
We mentioned London’s Degree Art Gallery “Nailphilia” exhibit last week, and we see (with great envy!) that Susie Bubble was able to make a visit. Above is a creation by Laruicci (who worked on Beyonce’s nails for her “Run The World” video) that Bubble snapped while there, among a bunch others you can view here.
On a sort of side note, Bubble shows some photos on display from the exhibit, and mentions how the art form has blown up beyond “ghetto” nail salons. I would be shocked if Bubble meant anything negative by the word ghetto and my guess is she was trying to say it’s gone from being a trend sported by a narrow demographic to one embraced worldwide. But for Americans (which Bubble isn’t) the word does have negative connotations, which speak to a phenomenom Samia was alluding to the other day. How expressions of creativity like nail art, one like many that was born, grown and continues to be nurtured in predominantly black city neighborhoods, are dismissed and even mocked until they are embraced by outside cultures. We like to think nail art is nail art and it looks as eye-popping and amazing on the 16-year old in Flatbush, Brooklyn, as the runway model in Paris. And there is no ghetto style…just forms of creativity that have yet to be interpreted and co-opted by the masses.