS AND INSPIRATIONS
"It's very important we live in a product era. So, for [artists] to take advantage of companies that have money that want to do creative things, is important. If you're likeminded, or have similar demographics, being collaborative can bring a lot of good things to the table instead of just having two worlds separate"
"Leichtenstein and Tom wesselmann are like the architects of the building that my work is in... from process to how they approach their work ... like how they developed their process and live in it. They took popular objects and kind of used it as a language to communicate with folks..."
"MENTORS..dudes i looked up to and got a chance to work with were at Ecko Unltd, which is were I aspired to work for sometime: Kimou Meyer "Grotesk", Ewok, Romeo Taghal, Justin Kay, Steve Green.."
*Meyer is partner at Doubleday & Cartwright, Taghai is HUF art director, Kay is head of design at Mekanism, and Green is lead graphic designer at Nike SB
Swizz Beatz and The Dean Collection Present No Commission
"No Commissions is the first art fair built by artist for the artist for the people... no body had to pay a dollar to be here.... THE ARTIST GOT TO KEEP 100% OF THE SALES BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT..." -Swizz On Stage from Miami's Art Basel
Drawing Blood By Molly Crabapple
The media had become stupid with money. Web 2.0 brought with it the intoxicating delusion that we could all be wealthy microcelebrities. Thoughtful work was for idiots. There were gilded prizes to be seized.Gawker turned a bland dating columnist into the era's Becky Sharp, making her famous by eviscerating her online for her naked ploys for attention, then scooping up all the clicks for themselves. Video editors donned white suits and were flown to Vegas on private jets, working-class craftsmen transformed into brands, traveling to a branded city on a branded plane.
Outside New York, books like Rich Dad Poor Dad spread the lie that, for the middle classes, money could come from nowhere. They didn't reveal that this trick only works for the rich. Buy a house on credit, flip it, buy another—so the pundits counseled. Don't think. Don't wait. Everyone was getting rich. In New York, we were the credit we would draw against. We were no longer writers or artists. We were start-ups. Branding may have been for cattle, but we were all brands. We would get book deals movie deals angel funds venture capital cash cash cash and never think that someday we'd have to earn it back."
Excepts via VICE
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