Window Shopping

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It’s no secret that the Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno loves art. Scrolling down his Instagram profile, you’ll immediately see a David Shrigley consisting of the phrase “Make some art and you will feel better” screaming in Barbie pink against a red-orange background. Go further and there’s an Ed Ruscha painting, presumably from LACMA, whose annual Art+Film Gala Gucci sponsors. If you manage to go all the way back to his time at Valentino, you’ll catch a Pink Panther by Katherine Bernhardt, Ugo Rondinone’s "Seven Magic Mountains," and a photo taken at Damien Hirst’s 2012 exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. There’s also lots of Arte Povera with Boettis and Fontanas dotting his grid. 

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After Gucci named De Sarno its creative director in January 2023, the fashion designer enshrined art as one of his house codes. He tasked Norwegian, Milan-based independent curator and art advisor Truls Blaasmo with designing the art program, starting with the New Bond Street in London and Monte Napoleone in Milan last year. This most recently spilled across the Atlantic, at the newly-renovated boutique on Wooster Street in SoHo, New York, which Gucci fêted with a NYFW party attended by the likes of Marcus Samuelsson, Mickalene Thomas, and even Elliot Page. 

Blaasmo selected a deliberate mix of artists from the past and present, young and old, from both the U.S. and abroad for the store’s curation: Lucio Fontana, Norman Mclaren, Larry Bell, Alighiero Boetti, Taezoo Park, Sasha Stiles, and Autumn Knight. “This is very much a celebration to Soho, the film, the movie making,” explains Blaasmo. “As with the other two versions of the art program, it's important to bring in the heritage of the brand with some great inspiration.” Blaasmo nailed it, bringing in two of De Sarno’s favorites—Boetti and Fontana. 

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In Boetti’s video piece projected just outside the dressing room, the artist uses both hands to simultaneously write out a date with pencils (63 Wooster once was a pencil factory), resulting in a mirror image-effect. Four of McLaren’s experimental films, created from 1940 to 1971, are projected across the way as an intentional dialogue between the two analog representations. 

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Nearby, Park’s tower of tech relics moves thanks to the intricate mechanics behind them. Fast forward to two examples of how today’s technology is used in art — Stiles’ Gucci-commissioned A.I.-powered generative poetry greets guests at the store’s Wooster Street entrance, while Knight’s self-portrait of a 2021 live streamed performance plays at its West Broadway side. 

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Add in two masters of space—Los Angeles Light and Space icon Bell and Concetto Spaziale (Spatial Concept) creator Fontana, whose works both bring color to new dimensions, and you have an interesting take. Gucci isn’t just for luxury clothes anymore; it’s also a place where we can consume a lesson in culture. Who needs to go to an art gallery and then go shopping when you can do it in one place?

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‍Gucci, 63 Wooster St, New York, NY 10012.