THE HYPE SUPPER

In late 2017, the owner of a trendy new shop in Taipei (The Corner 33) contacted me with an exciting request: they had a large lightbox measuring 5 x 2 meters that needed to be filled. This became my first commissioned project in Asia.

The brief was simple: create something impressive, a 打卡位 (check-in spot), and pay tribute to the brands and designers they admired. I told them about my earlier work, where I reimagined ancient paintings with a modern twist. They loved the idea, and I started searching for an iconic painting that would fit. Considering the lightbox's dimensions and the requirement to honor multiple brands, the choice was easy: The Last Supper by the legendary Leonardo Da Vinci.

Fun facts and behind-the-scenes of The Hype Supper:

• The first triangle was placed on December 20, 2017, and the last on January 7, 2018. The project took me around 160-200 hours to complete;

• The original artwork measures 502 x 201 cm;

• The background of the piece is actually based on the interior of The Corner 33 shop in Taiwan;

• Selecting the 13 designers to feature was tough, but deciding who would take the central spot was even harder;

• Kanye West was the first person I drew behind the table. Since I needed to practice drawing faces, I redid his face twice before it looked like Kanye;

• Two of my other artworks appear as decorations in the piece, just as I did in The Bedroom of Vincent van Hype;

• The Neighborhood Monkey incense chamber on the table is an actual decorative piece from the shop;

• The people sitting on the long sides of the table are actually seated on an invisible bench 😂 (don’t challenge me on this—I even have a design in mind that would work for this 🤣);

• Personally, I’m most satisfied with how Jerry Lorenzo, Tom Sachs, and Ronnie Fieg turned out;

• The hardest part of the project was figuring out the right skin tones for each person;

• Takashi Murakami was originally meant to be at the table but was replaced by Brian Donelli (Kaws). Reason? The table and setup couldn’t handle too many flowers and bright colors;

• Funny fact: I only knew about half of the designers featured at the table 😂. I had to do a lot of research to draw the rest.

  
  

From left to right:

Hiroshi Fujiwara (Fragment) / Jerry Lorenzo (Fear of God) / Kanye West (Yeezy) / Samuel Ross (The Cold Wall) / Heron Preston (Heron Preston) / Virgil Abloh (Off-White) / Tom Sachs / Nigo (BAPE) / Pharrell Williams (Human Made) / Bryan Donnelly (Kaws) / Edison Chen (Clot) / Ronnie Fieg (Kith) / Ryo Ishikawa (FR2 / fxxkingrabbits)

Media release:

旷势GÉNIE