Description
Book: CHITO: One
Hardcover with embossed details.
Edited by Bergen Hendrickson
Design by Javier Salomón Huerta
Published: 2021, first edition
Pages: 264
papertype: Bond Inspira, 150grs/m2
Print: Offset and Silkscreen
Language: English
Dimensions: 22.5 x 16.8 x 3.3 cm.
This book marks the first instalment in an ongoing catalogue series documenting and archiving the work of American-born artist Chito. This first book records the evolution across many garments collected and painted by the young artist from the beginning of his career up to mid-2018 and offers an authoritative glimpse into the beginnings of his now well-known practice. Lush archival photographs sourced from Chito’s own records and those of early colleagues and admirers are complemented by essay accounts of this formative era. Readers already interested in Chito’s work, as well as those only newly familiar, will find this to be a document rich with detail that sets the stage for subsequent chapters of Chito’s ongoing story.
About Chito
Born in Seattle, Washington, Chito is a self-taught artist and designer based in New York and Mexico City. He has developed a distinct visual language best articulated through the medium of airbrush painting on a revolving canvas of garments and objects that in turn become transgressive structures. Through his nomadic practice, he has created an idiosyncratic cast of characters that serve as beheld signatures, dripping hallmarks of his work that have gone on to live lives of their own as they are worn on the backs of the likes of Frank Ocean, Drake and ASAP Rocky, exhibited around the world and find willful evolution through collaborations with Supreme and Arc’teryx Veilance. Alongside participation in group shows in Mexico City, Paris, Vancouver, New York, Miami and Tokyo, Chito made his international solo debut with his 2017 exhibition FWM, PGU (Crack Gallery, Vancouver), followed by another international exhibition Notes To… at Lagos Gallery, Mexico City in 2020. He remains enigmatic, shifting intentionally, writhing in his own becoming.
Highsnobiety.com:
CHITO mostly keeps to himself but recently his work has been everywhere. Indeed, CHITO’s smirking, airbrushed figures have graced NFT-ized collaborations with Supreme (and Yohji Yamamoto) and Veilance and just this past month took over a fully-fledged Givenchy line. The artist doesn’t often sell his works or the wearables that he tags but, finally, CHITO’s fans can actually own a piece of his legacy with CHITO: One.
“I feel like I haven’t really told my story, but there are parts of my practice that people should know about and want to know about,” CHITO tells Highsnobiety. CHITO: One sheds a bit of light on his practice. It’s the first in an eventual series of documents that catalog the 24-year-old’s output, a self-published tome 264 pages deep and packed with lavish photographs of his work, tagged garments, and never-before-seen sketches.
From CHITO’s early works in 2014 to the explosive popularity of his 2018 Supreme collaboration, the book is a breakdown of the Seattle-born, Mexico-based artist’s first four years.
A core intrigue of CHITO’s efforts hinges on the intersection of “street” culture and exclusive opulence, evidenced by his predilection for airbrushing boisterous single-tone illustrations atop fancy accessories and apparel.
CHITO has shown his works in galleries but its more visceral than collectible, the kind of art that has a life beyond the canvas. The bulldogs, people, and other critters that CHITO concocts speak to raucous youth abiding by no one else’s rules, so their juxtaposition atop reclaimed luxury goods was raw and energetic.
Recent fashion co-signs — from Matthew Williams in particular — make it clear that the establishment recognizes that appeal.
“I felt like a book was something I always wanted to do,” continues CHITO. “I didn’t want to make a zine or anything. I wanted to skip that, and just make something that represents my work and could be something that people would hold onto to be able to really dive in.”
CHITO: One features contributions from stylist and creative director Mellany Sánchez and curator Bergen Hendrickson, who helped put together CHITO’s show in Mexico City.
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