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From its launch at MCA Chicago, Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and ICA Boston, the intricate works of renowned designer and entrepreneur Virgil Abloh are making a pit-stop in the Middle East. Qatar Museums is hosting the vibrant Figures of Speech exhibit at the Fire Station from November 4 until March 31, 2022.
“We believe that people in Qatar and throughout the Gulf will be enthralled by this introduction to the visionary, barrier-defying work of artist and designer Virgil Abloh,” said Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the chairperson of Qatar Museums.
With nearly 20 years of experience in the field, his work with brands IKEA and Nike alongside his extensive work for musicians Kanye West, Jay-Z and A$AP Rocky, is a testament to his creative passion. Being the artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear collection and founder of Off-White, Figures of Speech gives an inside look into his mid-career perspective with 55 works, covering Abloh’s interests across music, fashion, architecture, design, and many more.
Abloh’s Figures of Speech title is based on his way of defining individuals in this world into two broad categories – purists and tourists:
“Tourist and purist, that’s my main device to understand the sections of culture, that move culture forward. You have a purist, that’s like, I know the whole art history of everything, you can’t do this, this was done 20-times before you thought of it. Like, this is the pure institution. Then there’s the tourist, who’s bright-eyed, curiosity-driven, that has a lust for learning, and they support whatever,” said Abloh. “The goal of the exhibit was to allow a tourist, someone who’s from the outside to look at the everyday world and see the artistic value in the naturally occurring.”
