Occupying the entire fourth floor of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, this exhibition is part of a broader ongoing collaboration between the artist Virgil Abloh and Samir Bantal, head of AMO.
Abloh is a multidisciplinary artist, and his work ranges from Architecture to Music, going through Design, Fashion and Art. Abloh became a household name after working on creative direction for Kanye West’s DONDA firm, where he collaborated with the musician on album covers, concert designs and merchandising. This is why Figures of Speech was designed to be a comprehensive overview of his work across disciplines.
Additionally, this collaboration includes the exhibition’s catalogue, as well as a pop-up store called “Church & State”.
Description of project by AMO
The exhibition Figures of Speech, Virgil Abloh’s first solo exhibition, has opened to the public this weekend at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). Virgil Abloh teamed up with AMO’s director Samir Bantal to develop the creative direction and narrative of the exhibition, for which the entire 4th floor of the MCA has been dedicated. Together with Virgil, AMO developed a concept along the different worlds Virgil moves in: Architecture, Fashion, Design, Music and Art.
Curated by Michael Darling of the MCA, a selection of Virgil’s work was made to be displayed in the different halls, providing a complete overview of the incredible range of Virgil’s talent and influence. From Virgil’s early days in fashion, and his role as Kanye West’s creative multidisciplinary director, to his current role as Louis Vuitton’s creative director of menswear and superstar DJ, Virgil Abloh’s work has touched an incredibly wide audience globally.
Virgil and AMO worked through the lens of the ‘tourist’ and the ‘purist’, two types of museum visitors the show intends to speak to. The collaboration extends to the catalogue and the design of the pop-up store “Church & State” in the MCA. The show is developed to travel internationally and is part of an ongoing collaboration between AMO and Virgil on other projects, including the design for a new Off-White store in Miami.
Virgil Abloh: “Essential to this exhibition, “Figures of Speech” was for me to approach it with my architectural frame of mind. A particular strain of architecture that Samir Bantal possess, as the lead of AMO. The dialogue between us early on helped guide not only the exhibit but illustrating what an instance of “architecture” represents today.”
Samir Bantal, AMO: “Moving between fashion, art, design and music, Virgil has a powerful palette to choose from. Leaning on his architecture training, he creates a potent mixture of these ingredients making his reach in contemporary popular culture extremely effective.”
Figures of Speech is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from 10 June to 22 September 2019.
