CITY Issue 58

whateve plans had been p eviously made,” ecalls Vassell, who had thought cess. “How do we exp ess this g ittie , awe , di tie side of what it means to be about becoming an enginee o w ite . young?” Vassell asks. “The e’s a beauty to it because it can be exp essed yea late , the then- -yea -old a ived in New o k City, alone. Though th ough a t.” The canvases commune and collide in the spi it of what Vassell he pa ents we e unde standably conce ned about sending thei daughte to desc ibes as “youth powe , youth angst, and youth kineticism. What it means Manhattan, they also suppo ted he ambitions. “They we e completely pet ito be young at this time, what I call the post- / gene ation. We we e just beﬁed at the time, but they had given me thei blessing to go ﬁ nd my destiny and ginning to g asp the concept of adulthood when we got slammed . . . It was ve y discove what life’s all about,” Vassell says. Like so many beautiful young New o k–cent ic, this thing of st ess, density and identity . . . We’ e a f acthings befo e he , she hopped between apa tments and continents du ing he tu ed gene ation in a way. Whethe consciously o unconsciously it manifests nine-yea modeling ca ee . itself in how we live ou lives, thus in a two k.” “The fashion business is fantastic, but at that e the success of Subt action, Vassell eI WAS STRUGGLING age it’s eally psychologically demanding,” she mains int igued by this kind of kineticism and WITH THE IDEA OF says. “I don’t think people eally unde stand the looks fo wa d to discove ing mo e young a tists depth of the fo titude somebody has to have to be inspi ed by the st eet. nd as with fashion, the e WHAT I WOULD DO, a model. ou’ e a little gi l, you’ e basically una e always new di ections to explo e — especially AND WHETHER OR ning you own business, and you have to be ve y in New o k, the teeming cente of it all. “Live the NOT I COULD LEAVE de at analyzing [the needs of the client]. ou’ e a t,” she says. “That’s the motto ight now. Because selling a p oduct.” When it was time to leave modthe e is no cut-oﬀ point, no delineation, no blu THE FASHION WORLD eling, Vassell wasn’t su e what was next. “I was ing. nd anyone who believes that the e is [a cutWITHOUT IT LEAVING st uggling with the idea of what I would do, and oﬀ point], is not living the a t.” ME FIRST whethe o not I could leave the fashion wo ld without it leaving me ﬁ st,” she admits. chance meeting with Jeﬀ ey Deitch lead to an inte nship with his galle y. Then a student of a t histo y and business at New o k Unive sity, Vassell was d awn to Deitch P ojects’ conve gence of the wo lds of music, fashion, ﬁlm, and visual a ts — all of which she had expe ienced as a model. He ﬁ st eal task as a newly minted galle y inte n? “Stocking auction catalogues!” she shouts with a laugh. “I loved sitting the e and eading them! I found them fascinating!” Vassell desc ibes the galle y as an idea lab whe e a tists a e invited to let thei imaginations un wild. “The intent of the galle y has always been fo a tists and viewe s to come in and live fully volumized a tistic d eams.” This encou agement to expe iment — also extended to the staff — left he a conveniently open doo to jump in and sta t lea ning f om the g ound up. It wasn’t long befo e she evolved into he cu ent ole as di ecto , managing special p ojects fo the galle y. Vassell acknowledges that he fo me life p epa ed he fo he the a t wo ld in ways that she couldn’t have anticipated. Though she found he self sta ting f om “the ze o point” when she made the jump into the galle y scene. She adds, “I didn’t walk into the a t wo ld empty-handed.” In addition to having lea ned how to manage and ma ket he self, she muses on the pa allel concepts in each ﬁeld: “The e’s the whole thing of beauty, and of the int insic value of an object, of a pe son, a thing. Then how you deal with that and c eate a mo e exte nal value that’s eceived by the masses.” s he ole at the galle y g ew, she says, “O ganically, I d i ed to ce tain a tists.” She now wo ks closely with Kehinde Wiley, Tauba ue bach, Na i Wa d, and F ancesco Clemente. t ue SoHo gi l (it’s only a b ief walk f om he home to the galle y) Vassell sees he cu ato ial ole, and the galley’s ole at la ge, as the fusion between a t and community, ideas and the st eet. “We believe ou selves to be a ve y downtown galle y. The whole point is to unite ou community th ough a t.” These ideas have evealed themselves at pe sonal exhibitions she has hosted at he lo , one of those b illiantly open, sunlit spaces, which she keeps athe empty. “It’s supposed to be a place fo social inte action. t my home, I have chai s and not much else. Space to think and space fo people to come togethe .” This sense of community was appa ent on a b eezy night last Ma ch, when Vassell p esided ove he cu ato ial debut with a show entitled Subst action. Whe e K istin Bake ’s ac ylics of c ashing colo s mingled with Ste ling Ruby’s “Gangsta Rothkos” and a on oung’s panels inspi ed by moto cycle skid ma ks, viewe s got a glimpse of young a tists with an edge. “It was impo tant to me that the painting have a wicked ene gy,” she ecalls of initiating the p oCITY TY 55 37

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 58

CITY Issue 58 Contents Have You Heard Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment The Amused Bouche Fast Food Temporary Contemporary In Rogue Diary Nicola Vassell Everard Findlay Milan Vukmirovic Lucas Ossendrijver When Fashion Met Architecture People: Person Behind Every Man... Eyeing the Room Mates Vagrant Saints Amplify Where to Buy It Icon

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