Starting May 30, PRESENTE CONTINUO will be available to purchase on presentecontinuo.com, cpcompany.com, and at the C.P. Company flagship store in Milan, Corso Matteotti 7.
Wegman’s photographs use humour as a structural and analytical tool and through carefully staged compositions, he explores repetition, symmetry and gesture, producing images that move freely between the deadpan and the surreal. His work emphasizes the tension between conceptual rigor and apparent simplicity, collapsing distinctions between the ordinary and the constructed. Referencing fashion photography as well as the history of art, Wegman’s practice engages a wide range of visual traditions. His use of costume, props, and sets activates modernist traditions, reframing their formal concerns through photography.
An artist, painter, and creative visionary, Martinez’s work focuses on both the collective experience and the individualized one that interacts with the that collective. Most often, his work achieves this through the depiction of crowds. His crowds, in particular, depict a level of whimsy and otherworldliness that makes the experience of being observed largely unthreatening and almost cartoonish. His art style is characterized by vibrant colors and dramatized by “googly eyes” that appear on the colorful dots that represent bodies. He refers to this immersive artwork as “reciprocal visual engagement,” where the viewer is ushered into engaging with the artwork in ways they usually would not. Viewers are not only viewers in Martinez’s work, they also embody that which is being spectated.
Martinez speaks on the homogenization of art in the age of AI as a thing to be avoided at all costs. The New Jersey-born artist is all about facing the art of the soul head-on, not straying away, or scraping the surface. Too often in the art world, we are trained to be consumers or creators. Rarely are we asked to turn the mirror back on ourselves and imagine what the reflection looks like in the eye of the beholder. Brandon Martinez does exactly that. His inclination toward authenticity is seen through because of his tendency to follow his creative impulses, capture the rhythm of life and the brief moments suspended in time, and bridge cultural experiences with personal worlds. This energy is what truly animates his universe of artwork.
This year, the event was made extra special through the inclusion of honorees like Sasha Gordon, Katherine Bradford, and Jody Quon. This brilliance was furthered from contributions by creatives like Rama Duwaji, Futura, Roz Chast, Roxane Gay, Tschabalala Self, KAWS, Will Cotton, and Marilyn Minter.
At the gala, The Sketch Project made its debut. The prompt given asked contributors to create sketches that reflect the vision of New York City. Drawings, paintings, song lyrics, notes, and more were accepted as submissions. The pieces were then auctioned off, allowing emerging artists to stand alongside “blue-chip” artists. The evening was ornamented by music from saxophonist, Michael Foster Trio and complete by dinner and cocktails. Guests even had the opportunity to engage with the creative world through an immersive art experience. Designed by Katherine Bradford, each attendee received a Muji notebook screen-printed with one of Bradford's sketches. This was accompanied by Muji colored pencils in custom sleeves, encouraging a jovial spirit and allowing the energy of the night to course the hands of the people in attendance.
