 |
| Photo courtesy of Hayley Axelrad c/o Manolo Blahnik |
If I were a character in a painting looking to have fun, I'd like to hang out in a piece by Hayley Axelrad.
Axelrad's world is as colourful as glamorous, with a pinch of humour, which is why I was thrilled to find out of Hayley's recent collaboration with legendary shoe designer Manolo Blahnik.
In fact, I was so happy about this I had to hop on a call with Hayley to know more about how this collaboration came to be. It's always great to see Toronto artists making waves internationally.
Watch our conversation on YouTube.
___
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Carla | Artifier
Hi, Hayley.
Hayley Axelrad:
How are you? It's so nice to meet you.
CA:
I know. It's so nice to meet you. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and talk to everyone who is listening to this conversation. So first of all, I need to say that I've been following your work for a few years now. One day I saw these paintings of these colourful characters and these colourful scenarios and I'm like, they're having such a good time!
HA:
They are.
CA:
Can you tell me a little bit more about it? What makes you want to explore these subjects?
HA:
Yeah, for sure. First of all, thank you. I love being a painter and I love painting. I have so much fun with it, which I think, you know, is reflected in my work. I have had people say this to me before where they're like, it's so refreshing to see work that is happy and playful because I feel there's a lot of beautiful, incredible work out there that is a little more sad or coming from a place of pain, and I think that's quite typical for artists to come from a place of pain. For me, I actually find it really hard to be creative or make work when I'm sad.
My evolution into this work was kind of slow.
I started out in a background of academic realism. So I was doing a lot of very technical painting and drawing, which was really amazing. It was such a good foundation to have! But it was very laborious and, you know, you'd spend hundreds of hours on a painting or a drawing. And it was just feeling very... I want to have fun, you know?
I slowly started developing a style where, first of all, one thing that was really important to me was being able to use colour very freely. I love colour so much, and it's always been such a big part of my life. It definitely guides my work and my life. I live in colour. I just love colours. They speak to me.
So I wanted to be able to do that.
And it's funny because when I first started my journey as an artist, I really thought of myself as only sort of valuable for my technical ability. I didn't really think of myself as a creative person necessarily, which was interesting. And then as I started to play around more, like loosen up, I was just like, whoa, I actually have like so many creative ideas and worlds in my head!
Then the style became a lot more simplistic and almost graphic, but still painterly because I didn't want to have to depend on a reference. I didn't want to have to. I wanted total freedom. I don't want to have to create these scenes where there are people by a pool and I have to hire models and figure out. The entry point to my work was just freedom in every aspect. And then the actual subject matter is I grew up loving pop culture, movies. I started my career actually in fashion. I was doing styling and stuff like that.
I just have so many references in my head of fashion editorials or movies that I love. So I'm just letting it all out. I love making these crazy worlds of glamour and luxury and sometimes the emptiness that accompanies that. It's fun! Something about me too is I went to school for art history at McGill. It was great but, as an artist, I was so turned off of sort of the pretentious nature of it all. Looking at these works and infusing meaning into them that was probably not there, you know?
I'm so not pretentious.
All that stuff is a turnoff to me. And I like to say that my work is not that deep, even though there is depth to it. It's also just supposed to bring people joy, make people laugh and allow people to have fun, which I feel is kind of missing from the art world in many ways. I mean, there's tons of amazing fun, happy art, but that's just me. So I, I love doing that.
CA:
I love what you were saying. There's a lot of subjects to explore, but there's also a space for these colourful, vibrant scenes where you are allowed to have fun and see representations of maybe life, but maybe editorials. And I also find it interesting that you have a background in fashion.
I know the collaborations between luxury brands and art has been happening for a long time, but in recent years, I've noticed that it seems to be, kind of gaining momentum. I would love to hear more about the collaboration that you recently had with Manolo Blahnik. It feels like it's such a good fit! You know, with your world, but how, how did this happen?
HA:
Yeah, it's so crazy. Even you just saying that... I got shivers because I'm like, did that actually happen?
It was so surreal! The backstory is that when I was at McGill, I was friends with a girl in my art history program named Jemma, who was the person who curated this whole event and sort of brought it to life. She's incredible. And then over the years, she became an art advisor.
I became an artist and we were looking for different ways to eventually work together. She would come visit my studio and she loved my work and everything. And then a few months ago, it was probably early November, she reached out to me and she was like, I've gotten close with people on the Manolo Blahnik marketing team, cause she lives in Milan and she has friends in London and she's an it girl, you know?
So she was like, would you be interested in doing this? And I was like yeah, of course! Is this even real? Basically that's the thing. It was such a natural collaboration between me and the brand because it's my world. It's the world that I love to explore and paint and think about and look at on Pinterest, so it was just so obvious and like, I love Sex and the City. I love Mary Antoinette and I love just all of the iconic places that we have seen Manolo Blahnik and it's such an iconic brand! So yeah, it was just so fun. They gave me complete freedom.
They licensed their spring collection to me to use their actual shoes. It was just so cool. And I was diving into the history of the brand and also the iconography of Milan too, because they opened the store in Milan relatively recently and it's their flagship store there. So I had one big painting that was really celebrating the store itself and the experience of being in a luxury shoe store and buying shoes and just like having fun with that.
The other big painting was more surrounding Milan culture. It's called like aperitivo. So it's like going to a bar and having a drink and that sort of thing. It was just so fun. Again, they put no real limitations on anything. So it was complete creative freedom and it just was incredible.
I went to Milan. It was again just so surreal! Definitely the highlight of my life, and the paintings looked so good in the store! I had obviously looked at images of the store and I was working with the knowledge of what it looked like. So yeah, it was a dream. It was so cool.
When the paintings got into the store, all of the people that worked there were going up to the paintings and being like, my God, that's me! That's you! My God, I know these shoes! It was so exciting for everyone. And the event was just so beautiful. Jemma planned everything from the catering to the cocktails. It was a dream. I felt like I was in one of my paintings.
CA:
I think this is a good example of how you never know the different places we can go in life. I feel like in many ways this was a dream collaboration between you and your friend, but then also with the brands and then your friend with the brand. I love it when that happens because it's so rare to have the opportunity not just to work with a brand that you love, but also to have this environment where creativity flourishes.
HA:
Yeah! We just kept looking at each other being like, how did we get from like art history 101 to here?
It's crazy. But it's magical. It's really cool.
CA:
Really awesome! Do you have any other collaborations coming up?
HA:
None that I can really speak on, but there are things in the pipeline. You'll have to see.
There is exciting stuff planned for sure.
CA:
Okay, so where can we hear more about your work and how we can follow what you are up to?
HA:
I mostly post everything on Instagram at @hayleyaxelrad. I have a website. I try to update it, but it's not always that up to date. So if you are interested in buying work, just reach out to me and I'll send you a catalog.
CA:
Okay, well thank you so much for taking the time to to talk about this. It's so cool to see people that you've been following, and especially if they're Toronto based because it's rare to find these opportunities within the community here.
HA:
I know. For sure. I couldn't agree more and thank you.
It's really sweet and it's so nice to meet you.
.jpeg) |
| Photo courtesy of Hayley Axelrad c/o Taylor Renee Whyte |
__
About the collaboration:
Working in bold colour and richly textured oil paint, Axelrad transforms motifs of heels, champagne, and leisure into symbolic gestures rather than literal subjects. Her painterly surfaces recall the expressive sensuality of postwar figurative painters while reimagining glamour through a contemporary lens. Installed throughout the [Milan] boutique, the works integrate seamlessly into the rhythm of luxury shopping at the epicentre of italian fashion, where pleasure is unhurried and elegance is instinctive.
Curated by: Jemma Elliott-Israelson
Images courtesy of Hayley Axelrad
