2019 is Virgil Abloh’s year. With his highly anticipated debut Louis Vuitton collection launching (and outselling the borderline ill-fated LV x Supreme link up), new Off-White, a collab with everyone’s favorite egalitarian furniture store IKEA, and a DJ residency at Wynn Las Vegas, it’s safe to say Abloh might be the busiest man in fashion right now.
But like a true Renaissance Man, he hasn’t stopped there. This month, Abloh’s first museum show, “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (MCA). The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 22, is an unprecedented look at his creative work and process, from his time growing up as the son of Ghanian immigrants in Rockford, Ill. to becoming an intern at Kanye West’s creative agency DONDA, and his ascent to becoming the artistic director of men’s wear at Louis Vuitton.
In addition to a pop-up store in the museum for the exhibit called “Church and State,” Louis Vuitton has unveiled a (very) temporary residence in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood to coincide with Abloh’s show, featuring an exclusive capsule collection of monochromatic orange ready-to-wear pieces as well as accessories that will be there until July 7th.
The collection is available for purchase on-site and in-store only, and includes tangerine-tinged versions of the Louis Vuitton trunk, signature belt, and trunk backpack, but they’re also now available on StockX.
Nearby the LV pop-up, “Figures of Speech” covers the museum’s fourth floor and features a bevy of Abloh-designed sneakers for Nike, Off-White garments on racks, IKEA x Abloh rugs, and a neon sign from a 2016 Off-White show that reads “You’re obviously in the wrong place,” a reference familiar to “Pretty Woman” fans who will recall the line being used by a snooty Beverly Hills’ saleswoman to Julia Roberts.
An audio accompaniment features interviews with Abloh collaborators and fans, including artist and filmmaker Arthur Jafa, who Alboh collaborated with on the films “Wakanda Never” (2018) and “Screen Shot” (2017) and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London.
“My name is Virgil Abloh and I don’t think I do anything besides be creative,” Abloh says.
“You have arrived. You’re right where you’re supposed to be,” MCA curator Michael Darling retorts back. “Right in the middle of the 1990s and also the future.”
The exhibit covers Abloh’s expansive influential reach across art, culture, music, and fashion and also touches upon his approach through the lens of the black cultural experience, particularly the industry’s exclusion of black talent, the exhibit audio notes. Abloh specifically talks about designing garments for Serena Williams for the U.S. Open and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as instances of “shining the light on powerful African-American women that are artists, that are mothers, that are cultural figures, that are breaking boundaries within their disciplines.” It’s perhaps journalist Amy Verner who describes Abloh best in the audio, “Virgil is a disruptor. There is no question,” she says. “He has said himself that he makes a new aesthetic by crashing two things together that are not related.”
Tickets to “Figures of Speech,” which is at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago until Sept. 22nd, can be purchased online.
