Steven Sprouse Exhibit

On Saturday I hit up an exhibit that I have been dying to see. It was a retrospective on Steven Sprouse.

Here's the lowdown from the Deitch Projects Press Release

January 09, 2009 — February 28, 200918 Wooster Street, New York

Rock on Mars, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Stephen Sprouse, will transform Deitch Projects’s 18 Wooster Street gallery into a realization of Sprouse’s rock and roll futuristic vision.

Stephen Sprouse (1953-2004) was one of the most influential fashion designers of his time and a key figure in the dynamic mix of punk rock, wild style graffiti, and street influenced fashion that characterized the downtown New York community in the early 1980s. He was one of the first to build on the influence of Andy Warhol to create a fusion of art, music and fashion. He continued on a course that disavowed any division among these fields throughout his career.

The exhibition will introduce Sprouse’s extraordinary pop-influenced paintings to the larger art audience. His paintings of iconic rock and roll imagery including stacks of loudspeakers, Sid Vicious with his pants down, and an Iggy Pop crucifixion, have rarely been seen. The show will also include a selection of the video works made to accompany his runway shows, examples of his fabric and furniture design for Knoll, and fifty of his most influential fashion looks.

In conjunction with the exhibition project, Marc Jacobs has created a new collection for Louis Vuitton, inspired by Sprouse’s famous collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2001, which featured the classic monogram bag scrawled with Stephen Sprouse graffiti. The new limited edition Stephen Sprouse – Louis Vuitton collection will be available in Louis Vuitton stores worldwide from January 9, 2009, the opening date of the exhibition.

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I enjoyed the exhibit so much! I was ready to steal one of the graffiti bags from2001, but they were chained down. One of my favorite parts was the sketches they had of his, on black light so they glowed! Amazing. His work is so inspiring, I can't wait until Spring when I can wear all my neon accessories! And maybe I'll start saving up for one of the new Louis Vuitton/Sprouse inspired bags. They only run around $2,000. Who needs a vaca, when I can own a piece of history, right?

My favorite Professor from Calo Poly was in town and also got a chance to check out the exhibit and she mentioned, " I really loved the exhibit but it was interesting to look at the video of fashion shows."