Defining the Grey Area With Robert Gallardo

February 21, 2023

Having observed Robert Gallardo's artwork and wardrobe code, it was obvious his mind operated differently from most. This was only reaffirmed when he arrived to set in a grey “wearable sleeping bag." From stage design to music videos to cover art, there isn't much the multifaceted artist— known for his ongoing work with A$AP Rocky and AWGE— hasn't done. It is easy to identify his personal work, characterized by digital creations that are often a light-hearted commentary on society through the eyes of a true individual.

office spent the day with Gallardo, discussing the future of technology and art and how they can coexist, the homelessness project he is working on, and why he only wears the color grey.

Photography by Nate Guenther
Styling and Interview by Dylan Andrews
Photography Assisting by Spencer Stovell
Fashion Assisting by Aaliyah Daly

Jacket WILLY CHAVARRIA, pants BURBERRY, top MAISON MARGIELA, sunglasses LOUIS VUITTON, necklace TALENT'S OWN.

So how are you? How's life at the moment?

Life is good and calm. It's good and calm. I say calm because it hasn't been this calm… ever, I don't think. Since I've been an adult. But life is calm.

Is that how you like it?

Yeah, I prefer it like that. Yeah.

Because I know a lot of artists thrive off chaos. Others like it calm.

If art was the thing that I orient my life around, then I’d prefer the chaos. But I'm not making any art right now and I think it is partly because it's calm. I can see if I was an artist that needed to make art to make a living, I’d probably prefer the chaos, so I’d keep creating.

Jacket DICKIES.

How would you describe yourself as an artist?

An observer. I think I have an ability to simplify complex ideas into an image or a couple words. And so I'd say I'm an observer and a simplifier.

You do have quite a minimalist style, but then you work with artists like Rocky, who I've seen you describe as a maximalist. Do you find it easy to adapt to other people's style and make that work? Is that something that comes easy for you?

Yeah, I'd say so. One of my weaknesses is that I am impressionable. But in the context of being a creative consultant, it works because I have to be what I need to be in any given situation. I use my skills of simplifying, even when I'm adapting to other people's styles and ways of working. Even Rocky, one of the main things I do around him is kind of listening to what's going on and being like, 'oh, I think this is missing.' Or 'oh, I think we should do this with all the information that I just took in.' So, I think it works for me.

Having worked with established artists like him on their cover art, you've now developed the Cover Art Studio app. Can you tell me more about the app and why you wanted to create this platform for upcoming artists?

Even before I worked with Rocky, or bigger artists like that, I was working with local artists; that's how I started realizing that I wanted to do this kind of thing for a living. All my friends make music, and I did videos and covers for all of them for years. When I started doing bigger artists and industry stuff, the time that I had to do work for local artists wasn't there anymore. I think the idea was born in the void of not being able to do as much for local artists. I won't say that it was me directly trying to figure out what I can do for local artists, but the idea was definitely born in that time period of transitioning into working with established artists versus local artists. So, it had something to do with that, for sure. And I just saw a void. I know artists that would drop more music if they had album covers or single artworks.

Left: sweater RAF SIMONS, sunglasses FLATLIST. Right: Sunglasses and jumpsuit TALENT'S OWN.

You’ve been wearing all grey for over seven years now. How and when did that start?

Yeah, so from July 17th, 2015. And like the cover art thing, or just any kind of idea for me, it wasn't like an 'aha' moment where I decided to wear all grey every day forever. Different things kept happening that would lead me to that. Part of it was some of my favorite artists, like Andy Warhol and even Picasso had a uniform. Steve Jobs had a uniform as well. So, me knowing that influenced the idea, but not directly. It wasn't like everyone has a uniform, so I want a uniform. It was more, okay, I know that information, then time passes and oh, I want a uniform. What would my uniform be? Is it going to be military? Is it going to be blue collar? Going through these different ideas. And then Jay-Z has a lyric, “might wear all black for a year straight”, which probably was part of it as well. And then I saw the green lady from New York. She’s been wearing green for a crazy number of years. So, it's all these things. Okay, maybe I can wear one color. What color would that be? And settling on grey being the least insane color to choose to wear every day. All white is pretentious, all black is obvious. Everybody does all black. All green is crazy. I mean, I love how she does it, but...

It's a lot.

All red, I might get killed going to LA. So, settling on grey was just my pragmatic mind figuring out what was the best solution for this problem of me wanting a uniform so that people can identify me with. And also give me a thing as an artist, you know what I mean. An extra thing on top of just the way my art is and how simple my art is. There's just an extra thing that people can associate me with throughout history, in the future. How Andy Warhol has the wig, the glasses, and the striped shirt. Steve Jobs has that one outfit. I wanted a thing that people are going to be like, “oh yeah, he's the guy that wears all grey.”

Does the grey extend into other elements of your life, or do you try to incorporate color?

So, the furniture at my house is not grey for the most part. I kind of don't want it to be. Some stuff ends up being grey, just because it makes the most sense. My TV stand right now is concrete. My bedsheets are grey, and I think that's just a natural inclination to do, because it feels almost like clothing. You're wearing it at night. But no, the rest of my life isn't. My car is white, and I might get a grey one in the future, but it's not necessary. It doesn't extend to my interior design or too much of anything else. I don't require anything else but my clothing to be grey.

Jacket TOMBOGO, sunglasses BALENCIAGA, shoes YUME YUME, necklace and ring MARTINE ALI, pants CARHARTT, sweater STONE ISLAND.

A lot of your artwork is a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek commentary on society. Is that an accurate representation of how you see things? That maybe there are problems, but it's not as serious as we may think.

Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. I think I do have a good sense of humor but I'm not the person that people would call funny. But all my friends, I would call them funny. And I love standup comedy. I love comedy in general. And so, I think I have a comedian's perspective on the world, a George Carlin or Dave Chappelle, how they can speak on these topics that are very serious, but in a way that is digestible using comedy. I think that's probably where that comes from. It's a cool thing when people see my artwork and think its funny. Not a laugh out loud thing, but…

It makes you smile.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a second and then think about something for a second, which is all you have anyway, with how fast things go these days.

Left: jacket WILLY CHAVARRIA, pants BURBERRY, top MAISON MARGIELA, sunglasses LOUIS VUITTON, necklace TALENT'S OWN.

Right: coat BURBERRY, sweater LIBERAL YOUTH MINISTRY, pants CANALI, shoes YUME YUME, headpiece TALENT'S OWN.

Can you tell me about the homelessness project you're working on?

It's called ‘No More Land’. I got that name because I was going on a rant one day. Somebody was saying that they hope to work with some big artist. Maybe it was Kanye or something. I'm like, 'of course you're going to. Where else is he going to go? Where else? There's no more land.' Eventually, in a long enough timeline, you're going to get to work with who you want to work with. There's nowhere else to go. You can't go to another planet and get talent. You're going to get do what you want to do if you just keep doing it for long enough. And so that's where the name came from. So, I wasn't talking about homelessness when I went on the rant to my friend, but I was looking for a name.

So, I came up with ‘No More Land’ because there's no more land, there's nowhere else for homeless people to go. Just where else are they going to go? The project is my attempt to solve homelessness with design. And when I say 'solve', I don’t necessarily mean there will be no more homeless people but approaching it as if it's a category for commerce that's been ignored. We have camping gear, we have sports gear, we have all this gear for every other category of people's lives, but we don't have homeless gear. This gear for people that don't have a home to use. So, when I say, 'solve it', I don't mean get all of them off the street. Some of them want to be on the street. Some of them are so mentally ill or so addicted that they'll never be able to hold down their own house regardless. So how do we build things for those who are inevitably going to be on the street? We're approaching it the wrong way, I think.

Yeah, it doesn't have to just be house or no house.

Or house or no resources. And even this thing I'm wearing right now is a wearable sleeping bag. I found them and thought they could be cool. Then I started gathering references for all these things that were adjacent; Craig Green x Moncler, and thought that would be cool if it was for homeless people. I started collecting all of these references and just decided to just launch it one day prematurely. I just wanted to get it out there and start attracting designers and like-minded people to help me do it. Because it's like a 50-year project. I'm not going to do it in a couple years. I'm calling it a 'life work', and I'll just work on it for the rest of my life until it's in a different place than where it is.

You're going to get to do what you want to do if you just keep doing it for long enough.

We spoke previously about you primarily working in New York and LA despite living in Florida, and the sense of disconnect that goes with that. Is that disconnection something you enjoy, and do you think it helps you creatively?

Like I said earlier, I'm very impressionable. So if I'm around painters, I'm going to start painting. If I'm in LA all day, I'm going to start being an LA rat, how people are there, drugs and all this stuff. So, because I'm so fragile in that way, or impressionable in that way, I think it helps me just stay grounded. And then of course, my family is in St. Petersburg, so I may be disconnected from the work, but I’m near my family and friends who I grew up with, and the work is in my head. So, it's not really a disconnect as much as its separation of space. We're not separated mentally. We're on Zoom calls, so it is a physical separation or a physical isolation. Ideas don't really need to be in a certain area of the world. You don't have to be in LA to work on things in LA. So I don't really feel disconnected. I feel like I need the space and quiet, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm a fragile person.

You hear about people going crazy all the time. "Oh, he used to be a cool guy. I don't know what happened to him, he just..." And I just didn't want that to happen to me but recognized that it possibly could if I stay in unhealthy environments too long. So just more for longevity that I chose to be not in the mix. I tried it though. I tried to live here, I tried to live in LA. It's too unhealthy, for me.

Left: jacket WILLY CHAVARRIA, pants BURBERRY, top MAISON MARGIELA, sunglasses LOUIS VUITTON, shoes HERON PRESTON, necklace TALENT'S OWN. Right: jacket TOMBOGO, sunglasses BALENCIAGA, necklace MARTINE ALI.

Why'd you remove yourself from Instagram in a time where so many creatives feel it's essential to be on it?

To the same point of it being unhealthy for me. Like I said earlier in this conversation, I never do things for one reason. It wasn’t just I'm addicted to Instagram so I'm going to quit. That's one reason. But part of it is me being impressionable. If I'm seeing somebody designing clothes in Paris, it's like, I got to go to Paris right now and I'm going to start looking at flights. Even if I don't buy it, that's distracting me for an hour of my day now. I see somebody making a painting. See Nate taking some photos. See you working at office Magazine. I'm thinking maybe I should get a job for a magazine. Maybe I should start my own magazine. I'm just so easily distracted and so that's part of it, me not wanting to be distracted.

And then the comparison is the thief of joy. Why am I not in Paris, in a mansion with a Lamborghini right now? Why am I not? And so, I was tired of having my joy robbed. I'm a simple dude. I don't need any of that. I'd like a Lamborghini. But I don't need that. Part of it was not wanting my joy robbed. Maybe it's not a day-ruining thought. It ruins five minutes of my life, or two minutes. So, it's taking my time back and taking my life back. And I wasn't posting anything. I wasn't doing anything on there. And so, I'm literally just consuming.

I think as creatives, comparing yourself to other artists can be such a damaging thing. Which is basically what Instagram is; comparing yourself to other people.

It’s a comparison machine. It's all it is. Like, hey, look at me. Hey, look at me. Hey, look at me. You're just looking. And our brain, as humans, is designed to compare ourselves to people, partly for survival. If our cave neighbor made a spear, it's in our best interest to observe and compare, oh, I need a spear. It's in our best interest to be like that. I need to learn how to make fire because his family's warmer than mine and my family's shivering in the cold. So, we're designed as humans to compare ourselves. We’re social creatures. So, it's not anybody's fault except the creators of Instagram. It's not anybody's fault that they're addicted or compare themselves to people when they're on Instagram. You're either on Instagram, comparing yourself to people, or you're just not on Instagram. It's not like you can turn off that thousands of years of evolution designing us to do that. And it's only been 30 years in technology.

That's interesting because I kind of assumed it was a modern-day thing.

No, for survival we've had to compare ourselves to other humans. ‘Compare’ may not be the word, but we had to see ourselves in relation to other humans since the beginning. Since we were monkeys or whatever. Because if they got coconuts or found the bananas, where's the bananas? My family's hungry too. So, I'm going to follow you there and go do it too. Monkey see, monkey do, right. You know what I'm saying?

Sweater RAF SIMONS, pants WINNIE, shoes YUME YUME, sunglasses FLATLIST.

How do you feel about the direction technology is steering art?

On a good day, I feel good about it. On a bad day, I feel bad about it. On a cynical day, I'm like, oh, fuck this man. It's not going in a good direction. But as I get older, I'm observing more and being able to separate myself from certain technologies. People are going to be painting forever. They're going to paint forever. They're going to make songs forever.

I think it's going to help art at the end day. I think technology is going to help art, and there’s going to be different branches of it. There's going to be the purists, the naturalists, there’s going to be people who play around with technology and become cyborgs and their art is going to look a certain way. I think we live in a time where you can do and live in any era from history.

You can be a 1950s, prohibition era photographer, and only shoot film, only drink beer that you brewed yourself, only wear wool and tweed. You can choose to be in any era. And so, I think there’ll be branches. I don't think it's going to be such a heavy hand like, oh, technology did this to art. I think there’ll be a branch of people who use technology for art. Then it'll be everybody else. A hundred thousand other branches. But technology's allowing us to live and for every trend to be happening at once, right now. If you want to be a 1980s kid, disco, post disco kid, you can do that right now, you know? All the trends are happening at once right now. People are wearing skinny pants, people are wearing bell bottoms, all at once and that's because of technology. Overall, I think it's a good thing.

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Pamela Sneed’s Speaking Tongue opens at Dashwood Projects

November 15, 2024

Pamela Sneed’s latest exhibition, Speaking Tongue, will be on view at Dashwood Projects from November 20 to December 21. The show features twenty watercolor and ink paintings inspired by her recent trip to Kenya, where she was deeply moved by the elegance of giraffes, the landscapes, and the energy of Nairobi.

Blending her background as a poet and visual artist, Sneed’s work reflects on themes of identity, nature, and connection. Her paintings capture the beauty and spirit of the animals she encountered, alongside reflections on her own experiences as part of the African diaspora.

This exhibition marks Sneed’s first solo show with Dashwood Projects and will be accompanied by a new book, also titled Speaking Tongue, to be released in December.

By Enzo Holdt
Artworks by Pamela Sneed

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Tiebreaker - Alvin Armstrong

November 15, 2024

There is a moment of silence right before the play. Just before the racket strikes the ball as it hangs weightless in the air, breathless and charged. It’s the fleeting yet decisive instant that can alter the course of the match, determining who wins and who loses.

Alvin Armstrong depicts this crucial moment in his new exhibition Tiebreaker, symbolizing the risks and rewards of competition. It’s an implication of something else at stake, where athletes push not only their bodies, but their spirits to the absolute limit.

The dynamic figures embody the strength, grace, and agility juxtaposed by the vibrant color palette evoking not just the joy of competition but the charged energy of the court.

Tiebreaker is opening Thursday, November 16th at Anna Zorina Gallery.

By Rea Brayshaw
Artworks by Alvin Armstrong

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The Things People Are Ashamed To Take Photos Of: The Photography and Films of Yuhan Cheng

Yuhan’s latest exhibition of photo and video work titled 窗子外 Outside the Window, Inside the Tank 鱼缸里 takes its namesake from what could’ve been a mundane encounter. A month after moving to New York City from Chengdu, China, they stumbled across an abandoned fish tank left curbside. It reminded them of “the rotating fish in a tank that faded into the background of their mother’s home in Chengdu”, a thread connecting childhood familiarity that transformed into a symbol of greater significance in adulthood. A tank is a world within a world; a microcosm secluded from the broader chaos of the outside. Since then Yuhan has captured the other kinds of “fish tanks” closest to them in their photography and short films. Not literal ones necessarily– but intimate confined spaces in Chengdu and NYC where time stands still.

In the midst of taking snapshots of loved ones, Yuhan decided to turn their tender but examining lens on themselves. They realized shooting self-portraits unraveled a deeper understanding of their own nonbinary gender and queer sexuality. Yuhan admits in one of their short films “I hide from looking at my own body.” Yet, in the seclusion of their room which doubles as a dark room, Yuhan began to develop their first nude photos chronicling the subtle wounds; bitten cuticles, bruises, and scrapes they’ve accumulated involuntarily, once again documenting the things people choose to hide.

窗子外 Outside the Window, Inside the Tank 鱼缸里, debuted at FAR-NEAR Studio Hours a gallery in Chinatown focused on expanding the art world's view of Asia and Asian artists curated by Lulu Yao Gioiello. The event merged Yuhan’s works from the past three years, including 70 photographs, three short documentaries, and one installation. There was something uncanny about the gallery’s atmosphere – from the dollar store teal green curtains obscuring every window to the clusters of framed photos mimicking how photos of relatives are displayed in one’s childhood home, to the darkened lighting that was both disorienting and cozy. All these details were meticulously chosen to imitate the rooms depicted in Yuhan’s films and photography. In other words, the audience was invited to Yuhan’s “fishtank”, to share the odd balance of comfort and unease of being known intimately. We talked to Yuhan at Cafe Reggio to understand how their latest body of work came into being.

Initially, I was exploring my friends’ identities through the lens, but slowly, it became a tool to confront and understand my own queerness and gender identity.

Ora Margolis— Were any memories/childhood experiences you had in Chengdu important to how you've developed as an artist?

Yuhan Cheng— Growing up in Chengdu, especially in a military household, shaped and gave me a source of contention how I understood my identity. There was always a sense of conflict when it came to my body and feeling like I didn’t quite fit the expectations around me. This tension has been a driving force in my practice, pushing me to explore identity and belonging in my work.

Tell us a bit about your latest exhibition Outside the Window, Inside the Tank at Far. What headspace were you in when taking these photos?

YC— Outside the Window, Inside the Tank is about the fluidity of self; our bodies, our environments, and our identities. The idea of water as both a symbol of confinement and freedom is central to the photos and film that comprise the exhibit. This fluidity much like how I see my experience moving between Chengdu and New York, where similar feelings follow me no matter where I am. Water mirrors the body, the frame, and the room, which are all containers of the self.

Previously, you’ve said you wanted the exhibition space to look "like your room". How did you make that happen and why is your NYC room important to you?

YC— My room in NYC is an extension of my identity. It’s where I feel vulnerable and where I explore myself most openly. It’s a manifestation of my sense of self. I recreated certain elements in the exhibition—the green sheer curtains, the dollar store shower curtain with bubbles, and the center installation depicted a self-portrait deteriorating in water, reminiscent of a fish in a tank. This room, like any other room or container, magnifies the tension of self-exploration.

Has your idea or comfort with your gender identity and /sexuality changed since you’ve delved into photography?

YC— Yes. The process of photography and filming has been a mirror to my own understanding of self. Initially, I was exploring my friends’ identities through the lens, but slowly, it became a tool to confront and understand my own queerness and gender identity. The process of photographing my queer friends and then myself allowed me to come to terms with who I am.

How did you and Lulu Yao of FAR-NEAR Studio meet, and what makes her a good collaborator?

YC— We first connected when I reached out with my series Princess of Funan River. Lulu understood the struggles and complexities in the work and she invited me to expand on those ideas with her. Our collaboration has worked because Lulu truly resonates with the themes I’m drawn to, like fluidity, transformation, and the intimacy of navigating belonging.

After completing Fish Tank and Remnants of an Amateur Film, what kind of movie do you want to make next?

YC— Right now, I’m more focused on writing. I need to understand what I want to say before making another film. Writing helps me find clarity;it’s a crucial part of my process.

What kind of camera do you use and why?

YC— I use a Canon AE-1. I started with it and I still love it. It's small, spontaneous, easy to use, and light. It allows me to capture moments naturally without overthinking.

What's your biggest fear?

YC— Being disconnected from my sense of self, from others, and from the things I love.

When do you feel most like yourself?

YC— It’s during those fleeting moments when I complete a project. That feeling fades quickly, leaving me searching for the next project to reconnect with that sense of fulfillment.

How do you want people to feel when they interact with your art?

YC— I want them to feel whatever resonates with them. I don’t want to prescribe the experience; it should feel right for each person.

Your work focuses on the close knit communities that surround you or various metaphorical “fish tanks”. What communities do you feel closest to?
YC— The queer artist community, both in Chengdu and NYC, has been a source of comfort and understanding for me. There’s something about shared struggles and shared creative language that feels like home.

What's the biggest difference between living life as a queer artist in NYC and in Chengdu?

YC— In both NYC and Chengdu, I’m learning more about myself. NYC offers a sense of freedom, while Chengdu is home, a place of comfort and history. Neither place defines me but both are significant parts of my path.

What are your next moves/goals?

YC— I want to continue exploring both film and photography, expanding my narrative style and experimenting across mediums. During my show, I found new ways of seeing my photographs such as by adding a window screen between frames or letting a self-portrait fade and grow mold in water. These approaches allowed me to see my work not just as 2D images but as 3D objects.

I want to keep pushing the boundaries of how photo and film can interact, and I’m also interested in trying photojournalism. My focus remains on collaborating across mediums and continuing to accumulate experiences that I can translate into sincere honest work.