K11 x MOCA presents MOCA Masks exclusively in Asia Pacific

K11 unveils exclusive partnership in Asia Pacific with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) to showcase limited-production MOCA Masks at K11 MUSEA, with designs by globally celebrated artists Virgil Abloh, Mark Grotjahn, Alex Israel, Barbara Kruger, Yoko Ono, Catherine Opie, Pipilotti Rist, Hank Willis Thomas, and Andy Warhol

#K11 MUSEA #MOCAmasks #CSV #SiliconValleyOfCulture
@adriancheng

 

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 7 August 2020 – K11 is proud to announce its exclusive partnership with The Museum of Contemporary
Art (MOCA) to present limited-production MOCA Masks in Asia Pacific. The MOCA
Masks (#MOCAmasks) feature nine
designs by globally celebrated artists, and are available for pre-order from 7
August 2020 through the K11 e-shop: https://bit.ly/315Vbut.
Each mask retails at HKD 320 and is available for express delivery to consumers
in Asia Pacific.

Driven by the vision of
“Creating Shared Value” by Adrian Cheng, Group and CEO of New World Development
(NWD), the K11 Group continues to bring positive change to society through this
exclusive first partnership with MOCA, bringing fashionable options to an
everyday necessity, while supporting artists’ creativity.

These collectable items include an exclusive creation for K11 by artist
Alex Israel which features a sunset palette design mask with a specially
designed iconic artist portrait pin. Other designs include a colourful floral
design mask by Andy Warhol that echoes the same artwork which is in MOCA’s
permanent collection,   Yoko Ono’s puzzle
design “A Piece of Sky”, Mark Grotjahn’s geometric style pattern and Catherine
Opie’s “Bo from Being and Having (detail)”. For those who love typography, the
collection also offers Virgil Abloh’s “Still Speaks Loudly”, Barbara Kruger’s “Better
Safe Than Sorry”, and Hank Willis Thomas’ “Life, Handle with Care”.

 

#MOCAmasks Limited-Production
by Nine Globally Celebrated Artists

Thanks to incredible artists Virgil Abloh, Mark Grotjahn, Alex Israel,
Barbara Kruger, Yoko Ono, Catherine Opie, Pipilotti Rist, Hank Willis Thomas,
and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, being a responsible and
caring citizen amongst citizens just became even more beautiful. This is MOCA’s
first mask project and reflects the museum’s commitment to making the
experience of art accessible and encouraging the urgency of contemporary
expression. Made in Los Angeles, these masks are available in APAC via the exclusive K11 x MOCA partnership. The
nine special designs will be shown at the Gold Ball on the second floor of K11
MUSEA in Hong Kong.

 

“As a MOCA trustee, I am proud to be bringing this meaningful project
#MOCAmasks to Asia Pacific,” says Adrian Cheng. “These limited edition designs
showcase the creativity of some of the world’s most respected artists, and I
hope they provide stylish options to the global community and help people adapt
to the new normal, all while supporting the art industry at the same time.”

 

MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach adds:
“Wearing a mask communicates that you’re mindful of protecting others,
your community, and yourself. I am so grateful to the artists participating in
the #MOCAmasks initiative. Being a responsible and caring citizen amongst
citizens just became even more beautiful because of these artists’
contributions! MOCA is thrilled to partner with K11 on this project and
thrilled to make these masks available to mindful and caring art lovers in Asia.”

 

Creating
Shared Value

Adrian Cheng became the first conglomerate in Hong Kong to play a
leading role in helping those in need during the pandemic.

 

In February, NWD launched a new shared platform #LoveWithoutBorders, in
an effort to provide creative and sustainable solutions to challenges brought
about by the pandemic, including setting up an anti-epidemic fund of $10
million for Hong Kong-based families via NWD’s charitable foundation, raising
funding for local communities through K11 campaigns including “Love Power” and
“#ShareToInspireBid”, building its own mask production lines in Hong Kong, and
launching “Mask-To-Go” dispensers available in thirty-seven designated centres
run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across all eighteen of HK’s districts
to ease recipients’ anxiety about the shortage of masks.

#MOCAmasks Design Process:

The designs of #MOCAmasks are unique or existing works that have been
specially adapted for this unique project.  
Each mask is handled much like an art work from creative to curatorial
to production and presentation. The curatorial journey of #MOCAmasks has been a
labour of love. All masks are crafted in Los Angeles and vary in fabric
depending on the design, including 100% Cotton, Cotton Blends (98% Cotton, 2%
Elastane), or 100% Polyester Micro-Fiber. #MOCAmasks are for decorative use
only.   The mask shape is meant to fit a
wide range of faces comfortably and securely, including children over 10 years
old. Masks can be adjusted based on construction and are made with two layers
of fabric, featuring a pocket on the inside with open sides for the option of
individual filter insertion.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

	Virgil Abloh, Still Speaks Loudly ( @virgilabloh ) Virgil Abloh (b. 1980, Rockford, Illinois) is an artist, architect, engineer, creative director, and fashion designer. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he completed a Master’s degree in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. It was here that he learned not only about design principles but also crafted the principles of his art practice. He studied a curriculum devised by Mies van der Rohe, on a campus he designed. Currently, he is the Chief Creative Director and founder of Off-White™and the Artistic Director of Menswear at Louis Vuitton.
	Alex Israel, Mask for MOCA ( @alexisrael ) Alex Israel (b. 1982, Los Angeles, California). For the last decade, Israel’s art has embraced pop-culture as a global language. Trafficking in the invisible stardust of Hollywood and the detritus of film production–backdrops, sets and props–while riding the wave of the Internet and social media–as online talk-show host, eyewear and clothing designer, filmmaker and hologram–Israel’s art practice doubles as a brand, centered around a Southern Californian millennial lifestyle for which his iconic profile-in-shades-logo becomes a sly emblem, mobilized across high-visibility platforms from the worlds of art, entertainment, fashion and tech. Embedded within each of Israel’s endeavors is not only a landscape (of LA) and a portrait (of himself), but a cool and savvy meditation on a world fueled by celebrity, product placement and influence. A sort of sphinx behind dark lenses, the artist provokes an interrogation of the role of contemporary art in this new world.
	Andy Warhol, Flowers ( @warholfoundation ) As the preeminent American artist of the 20th century, Andy Warhol challenged the world to see art differently. Since its founding in 1987, in accordance with Warhol’s will, The Andy Warhol Foundation has established itself among the leading funders of contemporary art in the United States. The Foundation has distributed over $200,000,000 in cash grants which support the contemporary visual arts, particularly work that is experimental, under-recognized or challenging in nature. Proceeds the Foundation receives from licensing projects such as this contribute to the Foundation’s endowment from which these grants are distributed. For more information visit www.warholfoundation.org .
	Yoko Ono, A Piece of Sky ( @yokoonoofficial ) Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan) is a multi-media artist working in performance, instruction, film, installation, sculpture, music, and writing. A forerunner in conceptual art involving collaboration, audience participation, and social activism since the early 1960s, Ono challenges viewers’ understanding of art and the world around them. Her influence spans many of the key artistic movements of the late 20th century including Fluxus, conceptual art, video art, and feminism. In addition to her work as a visual artist, Ono is also a musical pioneer, both an accomplished singer and songwriter.
	Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Creamsicle Covid 19) ( @markgrotjahn ) Mark Grotjahn (b. 1968, Pasadena, California) combines gesture and geometry with abstraction and figuration in visually dynamic paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Each of his series reflects a range of art-historical influences and unfolds in almost obsessive permutations. He received a BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA from the University of California at Berkeley. Throughout his work, by finding variations within his immediately identifiable style, Grotjahn reveals the complexities of authorial gesture.
	Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Better Safe Than Sorry) ( @barbarakruger45 ) Barbara Kruger (b. 1945, Newark, New Jersey) is an artist who works with pictures and words in the hopes of revealing and resisting socially ingrained assumptions about power: how it determines who lives and who dies, who is healed and who is housed, who speaks and who is silenced, who is visible and who is marginalized.
	Catherine Opie, Bo from Being and Having (detail) ( @csopie ) Catherine Opie (b. 1961, Sandusky, Ohio) is one of the preeminent artists of her generation working with photography. She earned a BFA from SFAI in 1985 and an MFA from CalArts in 1988. Her work is held in over 50 major collections throughout the world. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Guggenheim Fellowship, The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Medal and a United States Artists Fellowship. She is the Lynda and Stewart Resnick endowed Chair in Art and Professor of Photography at UCLA.
	Pipilotti Rist, Smart Yuji ( @pipilotti_rist_studio ) Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962, Rheintal, Switzerland) is a multimedia artist. She studied graphic design, illustration and photography at the Institute of Applied Arts in Vienna, as well as audiovisual communications and video at the School of Design in Basel. Rist is a pioneering video artist, she developed an aesthetic that takes its cues from television, advertising, and feminist video work. From her earliest tapes through her recent multi-media installations, Rist’s body of work explores the intersection of sexuality, technology, and pop culture.
	Hank Willis Thomas, Life, Handle with Care ( @hankwillisthomas ) Hank Willis Thomas (b. 1976, Plainfield, New Jersey) is a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. Thomas’ work addresses the visual systems that perpetuate inequality and bias in bold, skillfully crafted works. Through photographs, sculpture, video, and collaborative public art projects, he invites you to consider the role of popular culture in instituting discrimination and how art can raise critical awareness in the ongoing struggle for social justice and civil rights.

 

Image
credit: Courtesy of The Museum
of Contemporary Art. © Catherine Opie, Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles
and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul; © 2020 The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York;
© Yoko Ono. Used by Permission/All Rights Reserved.

About K11 Group

K11 Group was founded in 2008 by renowned entrepreneur
Adrian Cheng. The unique concept brand combines art and commerce in commercial
and residential real estate, and a growing portfolio of brands across different
sectors in Greater China and around the world.

 

Marking its 10th anniversary, K11 Group announced its most
ambitious Cultural-Retail development K11 MUSEA in June 2018. Situated at the
heart of the new $2.6bn Victoria

 

Dockside art and design district developed by parent
company New World Group in Hong Kong, K11 MUSEA fully opened in 2019.

 

In addition to its flagship K11 Art Malls, K11 Group also
operates K11 ATELIER, a network of office buildings for the next-generation
workforce; luxury residences for worldly travellers K11 ARTUS; open education
platform K11 Kulture Academy; consulting and market research institution K11
Future Taskforce; K11 Art Foundation, China’s first not-for-profit to incubate
Chinese artists and curators; K11 Craft & Guild, a foundation that is
dedicated to preserving traditional Chinese crafts and bringing them into the
future.

 

K11 Group is based in Hong Kong and has operations in
Greater China, as well as investments in Europe and the US.

 

Through K11 Group, Cheng’s stated aim is to enrich the new
consumer’s daily life through the power of creativity, culture and innovation.
This work will create a new global identity for Chinese millennials as well as
cultivate opportunities for communities to thrive, connect, work and shop. By
2024, K11 Group will have gained a footprint in 36 projects (total GFA
30million sq ft) in nine cities across Greater China. K11 was honoured by Fast
Company as one of the most innovative companies in 2019 for its disruptive
retail model.

THE MUSEUM OF
CONTEMPORARY ART

About MOCA: Founded in 1979,
MOCA is the defining museum of contemporary art. In a relatively short period
of time, MOCA has achieved astonishing growth; a world-class permanent
collection of more than 7,000 objects, international in scope and among the
finest in the world; hallmark education programs that are widely-emulated;
award-winning publications that present original scholarship; groundbreaking
monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international repute that
survey the art of our time; and cutting-edge engagement with modes of new media
production. MOCA is a not-for-profit institution that relies on a variety of
funding sources for its activities.