Within the booming realm of artist-brand collaborations, 44-year-old Sky Gellatly has functioned as a best-kept secret. Folks within the type and artwork world can credit score him as a shrewd go-between for artists and style manufacturers fascinated with exploring doubtlessly profitable partnerships. However he has, till now, remained largely beneath the radar.
Eight years in the past, Gellatly and longtime affiliate Nikle Guzijan based ICNCLST, a New York company that builds relationships between high-profile manufacturers — together with Nike, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Comme des Garçons, Louis Vuitton and the late Virgil Abloh – and the artwork world. luminaries resembling Takashi Murakami and the graffiti artist Leonard McGurr, better known as Futura.
Latest offers embrace a style capsule assortment from Air Jordan, MoMA Design and artist Nina Chanel Abney; a collaboration between Italian luxurious clothes model Moncler and artist Rostarr (Romon Kimin Yang); and never least, an exhibition of LVMH residential sneakers curated by Gellatly.
This fall, he teamed up with Jacobs to conceptualize “Simply Like Heaven,” a bunch exhibition that highlights the work of a few of Jacobs’s longtime collaborators: Sofia Coppola, Marilyn Minter, Damien Hirst, and his high-powered powerhouses like, at Management, the Los Angeles gallery of which A Gellatly is a companion.
This yr’s works embrace a collaborative print between Futura and Japanese artist/stylist Verdy, on the market on-line; partnering with artist Devon Turnbull, creator of audio firm Ojas, for a listening room in Detroit; and several other collaborations with Nike centered across the 2026 World Cup.
Gellatly appears content material to let his shoppers wield their star energy whereas he works behind the scenes. He adopted this sample with Futura, producing inventive collaborations with Louis Vuitton, New York Mets, Comme des Garçons, Beats by Dre and Noguchi, in addition to initiatives at Miami Artwork Basel final month.
Guests to Basel might have acknowledged Futura, who’s the topic of “Futura 2000: Breaking Out,” a retrospective working via March 30 on the Bronx Museum. They had been much less more likely to choose Gellatly as he made his means via the group on the newly put in Artwork Basel reward store on the Miami Conference Heart. He appeared to have a good time the discharge of the FL-001 Mini Pointman, a toy-sized duplicate of Futura’s most acknowledged large-scale sculpture, an alien-like determine with a menacing look.
The guests superior in direction of Futura, however Gellatly maintained a shadowy presence. He wore a black tailor-made jacket and pants from Uniqlo, the rigorously understated uniform of a self-proclaimed outsider.
And that is how he likes it.
“I’m an introvert,” Gellatly stated in an interview late final fall. He was sitting at a convention desk in his TriBeCa studio, an area devoid of litter aside from souvenirs of collaborations with Kaws, Krink, Abney and others clustered all through. He wore a sweatshirt with the emblem of Columbia College, the place he’s an adjunct assistant professor on the Graduate College of Structure.
Within the interview beneath, which has been edited and condensed, Gellatly talked a few formative second for Oprah, “combating the nice struggle for artists” and extra.
You appear to have stored an deliberately low profile all through your profession. Why is that?
I am not strictly a salesman. I consider myself and my workforce as mirrors of the creatives we work with. We wish to mirror again to them the potential they possess – and hold them targeted on the duty at hand. After all, I deliver alternatives to them. However we’re in search of initiatives which have a private contact for me.
You selected an unconventional path into the world of artwork and high-end manufacturers. What moved you in that course?
I grew up in Hopewell Junction in upstate New York, on prime of a mountain, surrounded by woods. We had been an artistically inclined household. My father aspired to a profession within the arts, however went to work in York Harbor as captain of a coastal tanker. My mom was a instructor. At age 30, she had a kiln at dwelling and made pottery.
We had Shaker furnishings and Noguchi lamps at dwelling, and a Keith Haring print that my mother and father purchased within the ’80s. I really feel like quite a lot of what I am doing is in some methods a continuation of the issues they had been fascinated with, the issues round that I grew up with.
What turned you right into a style fan?
My mom had a subscription to Interview journal. She sewed lots – she made a few of my garments once I was a child. On Saturday mornings, we watched style exhibits on tv. This stuff had been imprinted on my thoughts.
Later, after I graduated from faculty, I used to be at dwelling watching Oprah along with her. A section of this system was minimize to Marc Jacobs’ studio. At that second, perhaps I might have purchased a pair of Marc sneakers or a t-shirt. And I believed, “Ah, that is what a inventive individual’s studio appears like.” It left an impression.
You spent the early levels of your profession on the junction of editorial and advertising and marketing, working at Complicated journal and editorial at MTV and Particulars journal. You directed advertising and marketing for Hypebeast. How has this background influenced you?
I spotted that the “excessive tradition” of print media all of a sudden needed to coexist with digital media. I felt that we’d quickly stay in an period the place relentless intersection would turn into the brand new norm. It might all have to turn into a brand new narrative or dialogic relatively than a intelligent soundbite in a press launch.
What tells you {that a} collaboration can have legs?
All of it comes right down to shared passions. A model like Nike will wish to create a efficiency shoe with purposeful advantages. However Nike will take a holistic view of a possible companion, realizing, for instance, that the artist may very well be each a inventive and a runner – on this case, he is also a DJ. platform or narrative that displays one thing from the human aspect of the artist, one thing little recognized.
One instance is Futura. As a New Yorker, he was a lifelong Mets fan – he had a season ticket to the video games. He informed me it could be a dream for him to work for the Mets.
He ended up making a collaborative baseball cap for the Mets shirt and a Bobblehead. He was excited to throw out the primary pitch of a sport along with his son. With that, he informed his followers, “I like baseball similar to you do. I take heed to the Mets on the radio once I paint.”
Who’s the probably client of this kind of items?
My 14 yr outdated son, for instance. For his era, partnerships between artwork and types are successfully the norm. From a teen’s perspective, why should not an artist have his mental property in a online game and, on the identical time, in a sneaker?
You’ve got cultivated long-term relationships with artists and designers, together with surfwear creator Shawn Stussy, Murakami and good friend and frequent Louis Vuitton collaborator Abloh. What, moreover the apparent hype, does this deliver you?
I am particularly drawn to individuals who I really feel have created a motion. Some are mates. Some had been my mentors. My curiosity is to share a second of life with them.
One in all my most transformative experiences was the primary time I went to Takashi’s studio a number of years in the past in Japan. It is in an outdated automotive manufacturing facility that was destroyed. You possibly can’t even think about the immense scale of the place, the extent of group and creativity. It is nearly like Walt Disney.
My friendship with Takashi has been particularly inspiring. He gave me
some mentor kind talks.
Why would an artist of this stature really feel comfy working with you?
For a very long time, established artists had been discouraged from taking over industrial initiatives, warned that doing so may diminish their worth or status. A few of them informed me, “After all, quite a lot of manufacturers reached out to me, however my gallery, with out telling me, stated no.”
A few of our artists are extra fascinated with working in an equal world. They wish to make merchandise that attraction to a baby, somebody who reminds them of after they had been youngsters. From a social media perspective, they could additionally respect {that a} model partnership may give them a much bigger megaphone.
Do you see your self as a type of benefactor?
I consider us as fighters within the good struggle for artists. Traditionally there may be the idea {that a} gallery has an artist. Half of what the artist earns goes again to the gallery. This can be a disproportionate quantity.
What does this deliver to the model?
There’s a shared status or recognition that the model and the artist or inventive establishment are leaders of their fields. Three months in the past we launched a set of Nike socks with the MoMA and Nike brand. This merchandise signaled mutual respect between companions, a metaphorical handshake. The socks, 1000’s of pairs, had been offered out.
How large is the workforce wanted to shut a deal like this?
Now we have about 20 individuals in New York and one other 20 in Los Angeles. Our objective is to turn into the primary totally vertically built-in company for artists, from licensing to curatorial work. A lot of all these help have all the time been frequent for actors, athletes, and musicians. However for artists that is new.
