Louis Vuitton collaborates with street artists mixing pop with ancestral art in scarves

MANILA, Philippines - For fall/winter 2013, Louis Vuitton has invited three new international street artists — Eko Nugroho from Indonesia, EINE from the UK and Franco-Tunisian eL Seed — to bring their vision to bear on its emblematic giant silk square.

This latest collaboration continues Louis Vuitton’s world tour of the buzzing street scene, which began last season with AIKO, RETNA and Os Gemeos — themselves following in a tradition of partnerships with contemporary artists, including Stephen Sprouse, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince.

Mixing urban and pop influences with traditional Indonesian motifs, Eko Nugroho’s intriguing design conjures up a mythical beast in deliberately clashing colours, which twists across a geometrical background of scale-like shapes in blue and khaki.

Drawing on Louis Vuitton’s heritage, EINE expresses the excitement of travel in words and colour, printing the phrase “great adventures” in bold block letters and eye-popping shades onto a dramatic black background, and framing the entire design with the Louis Vuitton signature.

Inspired by Arabic calligraphy, eL Seed imagines the graceful swirls of this ancestral art overlaying the Monogram pattern. One half of the design is printed in fuchsia, while the other is covered with a discreet filigree that reveals, rather than conceals, Louis Vuitton’s iconic motif.

EL SEED

eL Seed’s art was born on the streets of Paris, and now adorns walls across every continent. Weaving together traditions from differing artistic spheres, eL Seed is known for his symphonies of colours and shapes. Classic wild style graffiti techniques spell out letters from the Arabic alphabet, which eL Seed skillfully sculpts into breathtaking artistic creations. Difficult to decipher, each composition calls not only on the words and their meaning, but also on their movement, to lure the viewer into a different state of mind. Working primarily with subjects that seem contradictory, eL Seed’s art reflects the reality of our human condition.

EINE

Born in 1970. Works and lives in London, England.

Ben EINE is one of London’s most prolifi­c and original street artists. Having started his career over 25 years ago, he has toned and developed his unique style into something which has been described as “the Fiona Rae of gra
ti and spray paint”.

EINE is a renowned London based “writer” who specializes in the central element of all gra
ffiti — the letter.

From single letters to complex and wry combinations, EINE’s alphabet can be found throughout London. Huge individual letters on shop shutters, in a style he has made his own. EINE’s letters transgress the usual stylized image devised to depict form and emotion and through a combination of colour, placement and size become fully formed and unique personalities in their own right.

EINE, like all good street artists, has found in the culture of writing, a way to not only utilize the city as a stage, but also as a medium. The city has always influenced the form and architecture of writing, EINE’s concept of using shop fronts to advertise nothing but his “letters” is a stroke of genius that often goes un-credited. Instantly recognizable by passersby, these shop front letters serve as a reminder that writing is art.

STEPHEN SPROUSE

1953 – 2004

Stephen Sprouse is widely regarded as the artist and fashion designer who brought counterculture style to a broader American audience.  A high-profile member of New York’s art, fashion and music scene, he rose to prominence in the early Eighties with his revolutionary fusion of uptown sophistication and downtown punk sensibility.

While working for Halston, Stephen Sprouse began to explore New York’s underground music and club scene, and in 1973 moved into a loft on the Bowery, at the center of the action.  Living downstairs was Debbie Harry, who had just formed the rock group Blondie with Chris Stein.

Stephen Sprouse burst onto the fashion scene in 1983 with a mini collection featuring Day-Glo colours, Sixties-inspired shapes and graffiti prints.  His all-black palettes, mirrored sequins, high-tech fabrics and Velcro attachments — all rendered with the finest tailoring — were unlike anything seen before.

He was invited by Marc Jacobs to collaborate on Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2001 collection. The now legendary graffiti bags were an instant sell-out, catapulting Stephen Sprouse back into the fashion limelight.  Stephen Sprouse died in 2004 at the age of 50.

EKO

Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho’s (born in 1977, Yogyakarta) comic-inspired multi-disciplinary work questions the nature of man, our contradictory and ironic nature, and the absurdity of life in general.

He works across disciplines and sites, making public murals, and exhibiting paintings and drawings, while exploring the possibilities of other media such as embroidery, artist books, comics, video animation and contemporary wayang kulit (shadow puppet) in his own capacity and collaboratively as part of Wayang Bocor puppet troop.

Among recent projects and exhibitions he has participated in include RALLY: Contemporary Indonesian Art, Jompet Kuswidananto & Eko Nugroho at National Gallery Victoria, Australia (2012), Transfi­guration: Indonesian Mythologies at Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton (2011), Beacons of the Archipelago: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia at Arario Gallery, South Korea (2010), Biennale de Lyon: Spectacle of the Everyday (2009) and Beyond The Dutch at Central Museum Utrecht, The Netherlands (2009). Eko is one of the participating artists at the Indonesian Pavilion in the 55th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2013.