5 Stunning Examples of Life Imitating Art
Brazil’s landscape and carnival of colors sparked this 2017 limited-edition version of Louis Vuitton’s Twist bag. For a 2015 exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, Jim Lambie created this kaleidoscopic installation, titled ZOBOP, on the museum’s main staircase using strips of colored vinyl tape.
Photo: Joshua McHugh (left); Benedict Johnson/2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London, Courtesy of Royal Academy of Arts (right)
Fashion designer Rei Kawakubo teamed with Nike to create the 2017 limited-edition Nike VaporMax shoes for Comme des Garçons, intended to conjure the look of walking on air. Tomás Saraceno’s weblike Flying Gardens/Air-Port City explores futuristic ideas about living in the sky, while alluding to today’s globalization and expanding information networks.
Photo: Courtesy of Nike (left); Studio Tomás Saraceno, Courtesy of the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (right)
Cadar's Reflections 18K-gold white-diamond cocktail ring suggests a sparkling eye, especially with its mesmerizing rotating center. Arresting eye forms dot the mosaic-like dress in a detail of Gustav Klimt’s gold-leafed portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, now the crown jewel of Manhattan’s Neue Galerie.
Photo: Courtesy of Cadar (left); Leemage (right)
Christina Burch’s painting, Sea of Marrow, infuses references to traditional Asian art with a playful, decidedly contemporary sensibility. Inspired by Versailles and Marie Antoinette, Karl Lagerfeld designed this Fendi shaved-mink coat with a profusion of foliate and floral motifs.
Photo: Courtesy of Voltz Clarke Gallery (left); Courtesy of Fendi (right)
To achieve the spellbinding, nearly abstract composition of rippling water in his photograph Bangkok VI, Andreas Gursky digitally layered multiple shots. Carved from a single block of heavily striated marble, Kelly Wearstler’s Selby side table combines crisp geometries with an organic sense of fluidity.
Photo: Andreas Gursky/2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Courtesy Sprüth Magers Berlin London (left); Courtesy of Kelly Wearstler (right)
