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      in Exhibitions

      From KAWS to MSCHF—A New Show Celebrates Artists Who Have Made Sneakers Their Canvas

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      Since 1995, the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto has surveyed society through shoes, from the legacy of men in high heels to footwear’s role in forensics. Next month, the institution is highlighting the growing relationship between art and sneakers—with a focus on recent artist collaborations that bridge star-studded drops with deeper cuts.
      MSCHF BWD (2023). Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      Coming up at the Bata Shoe Museum is “Art/Wear: Sneakers x Artists,” offering a deep dive into the growing trend, through the lens of 48 legendary artist-driven sneaker designs hailing from the museum’s own collection and new acquisitions alongside outside loans, some from the artists who made them.
      Bryant Giles x New Balance 2002R (2022) Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      “Art/Wear” will play out across the museum’s third floor, in thematic, chronological sections, mapping “the history of how sneakers came to be a focus for artists,” as the museum’s executive director and curator Elizabeth Semmelhack told me over email.
      Peter Max x Randy’s Shoes (1968) Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      “It starts with a look at the mass production of both canvas sneakers and ballpoint pens and markers to discuss the origins of drawing on sneakers with teen girls in the 1950s and 1960s,” Semmelhack, who’s penned numerous sneaker books, continued. The first known artist sneaker collab, which dates to the 1960s, will appear here: a pair of high top tennis shoes by acclaimed psychedelic artist Peter Max, for Randy’s shoes.
      Cey Adams x adidas Adicolor Hi BI2 (2006). Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      Next, “Art/Wear” will explore how graffiti writers like Stash, Futura, and Cey Adams further pioneered the link between art and kicks. Five pairs of KAWS sneakers will anchor this section, in addition to two complete KAWS x Sacai outfits, as Semmelhack noted, “to explore the complete embodiment of art.”
      KAWS x DC shoes (2001). Photo by Brad Bridgers.
      The show final section will devote itself to sneakers by fine artists like Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, and Daniel Arsham. Packaging features most heavily here, demonstrating how “how sneakers and also their boxes and tissue paper give consumers access to artists’ work,” Semmelhack said. She likens the very limited editions of these shoes to fine art prints. A skate deck triptych by Murakami will enliven this space, too.
      Takashi Murakami x BLACKPINK Ohana Full-Bloom Slides (2024). Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      Sometimes, sneakers can feel like a very male dominated space. “Art/Wear” expands beyond this stereotype, including sneakers from about half a dozen female artists, including Shantell Martin, Vicky Vuong, and Kate Knudsen, the widow of Doobie Brothers drummer Keith Knudsen.
      Ruohan Wang x Nike Air Force 1 Flyleather (2020). Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      This show doesn’t shirk drama, either. After careful deliberation, Semmelhack included a pair of Tom Sachs’s Nikes in “Art/Wear,” even though the Olympian outfitter dropped Sachs amidst controversy last spring. Semmelhack said she opted to keep Sachs’s work “because it has been central to the history of artists and brand collaborations.”
      Javier Calleja x Vault by Vans “You Have No Choice” slip ons (2022) Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      Global commerce has enabled the artist patronage system to open up, as artists translate their work onto an ever widening array of products, and reach new audiences around the world. Compared with scarves, jewelry, or clothes, what makes sneakers so alluring?
      Damien Hirst x Vans and Palms Casino Resort polka dot slip on (2019). Photo by Adrienne Naval.
      First of all, sneakers offer a stronger structure, which allows an artist’s designs to shine without the fatigue of holding the body any one way. Furthermore, the packaging and related ephemera surrounding sneaker drops generate a particular kind of excitement.
      Daniel Arsham x adidas Originals FUTURECRAFT 4D (2018). Photo by Adrienne Naval.
      “I think it is important to note that sneakers are not blank canvases,” Semmelhack added. “The storied histories embedded in classic silhouettes, the cultural significance of specific brands, and the longstanding importance of sneakers in the creation of cultural and personal identity are all at play in artist collabs.”
      As the exhibition will show, these sneakers prove that art has power beyond the gallery.
      Mache ‘Blank Canvas’ Runner Customs (date unknown) Photo by Kailee Mandel.
      “Art/Wear: Sneakers x Art” will be on view at Bata Show Museum, 327 Bloor St W, Toronto, October 3, 2024–March 26, 2025. More

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      in Exhibitions

      Shantell Martin’s Maze Will Make Times Square Meditate

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      Shantell Martin’s style is so appealing that she’s had to battle wine and fashion companies alike for pilfering it. It has also placed her in international demand and created a hectic schedule: this month alone, the London-born artist is celebrating new murals at Rockefeller Center with the Art Production Fund and a limited edition mini-bike with Brompton.
      But she will aim to slow things down a bit on October 1, when she unveils her first-ever walking path, a 160-foot-long labyrinth that will create space for meditation amid the madness of Times Square.
      “I attended several 10-day silent meditation retreats,” Martin told me via email, recalling when she took up the practice while living in Japan in the 2000s. “I haven’t participated in one of those over the past few years, partly because I’ve found that walking and drawing provide a similar sense of mindfulness and space.”
      The artist previously worked with the presenter of the new project, Times Square Arts, in 2020, as part of the nonprofit’s “Midnight Moment” digital art program. Her forthcoming maze, The Path: A Meditation of Lines, will lead viewers on a winding journey through the notoriously frenetic Manhattan hub. Martin’s design, which she’s conceptualized in her stream-of-consciousness style, bears trademarks of the artist’s look, like looping lines, smiling faces, and neat text. More and more visual elements become clear the longer one looks, including mountains, sailboats, and stick figures.
      Of course, it will be hard to divine the larger composition uniting these intertwining, disparate elements in person. That will be part of the fun for those who traverse The Path. Martin’s maze will center on two crisscrossing primary routes, one white, one black. Dotted lines diverge from both, like little roads to nowhere. Playful characters and accents offer unexpected shortcuts along the way, surrounded by words that reappear throughout Martin’s practice, like “breathe,” “someday,” and “are you you,” all formulating different phrases depending on the approach one takes. The work’s only fixed, complete sentence will appear in its upper right-hand corner, for viewers to make out on their way from 47th Street to 48th Street along Broadway: “You are in the right place at the right time.”
      A preview of the walking path. Courtesy of Shantell Martin.
      The maze will be sanctioned off from the rest of Times Square only during activations, such as daily guided meditations and musical performances. Otherwise, participants will have to navigate the winding paths and the crowds all at once. Fortunately, the work is intentionally painted “on a relatively quiet plaza rather than in the center of all the Times Square action,” Times Square Arts director Jean Cooney said in an email. Furthermore, Martin herself has recorded an audio guide, and seating will allow for sustained pauses.
      “Walking, much like drawing, can empower you and move you forward—both metaphorically and physically,” Martin remarks in the project’s description. “Putting one foot in front of the other is a simple yet powerful act, and I hope that this message and activity can be translated through this project.”
      The local Times Square community—including theater staff and sanitation workers—will benefit from their own dedicated walking sessions. Otherwise, The Path will remain accessible to the public all day, every day, through November 20. More