On a cerulean background, we recognize, in an exploded composition, the face of a man in profile, a hand, an arm, an abdomen marked with a tattoo representing a devil. Figurative but passed through the sieve of surrealism, these scattered elements form a canvas commissioned by Gucci from Andrew Moncrief, 35, a Canadian visual artist living in Berlin whose notoriety is still green. This work and four others from the same series, called “Shifting Masculinities”, were exhibited in the Florentine brand’s boutique, boulevard Saint-Germain, in Paris, in June. And that’s alongside unsold Gucci-branded clothes soiled with acrylics and oil paints that Moncrief wore while painting.
“I have never been a fashion plate”, smiled the painter. The one who doesn’t have a gallery owner (but an agent in New York) and who came out at the age of 21, the detonator of abundant paintings that deboned and emaciated male bodies rearranged into collages, had no never worked for a ready-to-wear brand. Until then, he observed this environment from quite a distance and was not familiar with the habits and customs of fashion people.
He knew, then, only Alexandre Mattiussi, the founder of AMI. The creator, who has been building up for several months, notably under the advice of gallery owner Suzanne Tarasiève, a solid personal collection, is one of his clients. “From Gucci, I vaguely visualized the powerful prints, the moccasins, but no more”, says the painter. Before accepting the proposal, Moncrief cautiously surveyed British gallery owner Robert Diament, co-host of the “Talk Art” podcast, which had received support from the Italian house in 2021 for an exhibition in Kent. “He encouraged me to say yes. »
Figures and social networks
Andrew Moncrief is far from the only emerging painter solicited by the fashion and luxury industry. The phenomenon notably gained momentum with the success of Dior Men’s spring-summer 2021 collection, created in tandem with the then lesser-known Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo (he has since been popular at auctions). At the same time, designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin highlighted Jean Claracq, 31, a protege of agnès b. on the rise, by exhibiting it during a presentation, in 2021, and by inviting it to design tops or shorts from the spring-summer 2022 collection.
This summer, the Off-White brand chose Dian Liang, a young Chinese artist still confidential, to imagine a mural in Shanghai. At the same time, Simon Porte Jacquemus took advantage of his mediatized marriage to put on sale a T-shirt, the profits of which are donated to an association against homophobia, designed by Pepo Moreno, a young Spaniard who intertwines childish aesthetics and provocative slogans. To his credit, already, t-shirts for designer Archie Alled-Martinez, windows for Desigual, shops for Vans… In September, Marni also unveiled, during a fashion show in New York, sunny fruit prints of a collaboration with Flaminia Veronesi, 36, a rising Italian.
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