The US architect Peter Marino, described previously in these pages as a “beefy, leather-clad architect looking like an over-ripe Hells Angel”, will turn his hand to curating next year, with a new take on the work of the late US photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The exhibition (26 January-4 March 2016), at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris, will include 60 photographs and 20 Polaroids, with works drawn from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York. Marino will reinterpret “through his own vision” the three themes of the notorious XYZ portfolios: gay sadomasochistic imagery (X), floral still-lifes (Y) and nude portraits of African-American men (Z). Ropac says: “The show will be spectacular. Peter, who has collected Mapplethorpe for more than 20 years, will bring a designer’s eye to the works.”
