Carl Kostyál Stockholm has just opened ‘Me and My Uncle’, Travis Fish’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery.
Defining himself as a ‘sweater-obsessed’, Fish paints branded sweaters, sport hoodies and caricature portraits of celebrities. Whimsical and distorted, his large-scale acrylic paintings often evoke the fabric of garments, playing on the intersection between art and fashion.
Interested in the way this specific item of clothing functions in society and often appropriating paintings by other artists of his generation as signifiers, the sweaters and hoodies he chooses are not random. Peter Doig’s paintings turned into sweaters for the Dior Autumn/Winter 2021 Collection, Supreme’s signature embroidered cap made into a jumper, Jeremy Scott’s Pikachu sweater worn by Offset and Jonas Wood’s famous basketball hoodie feature, among other subjects. Travis’s paintings isolate high fashion versions of this item of clothing made by popular brands such as Moncler, Kappa, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hard Rock, Versace and Fendi, into a subject worth of portraiture. Travis Fish playfully but meaningfully monumentalises and transforms them into icons in their own right.
“The hoodie tells many stories that define our times – tales of social inequality, youth culture, subculture, police brutality, racism, privacy, fear and, in turn, style. It is now, arguably, western fashion’s last truly political garment – a garment that can incite fear, jealousy, camaraderie and even fury in others – as well as being a garment you can lose your life by wearing.” – Lou Stoppard, Curator of THE (HOODIE) at Het Nieuwe Instituut
TRAVIS FISH ME AND MY UNCLE — 2nd January 2021 at Carl Kostyál Stockholm
About the artist
Travis Fish (b.1989, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin) lives and works in Los Angeles. He holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include: Photocopy Breakfast, Gana Art, Seoul, 2021; *JUMPERS*, Alex Duve, Berlin, 2020; Malmö Sessions, Carl Kostyál, Sweden, 2019; Stockholm Dinner Sessions, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, 2019;; Dash by Travis Fish, Superzoom, M Building-Wynwood Art District, Miami, 2019; Live, Laugh, Love, Y2K group, New York, 2019; THE (HOODIE) at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2019-2020; Wide World of Sports, Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, New York, 2019. Travis Fish was an artist-in-residence at the Carl Kostyál Invitational Artist Residency at Mohilef Studios, Los Angeles from September to November 2021.
