Art and fashion have always held a close relationship; theirs is a legendary and historical love affair. It would be fair to recall the jewelry and fashion designs of the surrealist Salvador Dali, Takashi Murakami ‘s graphics for Louis Vuitton or the major exhibits related to this subject at art institutions like the Met in New York City or London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
It is customary for museums to grant fashion art status, whether with shows exploring indigenous or traditional fashions from different parts of the world, magnificent collections of Victorian attire, or homages to the most significant fashion designers in history. However, on this occasion, art is actually born after fashion.
Prada’s Soho boutique in New York City recently exhibited the work of one of today’s most remarkable artists: Santi Moix, who was invited, by the Italian fashion house, to produce an unprecedented mural based on the monumental female image that adorns the walls of the store.
Moix devoted two entire days to create this work of art measuring 200 feet and representing whimsical creatures. As it is common in the work of the artist, his creations allude to epic stories with surrealistic tones, which turn his canvases into detailed fantasy universes.
However, contrary to what some critics had expected, what Moix created inspired on the Prada nude model lacked color. Using only black and white, the Catalan artist’s mural populates the body of the model, rather than just dressing it, transforming it into a landscape of fertile lands and open seas.
“It was a perfect opportunity to treat the model as a geographical map. I approached the light and dark parts of her body with different types of landscapes. Chiaroscuros: where there was darkness, I tried to bring life and light. In her hair, I created a wild sea. Parts of her body were like a big desert. The length of this relaxed and melancholic body became a journey,” said Moix.
Santi Moix was born in 1960 in Barcelona, Spain. He is one of the privileged artists in the catalog of Manhattan’s celebrated Paul Kasmin Gallery. With solo exhibitions worldwide, in important art palaces like the National Art Museum of China in Beijing and several pieces sold at auction in Tokyo, New York, London and Barcelona, his style remains unmistakable: absolute abstraction, despite its ability to draw, and the mix of influences, from Delacroix, Velazquez and El Greco to Picasso, Miro and Pollock. ■
