Kostas Seremetis is a man of many talents, best illustrated by his extensive body of works in canvas, sculptures, graphic and, more recently, fashion as he leads the mismatched cut and sew T-shirt fad. The artist spent his early years in New York before moving to Paris to better craft. Following a spiritual reawakening and a new approach to his art, the 43-year-old has since gone onto collaborate with some of the biggest names in streetwear, while also showcasing his personal works across the globe. In the midst of working on his most recent endeavor of mismatched split panel tops — an expression of the cross-pollination theme underlying many of his works — Seremetis was brought onto help close friend Errolson Hugh with the launch of his latest ACRONYM collaboration with Nike. We were able to catch up with the artist during a recent visit in Tokyo to talk about his involvement in the ACRONYM x Nike Presto launch, mashup of vintage tees, and his unconventional approach to his work.
How did you become involved with ACRONYM’s Nike Presto project? When did your working relationship with Errolson begin?
Errolson Hugh and I go way back to 2001 or 2002. I met him through Futura and he came to my studio and we genuinely connected. I got switched on to what he was doing. By 2005 I had acquired some of his designs which I still wear today. They really hold up the test of time. Whenever he’d visit New York we’d hang out and go to museums. We always said we had to do something together but we never knew what. I remember one time I left New York to do a tour of Europe where I basically just did a bunch of small paintings in hotels. I was in Paris, Berlin, Switzerland and Spain, and along the way, he bought some paintings. He later put them in one of his videos as a background prop; that built some excitement. He then had a daughter and I gave him a stuffed animal which I created. He put it in his most recent short film “The Cut,” which was hilarious. In essence, a collaboration was happening without us even trying.
Then when he released the Air Force 1s I lost my mind. I bought all three, mind you I’m not even a sneakerhead. I really felt the energy of what he did. Some time passed and we talked here and there but not about our own personal projects. Then just before the Presto release, images of them leaked online, so Nike needed someone to reignite the collaboration in another way. A mutual longtime friend Giorgio de Mitri contacted me and asked me whether I would like to do something with Errolson and I said “yes” before he even said Nike.
I didn’t feel the corporate crush of this because it felt like I was dealing with friends. In the beginning, Nike was really open and asked me to do one or two collages to mirror specific attributes like the zipper of the shoe. The photos they sent me of the shoe were Illustrator files, but then I found out about the leak so I Googled them. I had better images online than the ones that I received from Nike. So I did a first body of work, which was four collages which didn’t really satisfy Nike who decided a theme surrounding martial arts would be more fitting. I just kind of went in and did the zipper lightning bolt first, and the last three images after. I used the leaked photos as reference in my work. Once I completed the rendering, Nike photographed the sneakers in the same perspective as the leaked photos. Basically I took a negative and turned it into a positive because that’s what they wanted. Also I put Errolson’s head on the sneaker because I wanted to marry that relationship in some capacity; it’s something that he would never do himself because he’s so humble. The one illustration I got asked to do eventually turned into seven. Just to confirm I had nothing to do with the sneaker, this is Errolson and Nike’s collaboration – I don’t even really know how to describe my role in the collaboration. I’m not necessarily a graphic designer, it just really seemed like I was working with my friends. There was no shadow, it was only light. I didn’t have a hard time conjugating this stuff, I just did me.
You’ve been known to release various mashups of vintage tees, many of which feature combinations of comic books and band merch. How did you decide to blend both styles together?
When I was still living in Paris, I made a couple trips to New York and I would go to comic book shops in St. Mark’s Place where you would find those rock band and punk T-shirts. I made a few just because I had a desire to wear them, and they were kinda rad. One led to two, because if you make one you have to make two. The first few that I made they came out a little smaller than I imagined, and I would give them to my friends or my nieces. I felt this real electricity, something was happening when I was making them. I’m a nerd at heart. I enjoy the performance and execution of collage, and I’ve always been in dialogue with T-shirts by working with some very nice brands. So this project felt very natural.
First I started doing just the halves, then I started doing them in thirds, and then there’s a bunch that are in four. I’m only a conduit, I can’t take full credit for this because there’s so many artists that have manifested these T-shirts. These are more like collage or sculpture to me, I don’t feel like they’re real T-shirts. I wanted to release them to captivate the phoenix of my creativity. I ended up going and once I hit 300, I felt like it was such an enchanting number. I’m Spartan by birth, both of my parents are from Sparta so the 300 is such a romantic number to me. Everything happened so organically. I had my best friend Nico photograph the shirts for me, and anything that I needed as far as labels and stuff, I had love and support from Angelo Baque from Supreme. The people at Carhartt were so excited and they helped me get the packaging done. Once everything was completed I knew I had to release them in some way, so I decided to do them all online. When I was about to release the shirts I was approached by Giorgio de Mimitri, who asked me about the ACRONYM thing.
Just for the record, all the shirts are deadstock and haven’t been worn before, and they are all size large. That’s my only rule.
The trend of mismatched split panel tops has been become increasingly popular in both streetwear and high fashion circles. What do you make of it and do you think that the style is here to stay?
I don’t even know if my shirts are T-shirts anymore. I don’t feel like a brand. With all due respect to other brands who have the same kind of chemistry or mathematics, right on! This is something that I’ve been carrying with me maybe even before Paris because it’s not a painting. We’re all supposed to leave the planet better than we found it. Evolution is such a wonderful thing especially in clothing so if this is a trend, honestly I don’t care. There’s a lot of amazing things happening right now to be grateful for. Whether you’re purchasing or whether you’re just a spectator, cool. It’s impossible to buy everything that I love, it really is, and we only need so much. I’m just a communicator and someone who gets inspired. As far as other people it’s really not my business and I just want everybody to be their best.
A lot of your work concerns itself with reusing and recycling materials and familiar pop cultural symbols and motifs. How does nostalgia play into your work?
From Genesis till now, there were shirts that I was so specific about. I wanted to use Joy Division, I wanted to use The Cult, I wanted to use Disney. Just for the record, all the shirts are deadstock and haven’t been worn before, and they are all size large. That’s my only rule. In a Warholian sense everything was consistent. I followed those basic rules pretty much and honored my visual appetite. After that the superhero and comic book stuff have to be done as well. I feel like it’s such a T-shirt culture. I went to a Dead & Company show a couple months back and all I did was wander the venue. I must’ve seen like 6,000 variant Grateful Dead T-shirts. I was more enamoured by that, I mean the show was incredible in itself but it was interesting to see that’s how people got their validation in this arena. That’s what we’re doing on this planet too. We’re all within dialogue. Truthfully before I released the collection I was wondering whether I should keep this or that piece, but I really wanted to share them with the world.
You have delved into various mediums of work including paintings, collages, sculptures and films as well. Do you change your approach when tackling a particular one? Is there one that is most challenging for you?
What I really learned is that every problem has a gift inside. The only challenge when I create anything is me and my point of view. That all goes back to expectation. It’s just a matter of your vibe. I’m really enjoying my experience as a human being. Love is the law, I’m a peaceful warrior, I love what I do, and I’m so blessed to have so many friends who keep me inspired. This is what I learned in Paris when I was doing a painting. You always envision the end result when you start the process, but every painting has a problem inside. There’s always this contrast. What I do is (figure out) how to get out of there, I don’t run upstream. I really go downstream because it’s the path of least resistance. For example if something gets in my way, like a rock, water just goes around that rock and figures out another path. The gift of painting is that you make your own problems but you also solve them. I learn so much from anything that I do and that’s why I really enjoy the performance of collage. It’s the same thing with the T-shirts. A musician has instant release and gratification by stroking a specific chord, whereas for a painter it takes a little longer. The resistance of that gratification is in the work. With collage or even T-shirts, I have the material already so once the shirts are connected my job is done. I’m a conduit orchestrating the pieces in a sense. It was such a wonderful release because I was able to do it in a short period of time. I had so much fun because I was able to work with images that I admire.