On the surface, rugged starchitect Peter Marino and the late Robert Mapplethorpe are a pretty good match, the former’s robust leather daddy look an appropriate bedfellow to the late-photographer’s erotically-charged, occasionally BDSM-heavy work.
The affinity is more than visual though: Marino’s extensive personal art collection includes myriad Mapplethorpe images, and over 90 of these – from nudes to still lifes, flowers to portraits – are currently on view at Tokyo’s Chanel Nexus Hall, in a new exhibition dubbed ‘Memento Mori’, on view until 9 April. The show is a successor to another Mapplethorpe survey Marino guest curated at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac last year (he also appeared in the HBO documentary Robert Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, as one the world’s foremost collectors of Mapplethorpe works).
Marino separated the Nexus Hall (which, on account of conceiving the entire Chanel Ginza building in 2004, he also designed) into three galleries, delineated by subject matter. The ‘formal classicism of architectural bodies’ segues into still lifes and Mapplethorpe’s more sensual – and sordid – ruminations on natural beauty. The first two rooms are conventionally set up, with wood-framed images hung across a white gallery space. The more provocative images in the third room, on the other hand, are set against black, leathery walls – a recognisably Marino gesture.
The show’s title refers to an object kept as a reminder of the certainty of death: prompting us, Marino's firm explains, ‘to think of the ephemeral nature of Mapplethorpe's subject matter and his untimely death’ from AIDS-related complications in 1989. This show, which next moves to Kyoto as part of the Kyotographie International Photography Festival, is merely the latest survey to celebrate the photographer’s extensive, resonant oeuvre.
Watermelon With Knife, 1986. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Tulip, 1984. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Tulip, 1985. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
INFORMATION
‘Memento Mori’ is on view until 9 April. For more information, visit the Peter Marino Architect website
ADDRESS
Chanel Nexus Hall
Chome−5−3
Ginza
104-0061 Tokyo
-
The bespoke Jaguar E-Type GTO melds elements from every era of the classic sports carECD Automotive Design’s one-off commission caters to a client who wanted to combine the greatest hits of Jaguar’s E-Type along with modern conveniences and more power
-
Casa Sanlorenzo debuts in Venice as a new hub for contemporary artThe luxury yachting leader unveils a stunning new space in a palazzo restored by Piero Lissoni – where art, innovation, and sustainability come together
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on lifeThanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being rebonr as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Robert Mapplethorpe: the young wanderer’s early years -
Material world: Peter Marino reflects on bronze, mythology and timeless design -
State of the art: Peter Marino’s gallery inspired store for Louis Vuitton -
Juergen Teller reveals Robert Mapplethorpe's hidden side -
Body image: Robert Mapplethorpe's sensual take on the human form in LA -
Mapplethorpe unseen: archival works go on display at Getty Centre and LACMA -
Snøhetta designs ’Mapplethorpe + Munch’ show and book for Oslo’s Munch Museum -
Peter Marino channels Mapplethorpe’s trinity of sex, flowers and nudesArchitect Peter Marino channels photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's trinity of sex, flowers and nudes at Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris
