Reginald Sylvester II and Grace Wales Bonner In Conversation
ARTIST NEWS
Reginald Sylvester II and Grace Wales Bonner In Conversation
January 2024
To coincide with the closing of our current exhibition Sensibilities, artist Reginald Sylvester II and Grace Wales Bonner will be in conversation in the gallery. The pair will discuss their processes of making, their artistic influences, and their own sensibilities, as manifested in a multi-disciplinary practice including sculpture and painting for Sylvester, and fashion design, research and exhibition-making for Wales Bonner.
Saturday 27 January
3–4pm
Maximillian William, London
Please register via Eventbrite here. As gallery capacity is limited, we recommend arriving on time to guarantee a seat.
Sensibilities will be extended through Saturday 27 January to conclude on the day of the talk.
___________
Biographies:
Reginald Sylvester II (b. Jacksonville, North Carolina, 1987) lives and works in New York. Working predominantly in abstraction, Sylvester II makes large-scale paintings and sculptures which often include found objects. Sylvester II’s debut West Coast solo exhibition, T-1000, opened in November 2023 at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. In March 2023, Sylvester II opened his second solo institutional exhibition in a North American museum, Green Gate, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO. This followed Painter's Refuge: A Way of Life, which opened in 2022 at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, NC. Sylvester II’s work is held in public collections including Nasher Museum of Art; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture; Pérez Art Museum; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; and Fondazione Stelline.
Grace Wales Bonner launched the label Wales Bonner following her graduation from Central Saint Martins in 2014. Wales Bonner proposes a distinct notion of cultural luxury that infuses European heritage with an Afro Atlantic spirit. The label is informed by broad cultural research and embraces a multiplicity of perspectives. Established as a menswear brand, Wales Bonner’s soulful tailoring soon expanded to womenswear.
Grace Wales Bonner has received numerous awards including Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards (2015), the LVMH Young Designer Prize (2016), Winner of the British Fashion Council/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund (2019), CFDA International Men's Designer of the Year (2021) and the Fashion Awards British Independent Brand (2022).
In 2019, Grace was invited by Maria Grazia Chiuri to collaborate with Dior to re-interpret the house's New Look silhouette for its Resort 2020 collection. In the same year, she curated an institutional exhibition, A Time for New Dreams, at Serpentine Galleries, London. She is also the 16th contributor to the MoMA Artists’ Choice Curatorial Series, curating the exhibition Spirit Movers, which opened at MoMA in November 2023.
Reginald Sylvester II portrait by Nick Brinley.
Grace Wales Bonner portrait by Liz Johnson Artur.
RELATED NEWS
