Images courtesy of Kate Robinson Art

Beauty, as it’s been told over the centuries and engraved into our skulls, is in the eye of the beholder. Yet true as this may be, some beholders have a better eye for it. Often, the beauty in question isn’t breathless landscapes or beguiling abstracts but the universal muse and eternal mother of art: the endlessly interesting female form. This is where the art of Alex Asher Daniel begins. But as we’ve also learned, beauty is only skin deep, and Daniel is especially attuned to this, connecting layers in his work that hint at something vastly more complex and powerful hidden beneath the surface, yet without negating the essential beauty of his subject. “I’m interested in the meeting point between the inner and outer world,” he says. “The female body is such an interesting vehicle to me; it’s the most divine representation we have of that intersection.”
      Working with oilstick and charcoal on paper, the works are a combination of line drawing and rich pigments applied in paint-like clusters and rougher lines that partially abstract the figurative qualities of the work. Even though there are clear figures here, the work is gestural and expressionistic. Most strikingly, there are obvious fetal gestures central to all 19 of the drawings on display, which at first seems a strange and slightly discomforting motif to invoke through grown women.

Frenchkiss Records

It’s been a quick musical maturation process for 21-year-old Michael Angelakos. Within a year, Passion Pit’s front man and primary songwriter has gone from essentially a one man band to part of a collaborative quintet, from blogosphere EP craze to one of the most anticipated debuts of 2009 – and rightfully so. The premise from last year’s Chunk of Change has evolved into an exuberant and charismatic sound, marked by Angelakos’ already-trademark falsettos, doubled vocals, and adventurous effects. Manners (Frenchkiss Records) draws from a broad palette of electronic and rock sounds sometimes similar to MGMT, but more concerned with ecstatic hooks than a psychedelic trip. The album’s strengths come from dance floor bounce and attention to detail, like the funky keyboards and a children’s choir on “Little Secrets”, baritone horns on “To Kingdom Come”, a sped-up vocal sample ala Kanye on “Sleepyhead”, and looped dulcimers on the more subdued “Moth’s Wings” (stream below). Precocious? Maybe, but then again maybe you’re just jealous.

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theblackmark.sg

Quite possibly taking a nod from art movements of the past — conjure Fluxus or Dada — the Singapore-based design lab Black Mark established their art/fashion/lifestyle boutique Black Market to “retaliate and reject all the ideals of commercial bombardment” and to “celebrate design in all its manifestations”. Black Market, located stylishly close to Haji Lane, hits high marks for curating international brands like Nixon and Ksubi with local Singaporean designers. Every product featured within the store is carefully selected so there is plenty of rhyme and reason behind why a sweater and jeans have found their way into the shop. Black Mark blogs about each new brand the boutique picks up: take, for instance, the hipster sunglass label Mystic Vintage, which gets it’s inspiration from vintage frames and iconic figures like John Lennon and Ziggy Stardust who wore them; the deconstructionist brand Nickicio, alongside books by the Swiss Nieves collective; and French indie label L’Espace Des Createurs. Quincy Teofisto of Black Mark says the boutique is about “style rather than trends… Blackmarket is diverse, nonconformist, and unpretentious.” A look inside reflects this, with a do-it-yourself ingenuity — one will awe at the handmade Orangina bottle chandelier perched above the wares. Black Market is a celebration of artistic collaboration, reminding us as audience and consumer that playful experimentation does a wardrobe, and a heart, plenty of good.

Holey T Collar Skirt Hires bodkinbrooklyn.com Images courtesy of Bodkin

Eviana Hartman, whose switch from fashion writer to fashion designer has resulted in this year’s most promising eco-chic line, Bodkin, prefers to be the observer and not the observed. But in the months since she won the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation’s inaugural Sustainable Design award for Bodkin, it’s hard for her not to get noticed. The former fashion features editor at Nylon and fashion writer at Vogue and TeenVogue was used to searching out talent but secretly she also hoped to be the one creating. “I always thought that I wanted to design something,” says Hartman, “but it never occurred to me that I ever would.”

curioparlor.com

No self-respecting Parisian would be caught dead in the Latin Quarter after dark. The area is touristy, crowded, and not very cool. Or at least it hasn’t been until now. The same people who brought the Experimental Cocktail Club to the Montorgueil district present the Curio Parlor, a gem hidden in a corner of the Latin Quarter. The owners call the concept “Speakeasy Rive Gauche” and Left-Bankers are ecstatic that they finally don’t need to cross the river for a good night out. This place, unmarked and difficult to find, has elevated the art of the cocktail to new heights — from the Manhattan Rye to the perfect Spiced Mule — without pandering to the beer crowd. This is still Paris though, and décor and vibe are the keys to success. How about a cabinet de curiosities filled with taxidermied animals? How about butterflies suspended in glass cases and hunting trophies hung behind the Art Deco-inspired bar? Dim lighting, emerald-velour alcove seating, and a wide range of world music? Mix in a stylish, diverse crowd and silent movies downstairs and you have the recipe for a very special bar.

16 Rue de Bernadins, Paris, France   +330144071247

PLANET was the first magazine to publish photographer Lyle Owerko’s stunning work on the Samburu people of northern Kenya, one of Africa’s last great warrior tribes, in September of 2007. It’s nice to see these images getting the public exhibition they deserve in the large and evocative format currently on view at the Clic Gallery on Broome Street in Soho. Owerko is best known for his shots of the Twin Towers collapsing (the famous Time magazine cover is his) and of the gut-wrenching yet eerily beautiful shots of those who leapt to their deaths from the floors above the raging fires, who became known as the “Jumpers”. Perhaps as witness more than photographer, that was a morning of infamy (and destiny) that Owerko says will live with him forever. Samburu displays Owerko’s genuine interest in different types of people and his talent for getting to know his subjects (he has made several trips to Samburu tribal lands and visited them as recently as this year), cultivating intimacy, and allowing them to show their selves unguarded. The exhibition is up through June 14. It’s definitely worth a visit. Clic Gallery, 424 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013.

To view our archived coverage of Lyle’s work, click here.

Illustration by Peter Karpick

Five hundred years ago, Mexico City, then known as Tenochtitlán, was an island citadel of white limestone plazas, temples, and causeways that crowned the vast Lake Texcoco. With a population of around 300,000, it was one of the grandest cities on earth. When Spanish soldiers first set their eyes on the Aztec capital, they wondered if they were not dreaming.
The city’s ceremonial heart lay where the historic old town is today, where the last remnants of the great white city can be seen: just a few hundred square feet of ruins next to the Cathedral, itself built using the stones of dismantled pyramids. Somewhere near here, there stood a temple dedicated to Mictecacihuatl, the Queen of the Underworld, Goddess of Death. Forced underground by the Inquisition and out of sight for centuries, Mictecacihuatl, now transfigured, is on the rise once again, in almost exactly the same place where she was once revered by the Aztecs….

Friendly Fire

This Edmonton act conjures up comparisons to the Notwist and New Order by lushly blending glacial electronics, a haze of shoegaze guitars, and the demure vocals of brothers Steve and Tim Batke. The band has followed their dreamy yet dynamic second album (released in February), Feel. Love. Thinking. Of. with three new remixes now available on iTunes. Mexicans with Guns cuts up “Feel. Love. Thinking. Of.” into a cubist collage shaded with sinister flashes of dubstep. Meanwhile, Belgian disco auteurs Villa refracts the wistful tenor of the title track through a glitchy breakdown worthy of DFA Records’ most jubilant grooves.

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