Exclusive: Christina Paik for Grailed
- Words Grailed Team
- Date May 16, 2018
You know Christina Paik. Though she spends most of her time behind the camera and hadn’t revealed her full face until her recent appearance in The Coveteur, she’s becoming something of a larger public figure — taking on projects with names like Louis Vuitton, Off-White, Nike, Yohji Yamamoto, Sacai, Lacoste, Acne Studios, and Gentle Monster. While she’s just as likely to appear in a street style roundup as in a gallery space, Paik maintains that her art should be separated from her image. As the internationally active photographer explained, “My looks have nothing to do with my work. I want the audience to judge the work for itself, not by my appearance.”
Even with Paik’s long history of photography, she’s kept her exhibitions to a minimum. Her last tour, titled MEUFS, spanned from 2016 to 2017 and visited galleries worldwide in places like New York City, as well as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore. While Paik planned to visit Europe, she ultimately decided to take a break from touring instead. She’s planning to rectify that with plenty of events on the continent this year.
As the name suggests, (“meuf” is the french word for girl, Paik simply added an “s”) the show centered around Paik’s portraits of women she’d photographed since 2008. Focusing on her photography’s aesthetic combination of comfort, spontaneity and effortlessness, Paik’s portraits give an interesting glimpse into both the photographer and her muses. The show was also condensed into a photobook with the same name.
Along the tour, Paik released “CP” merch, with each stop hosting apparel in a city-exclusive colorway, pieces from her collab with Pintrill, her “STICKER-PAIK” and business cards by way of lighters. Paik’s merch has always been relatively hard to acquire, as she only offers it on tour or for select stores. Enter Paik’s new sale with Grailed.
Featuring a never-before-available white colorway of her “CP” hoodie, Paik has teamed up with Grailed to kick off the first exclusive, worldwide online release of her apparel. Grailed will be hosting a pre-order of the “CP” apparel, with a variety of one-off, Grailed-exclusive colorways on offer. This event dovetails with the photographer’s upcoming international tour, where Paik will be exhibiting her self-portrait series. Originally started in 2011 while Paik was shifting from a ‘fine art’ bend into more of her ‘weird side’, the series aims to mix Paik’s work with globally recognizable fashion brands into a collection of never-before-seen images that have—at most—been teased on her Instagram accounts. While Paik’s work has already proven to garner international praise, the photographer explained to Dry Clean Only, “If I added fashion into my weird shit, I felt maybe people will care more.”
Scope the sale of exclusive “CP” merch on pre-order down below and follow Paik on Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the photographer’s globe-trotting exhibition tour. Please allow for around two to three weeks for delivery, after purchasing.
