Art & Fashion: Brooks Salzwedel, Beryll and Then Some

"Multistructural" by Brooks Salzwedel

Two recent evenings were spent catching the latest artworks by a couple of guys I know through their very distinct fashion accessories.
Brooks Shane Salzwedel's haunting work in graphite, tape and thick coats of resin has been garnering the Silverlake artist a growing following for both his fine art and his belts and necklaces, a spin-off the former. On Saturday night, Tinlark, a fantastic Hollywood gallery at the Crossroads of the World complex on Sunset Boulevard, right off Las Palmas, celebrated its first anniversary by dedicating an entire room to Brooks and showcasing 11 other talented artists in an adjoining space.
Whether it's his crows in flight, the toxic urbanscapes or the loneliness of an oil digging platform in the middle of the sea, Brooks' work conveys a soulfulness to it that is unlike anything. It's why Andy and I are such fans of his work. We have several pieces in our home that we've collected since meeting Brooks three years ago, and we continue to spotlight his accessories at A+R, including championing him as a Fresh Faces finalist for the last Gen Art and pestering him to translate his belt work into necklaces-which we now giddily feature in our shops. As usual, it was a mighty challenge resisting his latest batch of artwork this weekend. The Tinlark show does last until February 23….

Belt by Brooks "Shane" Salzwedel

One other artist I fell in love with at the Tinlark show was Diem Chau. The Seattle artist finely embroiders on wisps of fabrics that she then pulls over tea cups and saucers. Maybe it's the fashion girl inside me-or having grown up with a mother who embroiders beautifully-but I was hooked. Unfortunately, the one I wanted-with a dangling red thread behind the gauzy fabric-was sold by the time we arrived. I'm still grieving for it.

By Diem Chau

I may have to return to Tinlark, however, for her carved Crayola figures. The combination of cuteness from the brightly colored sticks and the droll looks on their mugs is just too irresistible.

Crayola Art by Diem Chau

Just a couple of blocks from A+R in Venice, at the Smart Car-sponsored Smart House, Sigmar Berg presented his collections of monoprints on canvas, surrealscapes of the Austrian expat's adopted home in Malibu and surrounding points.

Sigmar Berg in front of "Blaze"

Berg is best known as the swarthy designer of Beryll sunglasses, a brand well known in Europe for the last decade and just cracking the highly competitive frames market stateside. Like all good brands these days, Beryll does count a bold-face base on their site including Angelina Jolie, David LaChapelle and R. Kelly (no indication whether they scored these via a swag connection, of course).
Besides the Mac Daddy-sized, dark shades, Berg also created thick cord silver chains and weathered, utilitarian belts from, well, recycled army belts under the brand, all sold at the Santa Monica flagship.
Oddly, he doesn't shoot his own catalogs.

Page from the Beryll 2008 Catalog

Settled into being married with children now, Berg picked up a Leica D-Lux 3 and started snapping away. I was happy to find this out since a new year's resolve was to finally read the manual of my D-L3. (By the way, I am NOT sponsored by Leica-just love the little cam that the boys at Uber were kind enough to present me.). Blowing out the images without any color corrections further imbued them with a moodiness that would've been so different with a telescopic lens and Photoshop.

"Where Do U Live" by Sigmar Berg
Clouds by Sigmar Berg
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