Portrait of Kennedy Yanko by Seleen Saleh. Portrait of Dario Calmese by Somalia Bryant.
Please join us on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at 5 PM for a conversation between gallery artist Kennedy Yanko and Dario Calmese. This event is presented in conjunction with Epithets, a new exhibition by Kennedy Yanko, on view from April 5 through May 10, 2025, at the gallery’s 48 Walker Street location. This will be directly followed by an opening reception from 6 - 8 PM. Epithets is presented in collaboration with Salon 94, where a concurrent major presentation of work by the artist is accompanied by an exhibition curated by Yanko.
Dario Calmese is an artist, creative director, and design theorist whose work interrogates how identity and history are constructed through image, design, and cultural systems. His multidisciplinary practice spans photography, fashion, performance, and critical theory, with a focus on reclaiming narratives and reimagining the lived experience. In 2020, Dario made history as the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair, capturing the iconic Viola Davis. As the founder of the Institute of Black Imagination, he is pioneering a global platform for Black creativity and futurism, redefining how history is preserved, how culture is produced, and how imagination shapes the world we inherit. Through his groundbreaking projects—from archiving the cultural voids of the past to designing speculative futures—Dario is ensuring that the next generation has not only a seat at the table but the blueprint for a new world.
A 2023 Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Dario also teaches at Parsons School of Design and served on the global advisory board for Estée Lauder Companies. His creative direction spans partnerships with Alvin Ailey, Adobe Lightroom, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Vogue Mexico, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Please RSVP for the event here.