Photobook Magazine Beauty Watch & A Peek into the Artist, Gary Gagliano

September 8, 2022

Written by Jennifer Humphrey

September 8, 2022

Written by Jennifer Humphrey

Sustainable Fashion Magazine, Photobook Magazine experiences the abstract art collaboration of CliqOnU x Gary Gagliano. This beauty and fashion magazine's Beauty Watch is definitely one to watch, highlighting trends, beauty stories and artists that support diversity, inclusion and various charities. We are thrilled to be a part of it!

Interview by Taylor Houston, contributor to Photobook Magazine, "CliqOnU collaborated with Gagliano to bring his larger-than-life art to ready-to-wear nails. Together, they have created two stiletto-shaped nail sets, “Dove Light” and “Raven Night.” ... I have personally never seen any press-on nails quite like these. I received both sets and couldn’t decide which to wear. I mean, how could you?"

Our collaboration with abstract artist, Gary Gagliano was truly a labor of love for us at CliqOnU. We were inthralled with his contemporary abstract paintings of enamels on large scale canvas, sometimes as large as 10’x30’. This larger than life feeling of movement and flow. From the start we envisioned what it would be like to bring his breathtaking artwork to our Ready To Wear Nails, making it accessible for everyone.

As Houston states in Photobook Magazine, "These nails will have you feeling fierce whether you’re heading to work or going for a night out. The collaboration beautifully represents lightness versus darkness and serenity versus mystery." We couldn't agree more, so we are pulling back the curtain to find out more about who the artist is and his inspiration.

Gagliano, an American painter born in Chicago's west side attended American Academy of Art Chicago. He quickly jumped into the biggest creative scene of New York City in the early 90's. Working at the most notable night clubs of the era as assistant art director, he found himself working with the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Kenny Sharf among others. This was the new scene of its day; what Studio 54 and AREA were to the New York artists of the 80’s, these clubs were for the artists of the 90’s. The most important figures in Art, Music, Dance, Photography, Fashion, Socialites, Wall Street Moguls, Homeless Kids and Rich Trust Fund Baby’s all collided there, and Gagliano soaked up all that creative energy.

In 1996 when the clubs were shut down all at once under the orders of Mayor Giuliani, he decided to travel to Thailand where he set up a studio in a small village in the mountains of Northern Thailand and tucked himself away for some years to dive deep into painting. After some time in Thailand, he began to gravitate towards the Thai Buddhist tradition and spent many years traveling with monks through several countries in Southeast Asia, but continuing to travel back and forth from his NYC studio to his Thailand studio in the mountains.

In 2005 he was commissioned to create a large scale painting for the permanent lobby installation for the new Theory clothing line building in New York’s Meatpacking District, and installations at Bergdorf Goodman New York. Since then he has been showing in NYC galleries and working on commissioned large-scale pieces. His paintings live in private collections spanning Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, London, and others. His work is currently being sold in NYC, Paris, and Bangkok, just this year having been at MOCA Bangkok Gallery.

Gagliano now resides and works in his studio in Bangkok. For us, collaborating with Gagliano and creating nail art thousands of miles apart was a work of art in itself. Raven Night and Dove Light, not only nail art, but a taste of large scale art at your fingertips.

There is something about the way these nail sets feel when OnU. Stiletto nails and art, nothing hotter.