Raf Reyes

Raf Reyes is a French fashion designer, based in Paris. Often stylized, Raf Reyes is the pseudonym of a French artist who conceals his real identity. His work is noted for its wide range of references, including skate culture, collage, cinematography, games, streetstyle, hip-hop, fine arts, and clothing made out of a hybrid/blend of new and old techniques of production; displayed worldwide in galleries, auction houses, and high places such as universities & flagship brands’ boutiques. In 2020 during the covid pandemic, he founded VERYRARE c/o Raf Reyes, a namesake artwear label that looks to push boundaries of fashion via impactful visuality and the use of woven tapestry fabric. The Parisian artwear house does this by blending art and fashion to highlight the interrelations and importance of story-telling & narrative in the pieces
==Early life and education==
Reyes was born on 6 February 1998, in Paris, to a Corsican mother and French father. His parents worked in arts and trade respectively, running their own businesses, and introduced their son to Arts & Crafts early on. His great-great grandfather is nabi painter George Desvallières, whose works are exhibited at the Musée D'Orsay amongst others. Reyes lives in Paris and has been active in the arts scene since 2016 (when he got spotted by his mother agency DarmoArt); besides, he’s an artist-in-residence at the galerie Gismondi (Paris).
As an undergraduate, Reyes studied international management at the Warwick Business School, where he met his current managers/agents from talent agency/artist accelerator DarmoArt. Reyes graduated with honors, as the university’s Power List top contender and became the first student of the university to be exhibited permanently within the premises of the school in 2019.
Reyes also studied abroad in 2018, attending the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Nanyang Technology University, working on travel-focused projects and researching south-eastern asian culture. He followed on with a Master in Arts from the Royal College of Art (MA Contemporary Art Practice), graduating in 2021.
==Early Career==
His early career involved the practice of bootleg-branded tees and event merch mainly. Artists and DJs such as Neidex and Folamour, were early companions, venturing in parties, nightlife events organization, and festivals with Access The Music. Also, during those years, Reyes started experimenting with photography and printmaking techniques on aluminum dibond as well as computer graphic imagery softwares, and he created short series of digital collages that were used as a visual contribution to the exhibitions and popups wherein he was first displayed. In 2015, Reyes was featured on the ‘Travel Section’ of the SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE’s 15TH ANNUAL PHOTO CONTEST.
==Career==
While being an undergraduate student, Reyes launched his first student society that incorporated its own merch line called ‘HYPEBEASTS Society’ in 2016. After graduation, he launched his eponymous label VERYRARE c/o Raf Reyes in 2020. While he lives and works in France, Reyes has regularly presented his artworks at the Royal College of Arts, though he debuted in Paris. Treating fabric as a blank canvas for his art, Reyes navigates between lower-brow homage tees borrowing from specific aesthetic codes to high-brow institutional art and collage & screenprint workshops ‘happenings’ set in museums and auction houses. The cathartic nature, ultravisual and minimal-maximal ambivalence plus signature branding "patte"(touch) & ‘jeux de matières’ (layers) of his work have led to comparisons with Virgil Abloh, Raf Simons, Kenzō Takada, Kansai Yamamoto. In 2021, Reyes launched a secondary sub-line called VᴸtᵥᵣRa by Raf Reyes. Reusing scraps from his manufacturers, this line notably featured denim garmentry and recycled, very rare artwear statement pieces with more sophisticated cut-and-sew workmanship, very patchworked in appearance and generally targeting a higher price point than the products in his main line.
==Principal exhibits==
=== 2020 ===
* January 2020: "Contemporary" Maison Eros Musée Fluctuart (75007 Paris)
* March 2020 Solo showcase Salvatore Ferragamo Flagship (Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris)
* June 2020: "Pink" GalerieCharlot
* June 2020 : CADAF Contemporary & Digital Art Fair (NY & Miami)
* October 2020: New Horizons Contemporary Art Curator Magazine
===2019===
* June 2019: "Quand Les Fleurs Nous Sauvent" lePurgatoire54 Paradis (Rue de Paradis, 75010 Paris)
* September 2019: "Symbioses" Galerie Gismondi (Rue Royale, 75008)
* September 2019: "Changemakers" artwork permanently exhibited/hung/displayed University of Warwick (UK)
* October 2019: Telethon charity (Drouot auction house sale + showcase)
* November 2019: " RCA Across" Royal College of Art
===2018===
* May 2018: Metamorphoses" Galerie Gismondi (Rue Royale, 75008 Paris)
==Bibliography==
• CURATORIAL VOLUME.1 (2019). Leaders in Contemporary Art, Capsule Books, ISBN 978 1 925968 03 3
• ‘TRENDS IN ART’ (2020). INSIGHTS FOR COLLECTORS, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, ISBN 9 781913 179465
==Collections==
* 2020 – S01 collection titled "Launch//Lullaby" (London)
* 2021 – S02 collection titled "the World is Ours" (Paris)
==References==
==External links==
* Official website
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Category:1998 births
Category:French fashion designers
Category:Alumni of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Category:Nanyang Technological University alumni