Welcome to Otis Roundup, a brief overview of what’s going on in art and culture. This week, when we weren’t accidentally finding ourselves in Wes Anderson films, this is what we got into.
Ever since breaking ground for his Los Angeles streetwear shop Union in 2004, Chris Gibbs has prioritized unapologetic Blackness through streetwear and vertical support of Black-owned businesses. Union L.A., frequently called the city’s “best kept secret,” converged high-end designer names with underground streetwear culture. As the shop’s visionary, Gibbs has seamlessly influenced the world of streetwear, arguably as a forebear of the scene itself.
Jaelani Turner-Williams sat down with Gibbs to get a deeper read on his approach to curation and community-building, and how the events of the last year have led to where he is today. Head to Otis Magazine to read.
The fantasy of buying a card and watching it accrue value in 10 short years seduced so many amateur millennial collectors at the height of the '90s card obsession. Now that pipe dream is coming true for the luckiest among them.
All of a sudden, it feels like time has no meaning in the card market. Decades after a boom period and a subsequent contraction in the '90s, as those who invested in sports cards watched the bubble burst, we're living through an industry-wide renaissance. Luke Winkie explores why.
This week on The Backstory — our new podcast that talks to some of the world’s most exciting creators, cultural figures, collectors, and artists about the items and objects that motivate them — Sean and Dan talk to legendary photographer Jamel Shabazz. Shabazz, an early pioneer of what we now call "street style" photography, has work in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and many more, and his iconic, black-and-white photos of New York City in the '80s encapsulated cool.
He sits down with Sean and Dan to take an in-depth look at Leonard Freed’s Black in White America, a classic collection of kinetic civil-rights era photography.
Listen here, or anywhere you get podcasts.
• What does it mean to preserve Black art?
• A look at the Supreme x Nike Air Max Plus (dropping today).
• The rapper Logic just placed a record-high bid on a Pokemon card (Charizard, if you’re wondering).
• eBay will start authenticating all sneakers over $100.
• A roundup of all the new Batman content coming our way.
• You can now buy rare sneakers straight from Sotheby’s.
• A beginner’s guide to sound art.
• The Cardi B x Reebok Club C dropped (and immediately sold out) this weekend.
• The cover for Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales game has just been revealed.
• How sneaker bots got all the PS5s.
• How the art client base is shifting now that auctions are online.
• KAWS has a 20-foot bronze CHUM on display in NYC.
• The new “From Japan With Love” auction highlights a ton of Murakami.
• Some new Derrick Adams prints are premiering at the Fine Art Print Fair.
• Travis Scott will pay the tuition of 5 HBCU students.
• Jeff Staple and the “Shoe Surgeon” have a new collab you’ll need to vote to be able to cop.
