by Beanie Stolper
The London and New York-based artist Adrian Schachter perfectly articulates both physical and personal sense of belonging, using the internet as his stimulus and subject matter. Adrian’s visually-driven artwork reflects the zeitgeist of an image-driven epoch. He merges found and disparate online imagery through textured paint, ceramics and drawings, resulting in a seemingly nonsensical yet carefully considered outcome.
Schachter’s exploration of NFTs further explores the technological possibilities of art, bringing his animated and spontaneous imagery to the digital sphere. Beyond his art, Schachter founded his eponymous cashmere brand Adrian Cashmere with his partner Morgan Moinian, based outside New York. Schachter's love for design and textural materials influenced the creation of hisunisex knitwear brand. Both Schachter’s art and clothing visually explore his fascination with the internet, producing uniquely playful outcomes.
You’ve grown up in an artistic household. How has this relationship influenced your work?
My parents were always extremely supportive of my creative endeavours. This, coupled with being surrounded by art from a young age, gave me the freedom to create without worrying about what other people thought. It wasn’t until I was at art school where I realised how valuable this was - it gave me more creative freedom. I was constantly immersed in visual stimulation. The bar was raised so high that I became very attentive to my visual surroundings. I think this has helped me think about my own visual language.
How has your time at the School of Visual Art and your time in New York influenced your artwork?
Being at art school, we constantly had critiques where one would present their work and other students and teachers would discuss. I came to think about necessity in making things; for someone to make something, I think it has to be justified. There has to be a reason for its existence. The reasoning can be trivial but never superfluous. I don’t consider myself to be American but it is a country I’ve had a relationship with my whole life. New York is loud and competitive. I reacted with and against that by trying to be internal and rigorous in the way that I create.
Where did you spend lockdown and how did this sense of permanent settlement change your approach to your practice?
I was in New York at the start of lockdown, and then went to London. I ultimately went to Switzerland, where I ended up living in a rural town for a year. I was very privileged to be able to make art throughout lockdown. As with many others, I came to value the peace of nature; I also learnt to love being alone. I was able to spend more time looking at and thinking about my work. I think by being stuck, my work matured in a way that it wouldn’t have otherwise.
Since lockdown, the internet has increasingly become a space where imagery and visuals can reach new cultural and geographical boundaries. Your frequent focus on the internet in your work has become a hallmark of your practice. Do you think growing up in a social media-driven world has influenced this focus - what is it that fascinates you about the internet?
I am so grateful to live in a time where information is so accessible. Learning is important to me. I can bring concepts into my practice through the internet that otherwise would have required a full time job as a researcher. I think my fascination with the internet started with a curiosity about humanity. I’m a very shy person and have a hard time immersing myself in social worlds. The internet became a place where I could understand humans in a voyeuristic way. It’s a way to be in many places at once, but you could be there without having a presence. I try not to involve myself, on a personal level, in my practice. That could be as a result of being an internet lurker, or the other way round. I have always hated scrutiny!
Your work often merges found visuals with figurative images to create abstract, and unexpected shapes. How do you choose and pair your imagery in your work? Is it spontaneous or purposeful?
In art school, a teacher once said to me that if you’re experiencing artist’s block, try bringing juxtapositions into your work. I think this is an easy way out, so I started to think about jarring pairings. I like the idea of concepts rubbing each other the wrong way, there’s more room for unpredictability.
"...a teacher once said to me that if you’re experiencing artist’s block, try bringing juxtapositions into your work. I think this is an easy way out, so I started to think about jarring pairings."
Your paintings are visually fast paced - your recent works show the bustle and chaos of city life. Through paint, you heighten this movement, and transfer the digital into the traditional. Why are you drawn to this medium and how does it lend itself to your work?
Painting is a very old medium that’s been declared dead many times, but I think there’s still room for surprise. The paintings that bring in city life are me trying to be optimistic about the future, celebrating some of humanity’s achievements. Painting is a lot about illusion, creating depth where there are two dimensions. So, with those paintings maybe I’m using an illusory medium to create the illusion of optimism where I don’t see much?
Your works were recently shown alongside Jenny Saville paintings in Florence. How have other artists, writers or intellectuals guided and informed your practice?
I look up to people that are obsessively passionate. Lucas Samaras is an example. He is confrontational with himself to the point of discomfort. I like when absurdism is pursued unquestioningly.
Following on from your use of the internet in your work, you have recently created an NFT titled GPT3 In The Sun. Considering a lot of your work’s meanings and utterances are dictated by and revealed through your use of colour, paint and markings, how have you found it transitioning into a different medium? What are your predictions for the NFT market and do you have any more plans to create them?
As a child, all I cared about was being a cartoonist. I drew characters and narratives nonstop, with the intention that some might take the form of animations. Animation has been on my mind since then and I am glad that I’m starting to find a role it can play in my art. Artificial intelligence is a great way to paint a candid picture of humanity, and the boundless nature of animation makes it a great medium to explore this. NFTs are the most suitable output for digital art. I want to make more digital art so I will definitely be minting more NFTs.
"Artificial intelligence is a great way to paint a candid picture of humanity, and the boundless nature of animation makes it a great medium to explore this."
You also run your unisex clothing brand Adrian Cashmere in New York, with your partner Morgan Moinian. I used the Mushroom trackies on a shoot recently and the quality is beautiful! You use cashmere as well as chenille and denim and, like your paintings, turn the fabric into playful, detail-orientated designs. How do you think your art practice feeds into the design process and have you found it a different approach to creating clothes that are worn, rather than pieces of art that are hung or displayed?
I think both the clothing and the art I make come from the same visual dictionary. The conception of both media is based in internet research and covers similar topics, like mythology, science and cultural signifiers like idioms. At the School of Visual Arts I got into ceramics, especially experimenting with glazes. The investigation into surface texture bled into other areas; in clothing it was met with the sensory. I love ceramics because through its functionality, it is a step more physically accessible than painting. But clothing, due to its durability, is a further step.
As previously discussed, you are based in New York but have lived and worked in a multitude of places such as Italy and Switzerland. How has this cross-cultural geographical background, especially the New York style, shaped your approach to Adrian Cashmere?
I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to experience many different cultures. My background is diasporic, which might have played a role in my desire to shed geographical boundaries, when it comes to designing and making art. I was born in New York, which is so much more than an American city. I think this also heightened my awareness of other cultures.
Adrian Cashmere is not dictated by traditional fashion schedules or “drops”, highlighting the care, quality and thought that goes into the release of each new style. Why is this important to you, and how has your design process developed since the release of your first garment?
I take a very amateur approach to designing clothing. I never studied fashion, though I was always passionate about it. Growing up I spent a lot of time in my mum’s studio. For my mother, art and fashion were symbiotic. She designed clothing and made art, but in between there was this insanely original hybrid. It took the form of installation-based fashion shows, plaster wigs, wacky figurative buttons, etc. Because of her, making clothing always felt within my reach. My methods of design are still analog and drawing-based. My process however has become much more methodical. I make faster decisions and am more comfortable thinking within clothing parameters. I don’t design clothing in outright collections, although many pieces have conceptual intersections. It's nice to think that the garments can exist as trains of thought, some starting from the same place. Morgan and I maintain a very organic and casual approach to the brand. I think this has helped people trust the quality of our clothing, despite mostly selling online.
The unisex nature of the brand is another key distinction, allowing for easy-to-wear pieces that can be paired with eachother, regardless of gender. As someone who mainly wears baggy men’s clothes, this is something that I love about the designs! How important was the idea of gender fluidity and accessibility to your brand?
Fluidity has always been at the heart of this brand. I am always looking at the women’s section as well as the men’s - there are some clothes that are universal by nature, no matter what end of the gender spectrum you’re on.
The understanding of your young demographic distinguishes you from more traditional knitwear brands - for example your Mushroom trackies are baggy, wide-legged and have a raw hem. Your friends and inner circle frequent campaign images and social visuals, having recently shot Jordan Daniels, photographed by up-and-coming Brooklyn based photographer James Bee. How has your community’s feedback shaped the direction of your brand?
I’m really lucky to have such supportive friends. I am so glad they actually like the clothes! This community has been so nurturing of our brand. When designing I’m always thinking of what I want to see that isn’t quite out there. When other people see that and agree they help make it happen.
What’s next for Adrian Cashmere - do you have plans for any collaborations?
We definitely want to stick to this model, I want to keep it nonchalant. Since the start, I’ve wanted to experiment with custom fabrics. I’ve always been a big fan of furniture design, which would be a world I’d be thrilled for Adrian Cashmere to enter. We are planning to collaborate with other clothing brands in the future such as Siberia Hills, The Yellow World and Jim Longden.