ARTIST
FRANCESCO VEZZOLI
Warhol is dead. Long live Vezzoli. The Italian artist, whose diva worship owes much to Warhol's cult of celebrity, was described by New York magazine as being "at the center of the art-celebrity-fashion nexus that is, controversially, defining the art world today."Best known for his hilarious trailer for a "remake" of the notorious 1979 soft porn movie Caligula—a splash at the 2006 Whitney Biennial—in which he successfully enlisted Helen Mirren (parading around with two bare-assed slaves), Gore Vidal (for a booming voice-over), and Courtney Love, among others, his work encompasses many materials, including needlework: A series of embroidered portraits of celebrities, including Joan Crawford, Maria Callas, and Greta Garbo, is a subtle play on obsession and loneliness. Next up: Vezzoli participates in an exhibition on surrealism at Stockholm's Moderna Museet.
