Photos: Chromatics Studio NYC
Immersive is too passive a word to describe Stefan Sagmeister’s current SVA Master’s Series exhibition. It is a timeline of the meister‘s (master’s) work over more than three decades, illustrating how he has transformed himself and his output from his early days in branding to a stint with M&Co, where he caught the alternative-practice bug, to founding his own studio (and later partnering with Jessica Walsh), to his more recent incarnations as artist, filmmaker and designer entrepreneur.
“As far as I am concerned, it is a must-see,” says Tyson Skross, director of the SVA Galleries. Designed by interval.ooo studio, led by artist Yannick Jacquet and producer Nicolas Boritch, the visual narrative is accessible yet intensive. As is Sagmeister’s wont, he tends to collaborate with the most cutting-edge designers, and interval.ooo is a new studio initiating artist-led projects focused on the dialogue between handcrafted graphic arts and contemporary digital creation … in the space between ink and pixels, between the fixed and moving image.
Running down the gallery wall, a timeline of Sagmeister’s life includes designs created and images selected from his career; on the shelf below, a row of sketchbooks that can be paged and touched.
Among the memorable posters, record covers and design objects, the highlights include a loop of Sagmeister’s The Happy Film, and his latest conceptual art project, Beautiful Numbers, which considers the intersection of abstraction in art/design with data-based truth. The exhibit reveals the evolution of a designer-artist who, despite the existential implications of a lifetime retrospective, is moving at a fast clip, smack in the prime of his innovative career. As the viewer passes through the surprising twists and turns of creative expression, the exhibition also asks: Where will Sagmeister go next?
We’ll have to wait to find out. But for now, this exemplary revue is on view at the SVA Chelsea Gallery through Oct. 12.
From Beautiful Numbers: Historical paintings with contemporary, colorful shapes placed within them.
Pedestals stacked with colorful posters that are free for the taking. On the surrounding walls, large framed lenticular prints show shifting images in vibrant colors.
A poster of Sagmeister portraying a forlorn clown, juxtaposed with colorful illusionary lenticular prints of various objects and shapes.
A corridor of Sagmiester’s iconic posters.
Posters promoting Sagmiester’s talks, and an enlargement of his distinctive Lou Reed book cover.