After all this time Aaron Bondaroff is still the face of Supreme. This editorial piece for Japanese streetwear magazine GRIND shoes the new season’s collection layer upon layer.

Source: HB

Supreme Fall/Winter 2011 Collection ft. Aaron Bondaroff is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

AnOther Thing have put together a great interview with New Yorker figurehead Aaron Bondaroff aka A-Ron who has played such a pivotal role in street culture for some years now, not only in his city but globally. Although as vague as ever he mentions “I don’t know what I do – it’s what I do, you know,” he part-founded the legendary Supreme in 1994 before launching his own brand aNYthing in 2001, and most recently being an influential part of OHWOW gallery that opened in 2008. This great read provides us with a further insight into what inspired Bondaroff when he was growing up, going to the roots of the individual who continues to make an impact.

“My father was definitely an inspiration when I was growing up – always being a hustler from Brooklyn, creating his own ways to live and bring money into the family. It wasn’t traditional so I was always around that untraditional format of making money and never really knowing what he was doing but understanding that he was doing something that was his own thing. My father had several businesses that were short lived and would always shut down, so the idea of creating multiple things, just keeping and making things happen or trying to figure out how to bring money into the family is definitely a big part of my attitude. I guess a lot of freedom also really inspired me because I was never grooved by the structure so I can’t imagine ever even having a job – even when I was younger I hated that idea of structure, you know from school to having my first few jobs. There’s no real recipe to where I’m at now ‘cause I didn’t plan it, I was just always trying to think of new ideas and new schemes to make money and to be successful and avoid the system.”

Continue reading HERE…

Aaron Bondaroff on his early inspirations is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

aNYthing Fall/Winter 2011 Collection Party Hosted by Aaron Bondaroff is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

With Aaron Bondaroff in London for the launch of Lucien Smith’s newest exhibition and the opening of Supreme London, i-D Online took the chance to speak to the Downtown Don about his career and his relationship with up and coming art superstar Lucien Smith (See details of his exhibition here).

Let’s talk about how things started and the brand you set out to create ten years ago… In the beginning I wanted to create something that meant I didn’t have to do a job. To tell you the truth it started with me just wanting to make objects and from my experience working at Supreme, what was most obvious was making clothes. Also coming from a strong creative community, I knew I could give them clothes and have them represent the brand. There was never a business model, it was just a case of going with the flow and back then myself and a lot of the people I was surrounded by were just excited to make things happen. We didn’t spend time nurturing things, we were just excited to kick the door down. Then gradually it became less about fashion and more the marketing and branding of it. Now as a clothing brand, for aNYthing to be the fingers on the hand of what I do in life, I’m satisfied.

Where once the clothing was at the centre, now it’s just one of many aspects of what you do? Yeah, it’s just one of many things that I have under my belt. Take Physical Therapy, who is a DJ that I like, who we’ve used as a model for the aNYthing look book and we’re also releasing a CD with him. He’s here in London to perform at Lucien’s party tonight and at the aNYthing launch tomorrow. With the clothing line I’m able to take some of the younger talents, give them an introduction and then if and when they’re ready, bring them over to the other projects. I kind of use it as a training ground.

How different would it be if you were to start everything over? I would still create something that would make enough noise to get attention, but New York has definitely changed and I’m kind of glad I got in before that whole blogging, internet thing happened and everything becoming so accessible. There was still a mystique around what I was doing because there wasn’t that much information. Now you can’t hide anything, and I think the fact that I could keep things hidden helped the product. Whatever your craft is, it has to be a bit tighter now as it’s so open.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

Photo: Justin Borbely

Aaron Bondaroff Interview | i-D Online is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

As is becoming a regular seasonal feature, Japanese streetwear magazine COOL TRANS present their own look at Supreme’s collection. This season showcasing the Fall 2011 collection of course, the editorial features the legenadary face of Supreme the NY’s Downtown Scene, Aaron Bondaroff.

Supreme 2011 Fall/Winter Collection ft. Aaron Bondaroff is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

It was just last week that OHWOW launched its latest show in LA, a gathering of key artists who have been a part of the Post 9-11 art scene. The progress and climb of this group of artists throughout this era has been massive, the result a huge show in terms of its profile around the world. The exhibition was about much more than just showing off their success, it was about remembering how important the scene and friendships have been throughout this time. Exclusively for W Magazine, Dan Colen and Aaron Bondaroff discuss their personal stories of the time. An extract is below, read the rest here.

DAN COLEN: We all met around 9/11. We were just kids then. Ten years ago, I was living with Ryan [McGinley] on East 7th Street. It was the kind of apartment where a lot of people congregated. This was when we were becoming close with Aaron. We kind of naturally fell in together. It was pretty fluid. But still, I think when 9/11 happened we hadn’t really become close yet—not like the way we were with Dash [Snow] and Agathe [Snow]. And Terence [Koh] was just showing up around then. Pretty soon after that, Nate [Lowman] came around. He was just another kid. I didn’t know that he was the artist Nate Lowman. It’s funny, I knew of Nate Lowman the artist, and I actually thought he was a mid-career artist. I thought it was the best work I’d seen in so long, and I figured it was some 40 year-old man …

AARON BONDAROFF: I think it was more at Agathe’s apartment in the Lower East Side where she was actually doing those dinner happenings and bringing a lot of people together. I think that was really the moment where we all kind of got together.

DC: That’s right. Agathe was really close with Nate.

AB: Agathe’s mother had a restaurant on Prince Street called La Poème, and I saw her hanging out there a lot with Dash. I realized that a lot of these guys were connected to each other. They started hanging out in the basement of this restaurant.

DC: In 2003, Ryan and I moved out of 7th Street to Canal Street. And Dash was on Avenue C, which was a pretty big spot too. We spent a lot of time there. But when we moved down to Canal Street, Maccarone Gallery was down the block from us, so I started seeing Nate around again. [Lowman is represented by the gallery.] I thought maybe he was an installer there or something. I kind of approached him one day at the local café just to say what’s up. I asked him if he worked at the gallery. And he was like, ‘No, I show there.’ And I was like, ‘You’re Nate Lowman, whoa.’ That’s how we officially met. Then we got introduced to Adam McEwen and Aaron Young. And Michelle [Maccarone] moved her gallery, and Terence moved into her building. So then there was this whole thing around Canal Street—Terence had this entire building; Ryan and I were up the block; Nate was kind of living with us; Aaron Young’s studio was right over there [in Soho]; and Dash had moved to the Bowery then. So we were all in this really tight vicinity. Aaron’s store [aNYthing] opened up down there, too.

Read More http://www.wmagazine.com/w/blogs/editorsblog/2011/07/07/dan-colen-aaron-bondaroff-ohwow.htm#ixzz1Rfypbhun

Aaron Bondaroff & Dan Colen talk NY Art POST 9-11 is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Aaron Bondaroff’s Downtown NY Scene has always been a favourite of the fashion world. Vogue Italia present a video introducing the Downtown Don to its audience, visiting the OHWOW bookclub, and talking the scene and inparticular OHWOW with Aaron. Watch the video here.

Aaron Bondaroff in Vogue Italia is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

If you remember the original New York Minute show from a few years back, curated by the amazing Kathy Grayson, you’ll be excited to hear its back. This time showcasing itself and its fine selection of NY artists in Moscow. The space again is designed by Rafael de Cardenas, and the show features 60 of the most exciting names in art anywhere in the world, but specifically from NYC. A list of artists that can’t be matched, including the likes of Tim Barber, Aaron Bondaroff, Lizzi Bougatsos, Dan Colen, Dash Snow, Banks Violette, Steve Powers, Sterling Ruby, Kenny Scharf, Aurel Schmidt, Barry McGee, Ryan McGinley, Hanna Liden, Nate Lowman, Ben Jones, Terence Koh and so many more names just as big.

The expression “a New York Minute” refers to the speed that New Yorkers react to stimuli, with a bit of impatience, ingenuity and savviness. Johnny Carson once described a New York Minute as being the time it takes “From the lights to turn green, ‘till the guy behind you starts honking his horn”. During the late 1980s crime wave, David Letterman defined a New York Minute as the length of time it took to be mugged in New York City.

New York Minute features sixty artists in and around New York City who capture the drama, danger, speed and savvy of the vibrant and diverse art activities happening in the city today. Mostly emerging artists and younger artists living in downtown New York, this exhibition outlines some of the leading tendencies in new art making such as: updating action painting and abstraction with the toughness of the streets, synthesizing low pop culture into handmade and heartfelt hybrids, taking conceptualism to new and absurd ends, organizing into collectives and bands and taking all your interdisciplinary art on tour, and bringing downtown punk attitude to assemblage, collage and sculpture.

The sheer variety of this new energetic art making defies a single categorization; however, it is important to know that all the included artists are indeed in lived reality a tightly-knit group of interconnected and collaborating artists. All these people have exhibited together, partied together, dated, studied together, played music together or painted together at the very most at two levels of removal from each other. This exhibition truly represents a cross section of an expanded artist community.

April 23 – June 5, 2011
Private Opening: April 22, 2011

The Garage Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
19A Ulitsa Obraztsova
Moscow, Russia

New York Minute Moscow is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

The New York Times’ T Magazine has featured a great little interview with art heavy weights Aaron Bondaroff and Al Moran of OHWOW Gallery. The pair dicuss the opening of the newest OHWOW gallery in Los Angeles, The Scott Campbell opening show and their reasons for choosing Los Angeles over New York. Check out some of the interview below and the link to the full story.

You have a store in the West Village, but you chose Los Angeles over New York as the location for your second gallery after Miami; why L.A.?

Al Moran: The more Aaron came out here, he kept saying, “I kinda like L.A.,” and that just caught fire. A lot of the artists we’re working with are New York artists that already had New York representation so it kind of made sense. L.A.’s on everybody’s mind right now, it’s a good time for these artists to come out here. Miami worked because we exported New York to Miami and created the dialogue, and we felt that we could create that same dialogue in L.A.

How did you end up here, on the border of Beverly Hills?

Aaron Bondaroff: I like Downtown Los Angeles, I like Chinatown, the vibe of it. It just seems not central enough for me. We wanted to kind of be in the middle, where if people from Venice and Santa Monica want to come it’s not too far for them, and same thing for the east siders. Plus, I spent so much time on those dirty streets of New York City, I don’t need to do that. We’ve got a yard here! I take my shoes off and walk barefoot.

A.M.: When we found this place, it was just immediate. It was more about the space than the actual streets where we’re at. That’s another reason we chose L.A.: you can’t find a spot like this in New York.

What’s coming up?

A.B.: Our next artist is David Benjamin Sherry, a younger artist we work with. From Scott to David the work is so different. Then we have Sam Falls, May 15, and June 11 we have a group show of friends from New York City, the circle of friends that I came up with — Ryan McGinley, Terence Koh, Agathe Snow, the late Dash Snow.

Why was Scott Campbell the right artist for your L.A. debut?

A.M.: Every artist that we work with is family, but we gave Scott his first show in Miami and it was wildly successful, and then the following year we did a show in New York on Crosby street. He earned the right to open up this space, because of his dedication to the work and everything we’ve done together and everything he’s given back to us.

He set his work on fire at Vice’s Mexico City gallery when he didn’t agree with their business practices. I take it there’s no chance he’ll be repeating that performance?

A.M.: I hope so!

See the full story here.

Interview with Aaron Bondaroff and Al Moran of OHWOW Gallery is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

The aNYthing Spring/Summer 2011 Collection is a huge progression as the label continues to return to its heyday. aNYthing has progressed from being a tee line to a full blown collection of cut and sew, with Aaron Bondaroff taking the label in a positive direction. This collection is completed with great distinction, bold colors and patterns, basic cuts and fits it is a collection that will make a strong impression this summer.

aNYthing Spring/Summer 2011 Collection is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Aaron Bondaroff and aNYthing present a new series of films, entitled KNOW WAVE. A documentary looking at the current eclectic music scene in downtown New York, think, Bubbles, TV Baby, ARE Weapons and more. Watch Episode 1 below, its a must see.

Know Wave , Episode 1 from aNYthing on Vimeo.

aNYthing presents “Know Wave” Episode 1 is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

OHWOW presents TV Baby, the self titled debut from Brain McPeck and Matt McAuley from A.R.E. Weapons. More than a feature length album, TV Baby comes packaged in a genre defining 52 page book with artwork from Jim Jarmusch, Leo Fitzpatrick, Nate Lowman, Agathe Snow, Rita Ackermann, Spencer Product, Tom Jarmusch, Hanna Liden, Adam Greer, Aaron Bondaroff, Paul Sevigny, Ry Fyan, Aaron Young, Spencer Sweeney, Alan Vega, Dan Colen and Dash Snow plus many more.

Each artist was given a page in the book and asked to develop imagery that defined their personal relationship with television. Submissions ran the gamut from Aaron Bondaroff’s logo inspired look back at the past twenty years of television to Jim Jarmusch’s classic photograph of William Burroughs from 1978. This collaborative project, two years in the making, captures the musical and visual energy of downtown culture.

Soft cover, 8.75 x 8.75 in., 52 pages plus CD.

Available online and in store today.

OHWOW ‘TV Baby’ Book and CD is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Now the highly anticipated OHWOW Book Club Designed by Rafael de Cárdenas has opened we can provide you with an inside look.

Drawing inspiration from stepping patterns commonly found in Navajo blankets, Rafael de Cardenas constructs a new retail space for OHWOW, the creative collective spearheaded by Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff. The OHWOW Book Club is located below street level in a landmarked historic brownstone on Waverly Place. At 150 sq ft, this pocket-sized store was conceived by de Cardenas to echo a classic black & white, pre-war NYC bathroom. Its shelving units appear stacked one atop the other and the negative space behind the shelves lends a floating sensation. A layered pattern of stream-lined brushstrokes on the walls, coupled with reflective angular mylar shapes and sharp fluorescent lighting give the space a sense of disorientation and chaos, fitting in OHWOW’s vision of creating a heterotopic arena for cultural projects.

OHWOW Book Club
227 Waverly Place
New York, NY 10014

OHWOW Book Club Designed by Rafael de Cárdenas is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Now I Remember is a photo blog that just recently launched which focuses on the growing art of cellphone photography. With contributions from people such as Aaron Bondaroff, Neckface, Curtis Buchanan, Jerry Hsu and more it gives an often humorous look into their lives. If you forgot OHWOW also released a book version.

“Now I Remember” Photo Blog is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Aaron Bondaroff
Leo Fitzpatrick
Matt Moravac
Tom Sachs
Bill Powers meeting Charlie Brown in Tokyo

Info: Aron

Aaron Bondaroff: RIP Malcolm McLaren Obituary T-Shirts is a post from: SLAMXHYPE