Antwaun Sargent: Rethinking Our Boundaries

Art and fashion are being redefined by new, creative voices who transcend the old high and low art boundaries. 

“Visual artists were thought to be less serious if they collaborated with fashion brands or if they appeared in fashion magazines, and now you have folks operating in a real post-medium condition,” says the writer, editor and curator Antwaun Sargent, on Episode 5 of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast. “It's really encouraging to see Carrie Mae Weems, for example, just shoot the latest Prada campaign.”

Sargent is the author and curator of The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion, the acclaimed publication and touring exhibition that is on view at Cleveland Museum of Art through mid-September 2022. He is also a director at Gagosian, a global network of art galleries, and he is currently working on an exhibition developed with the late Virgil Abloh, former artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection. Abloh’s fluidity was influential on the boundaryless creativity today, says Sargent. “One day, one hour, he's designing a dress, the next hour he's designing a sculpture, the next he's making music.”

Sargent talks with host Pari Ehsan about the Abloh show, about the dissolving of boundaries between art and fashion today, and about diversity and inclusion and how to do it authentically. “It's less for me about some stale notion of inclusivity or diversity, and more about allowing folks to fully express themselves in this space that they should have always had a claim to,” he says.

This fluidity between disciplines – art, fashion, food, publishing – is also visible on Rodeo Drive, where luxury brands and fashion houses that once mainly sold clothing now offer curated exhibition and retail spaces and even restaurants. Field Correspondent Jason E.C. Wright checks out stores including Saint Laurent and its current Rive Droite installation conceived by the house's Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello and exclusive to its Paris and Rodeo Drive boutiques.

Rive Droite features surfboards and furniture made in collaboration with Hervet Manufacturier, along with lighters and playing cards, branded headphones, footwear and bags, vinyl, art and design magazines and books. This really expands on how “the art collector is intersecting in the fashion world and those from the fashion side are collecting objects,” says Wright, adding, “it's a beautiful way of seeing this evolution of the stores being more than just a retail space and a point of experience for the world.”

Season Three of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo Drive Committee with the support of the City of Beverly Hills, The Hayman Family, Two Rodeo Drive, Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau, and MCM.

Listen to Rodeo Drive – The Podcast and subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts.

Watch moments from the series here and on YouTube.

Check back in regularly for what’s next in the series.

Season Three Credits:

Executive Producer: Lyn Winter

Host: Pari Ehsan

Field Correspondent: Jason E.C. Wright

Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton

Editor and Videographer: Hans Fjellestad

Theme music by Brian Banks

Production Assistant: Grace Fuh

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