For decades now, Louis Vuitton has been blurring the line between art and fashion through incredible collaborations with some of the most influential contemporary artists. From Yayoi Kusama to Jeff Koons and Richard Prince, the French Maison has partnered up with the top creative art minds of our time and the result has always been nothing short of captivating. Most recently, Louis Vuitton revealed its second Artycapucines collection that saw six leading global artists bring their unique visions to the brand’s Capucines handbag.
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And now, the beautiful work of Beatriz Milhazes, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Josh Smith, Henry Taylor, Liu Wei, and Zhao Zhao can be experienced in person in Louis Vuitton’s newly-opened Artycapucines Gallery at the Maison’s SoHo location on 122 Greene Street in New York City.
And they are all truly something to behold.
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Beatriz Milhazes’ kaleidoscopic design showcases her mastery in working with leather—she incorporated 18 different types of the fabric using novel marquetry techniques. Jean-Michel Othoniel’s hand-woven raffia bag features black resin beads inspired by the French artist’s large-scale works. And Josh Smith’s leather-free version of the Capucines has over 460,000 stitches on it that replicate brushstrokes. Henry Taylor’s Artycapucines bag brings together the latest cutting-edge laser printing and traditional marquetry through the Californian artist’s expressive 2017 portrait “A young master”— a portrait of the late African American artist and founder of LA’s Underground Museum, Noah Davis. And finally, Beijing-based artist Liu Wei’s Capucines handbag is based on a large-scale installation shown at the 2019 Venice Biennale and features variously sized aluminum petals while Zhao Zhao incorporated 353 individual laser-cut patches made of five different types of leather into his version of the bag.
The Artycapucines Gallery will be open through January 2021. And if you’d like to purchase one of the bags, you have to hurry up—only 200 versions of each were produced and they are available in select Louis Vuitton stores.
