54 ARCHDIGEST.COM
CHRISTOPHER MYERS: KAMAL NASSIF/COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND FORT GANSEVOORT, NEW YORK
DISCOVERIES
On top of all that, Bellavance-
Lecompte is helping to revitalize an
archaeological site in Egypt’s Siwa
desert, renovating the mud dwellings
of Shali village and establishing a
residency program in the area. So how
does he handle wearing so many
hats at once? “Although it sounds like
a very modern idea, it was born in
the Renaissance. People were doing all
of the artistic disciplines at the same
time. Leonardo and Michelangelo were
engineers, artists, scenographers, and
urban planners,” he says. “I don’t have
boundaries. I would get too bored
if I did.” nb-lecompte.com —TOM MORRIS
1. AN EXTRUDED BRONZE WORK BY
ANTON ALVAREZ. 2. THE FOUNDRY.
ONE TO WATCH
Christopher
Myers
“These are 70-year-old sails from Egypt,”
Christopher Myers says, digging through
a pile of fabrics in his Brooklyn studio.
“As a material, they have so much to say.”
Textiles and their backstories have become
central to his art practice. Since meeting
a group of craftspeople making patchwork
placemats in Luxor five years ago, he has
been collaborating with them on large,
figurative quilts inspired by the asafo flags
of Ghana. Myers (also a playwright and
children’s-book author and illustrator)
calls the mural-like compositions “flags
for nations that will never exist.” He made
one for Drexciya, an undersea kingdom
dreamed up for slave-ship passengers
thrown overboard, and another for Zip the
Pinhead, a 19th-century African American
freak show performer and nation of one.
Several examples—including new ones
stretching 20 feet in length—go on display
November 21 at Fort Gansevoort’s new
gallery in Los Angeles. kalyban.com
—HANNAH MARTIN
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