Exhibitions
H+F Fashion Award: Charles LeDray, MENS SUITS
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 21 November 2009 / 10 January 2010

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
21 November > 10 January
This year the H+F Fashion Award goes to the American artist Charles LeDray (Seattle, 1960). The H+ F Fashion on the Edge Foundation awards the biennial prize for exceptional work by a designer or artist working at the cutting edge of fashion and art. The prize includes the presentation of LeDray's existing project MENS SUITS in the museum until 10 January 2010.

Charles LeDray is an artist working mainly with textiles and ceramics. He meticulously stitches and sews, throws and glazes all his work by hand, working alone in a small studio in New York. The project MENS SUITS is based on clothing. Large amounts of men's clothing - suits, shirts, ties, gloves - all different, all hand-made and intimately detailed, and mostly appearing second hand. They have had a life dressing somebody, and bear a sense of fatigue. All LeDray's work is like something we have seen or worn, but on a different scale. Much smaller than life-size, they have a quiet, arresting presence.

Author and art collector Han Nefkens’s H+F Fashion on the Edge programme is building up a collection of installations and works that explore the relationship between art and fashion.
MENS SUITS is an Artangel commission and has been in the making for the past three years. The project was launched in London in 2009 and is supported by Arts Council England, Artangel International Circle, Special Angels and The Company of Angels.





Charles LeDray, MENS SUITS, 2009. Commissioned by Artangel, photos Julian Abrams
 
 
ArtAids

The ArtAids foundation was set up in 2006 at Han Nefkens’ initiative. ArtAids fights AIDS with the power of art as its most important weapon. ArtAids invites leading artists to produce work that is inspired by AIDS and related problems. These works of art are used to raise the public’s consciousness and to encourage their involvement.

Fundació Han Nefkens

The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.

H+F

Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.