The Brooklyn Museum recently announced that they would hold their first posthumous exhibition for designer, artist, and renowned talent Virgil Abloh.
In November of 2021, at the age of 41, Abloh passed away after a two-year battle with cancer. His loss left behind a deep scar on the fashion industry. His work shaped contemporary American fashion and visual culture. In his work, Abloh seamlessly blended classic American cultures like skateboarding and ‘90s hip-hop with the world of luxury fashion.
Abloh redefined fashion with his label Off-White, which is an experimental fusion of high fashion and street style. In 2018, he became the first Black fashion designer to become the creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton.
To honour his legacy, the Brooklyn Museum is holding a seven-month exhibition featuring some of the designer’s greatest works. Titled ‘Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech’, the exhibition builds upon the 2019 Abloh exhibit of the same name, which was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. It later travelled to Boston, Atlanta, and even Qatar. The original exhibition drew in many more people than the museum expected, or even prepared for; Abloh’s legacy as a designer has always been—and deserves to be—celebrated.
The exhibition will run from July 1, 2022, to January 29, 2023, and will cover the multidisciplinary work of the visionary artist. This includes, but is not limited to: pieces from his label Off-White and his work at, his collaborations with Kanye West, artist Takashi Murakami, and Rem Koolhas, the renowned architect. It will also include never-before-seen pieces from Abloh’s archive and a sculptural piece reflecting his background as an architect. The museum notes that the space would also allow for gatherings and performances, and would act as a counter to the erasure of Black history and artists.
The exhibit’s name reportedly stems from his usage of quotation marks in his pieces for Off-White, which turned his clothes—and their wearers—into figures of speech. While the original exhibit was curated to be a mid-career retrospective, the 2022 exhibit acts as a melancholic epilogue to his career.
Tickets will be available to the general public on March 10, 2022, but members of the museum are authorized for a pre-sale that lets them reserve free tickets from February 24, 2022, to March 9, 2022.
The exhibit is organized by Michael Darling, curator of the MCA, Chicago. The presentation is organized by Antwaun Sargent, and the tour is credited to Kenneth C. Griffin. A publication that was originally created for the Chicago exhibit will also be available to purchase at the Brooklyn Museum.
Published by HOLR Magazine