Arper, a leading Italian company that operates internationally and expresses itself through a special focus on color, system flexibility, elegance, and sustainability; has partnered with the highly anticipated Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© exhibition. The exhibition opened its doors on April 9th at the RXR’s Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York City.
Organized and curated by the family of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the exhibition will feature over 200 never before and rarely seen paintings, drawings, ephemera and artifacts by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, to give an intimate and multidimensional portrait of the artist. The gallery is transformed into a complex streetscape, finished with textural wood paneling to emphasize the artist’s deep connection with the city.
Working closely with the exhibition designer Adjaye Associates, Arper outfitted the space to recreate the original feeling of the Michael Todd VIP Room at the iconic nightclub Palladium, for which Jean-Michel created two paintings. Arper commissioned custom finished of their ionic collections for the space including Mixu, Steeve, Pix, Wim and Ply in dark finished and Maharam Studio fabrics.
Arper is honored to have partnered with this exhibition, which highlights Basquiat’s contributions to the history of art and his explorations of multifaceted cultural phenomena––including music, the Black experience, pop culture, Black American sports figures, literature, and other sources.
About Arper USA:
Part of the Arper group and headquartered in New York City, Arper USA was founded in 2008. The branch now operates via three different showrooms, located in major cities across the US: New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In 2018, Arper commenced production at a new 100,200 square foot facility in High Point, North Carolina. The new plant is Arper first manufacturing center outside of the company’s headquarters in Treviso and marks a significant shift towards a more global business model. The investment in the facility totals over 3 million dollars and allows Arper to increase efficiency in production and distribution across the local US and South American markets.