Art and luxury, the new infinite horizons of an indissoluble bond
Artification
Artwork is that because it manages to go beyond what could be an ordinary utilitarian function. Since the first tribal organisations of human beings, certain artificial creations obtained from the processing of the first artisans/artists or from the mind of the first poets represented, for the very few who could benefit from them, real legitimation of social status, of personal-family elevation. The territory of art, material or abstract, since ancient times has therefore been the same territory as luxury so the scene where universal concepts such as rarity, elitism, dreams, desires and aspirations find full expression in the added value of the Beauty that is outside the normal values of utilitarian economic exchange. Today the luxury market no longer targets only on the money capacity available but also and above all on culture, or on the ability and sensitivity to appreciate the added value of a work of art in the different creative languages in which it can be declined, and high fashion has always been one of these. It’s been decades since the most important luxury brands have perceived the need to find a tool that would allow to continue to remain attractive to the rich sections of society but also to extend their customer base by communicating culture and sensitivity contaminating themselves with the art world and their languages. This is the result of a winning strategy. The big brands are increasingly oriented to seek cultural, aesthetic and moral legitimacy that could justify the high cost of their products by communicating the added value of their products thanks to the close link with the languages of art: it is called artification and this process includes: co-branding operations, collaborations with artists, sponsorship of exhibitions, museums and foundations, advertising campaigns linked to visual arts and performing arts or short films, but also contaminations with design and luxury architecture through the creation of wonderful boutiques that have become real creative spaces and not just shops. A clear example is Michele Franzese’s maxi boutique of 1100 square meters, in the most luxurious heart of Naples, with 11 showcases that is the result of a conservative renovation, carried out by the Baciocchi Associati architecture studio, of the rooms of the historic Palazzo Calabritto, famous for the 1756 restoration by Luigi Vanvitelli, with period frescoes signed by the painter Antonio Dominici. In the world of high fashion and luxury fashion, designers are considering more and more collaborations with great international artists and the time has also come for Michele Franzese Moda to expand its portfolio with international rising stars literally opening the doors of its boutique to artists from all over the world, transforming it into a space where creatives from the international scene can express themselves. Today is the day of Dominc J. Lopez, a talented emerging contemporary artist from Los Angeles, known for his neo-expressionist style, who exhibits his works in L.A. and in galleries around the world. Art at Michele Franzese Moda.Dominic
Artworks of the young and talented Dominic J. Lopez, born in 1984, is “without constraints” starting from the initial stages of his ideational and creative process up to culminating in the reflective message contained in his works. In fact, Dominic has a daily relationship with painting which expresses in the practice of his artistic gestures the close relationship that exists between freedom and expressiveness. He loves to paint as “undressed” as possible and in the open air to maintain that creative genius typical of children who are not yet harnessed in those behavioural and normative systems of adults that unfortunately too often force them to suppress their own creative and expressive needs. His creativity reveals an invitation to abandon oneself to the flow of self-awareness to allow his mind to evolve continuously through a sincere relationship with the present moment. This daily catharsis, also assimilated by the meditative yoga practice of which Dominic is a regular practitioner, allows him to remain “healthy”, focused and connected to the present moment, to the experimentation of that human existence that hides behind those questions to which there is no answer, and must not necessarily exist an answer as Dominic himself states. This is because the strength of the introspective attitude is precisely asking oneself, rather than answering oneself. His metalinguistic art invites, literally through the artist’s personal poetic textual references, to stop and reflect, to take root in the momentum, in the kairos, to combat the external overstimulation that distances oneself from one’s individual conscience. His is a reflection on the idiosyncrasies of the ephemeral contemporary society, a thinking nourished and fed by the pragmatic background of studies and experience in the world of finance that completes and expands Dominic’s personal profile. His successful career has just begun and Michele Franzese Moda’s collaboration with the world of fashion and luxury is a milestone that will certainly lead to interesting solutions, we can only follow the developments of Dominic and MFM. Art at Michele Franzese Moda!