There’s something quietly magnetic happening at downtown+ right now. Titled “secondskin”, the exhibition unfolds like a tactile conversation between body, material, and space, where surfaces don’t just exist, they speak. The show brings together a thoughtful constellation of artists Jeremy Jaspers, Jun’ya Ishigami, Yuji Yoshida, and Isamu Noguchi, each exploring the idea of “skin” as both boundary and bridge.
From the very first step inside, “secondskin” feels less like a traditional exhibition and more like an atmosphere. Materials, textile, wood, paper, pigment, layer themselves in a way that echoes the human experience: protective, expressive, and deeply sensitive. It’s about what covers us, but also what reveals us.
At the heart of the exhibition, which runs until April 17, the work of Jeremy Jaspers brings a particularly emotional intensity. Known for his expressive, fluid use of watercolor, Jaspers’ paints figures that seem to hover between presence and disappearance. His portraits, often of individuals with vitiligo, turn skin into both subject and storyteller. Marks, irregularities, and tonal shifts are not concealed; they are celebrated. In his hands, what might traditionally be seen as fragility becomes a powerful visual language of identity.
There’s a softness to Jaspers’ technique that feels almost like fabric brushing against skin. Layers of pigment bleed into one another, creating zones of transparency and vibration. His figures don’t demand attention; they draw you in slowly, asking you to look closer, to reconsider what beauty and difference mean. In some works, clothing appears almost as an extension of the body, a protective layer, a “secondskin” that mirrors the exhibition’s central theme.
This dialogue extends beautifully into the works of Jun’ya Ishigami and Yuji Yoshida, whose practices blur the boundaries between structure and sensitivity. Their contributions feel architectural yet intimate, as if space itself has a texture. Meanwhile, the timeless presence of Isamu Noguchi grounds the exhibition, his sculptural language reminding us that material can hold both weight and poetry. What makes “secondskin” particularly compelling is the way it dissolves distinctions between art and design, past and present, object and body. It’s a curated ecosystem where each piece responds to another, like layers building upon layers.
Behind this thoughtful curation is Luna Laffanour, whose vision for downtown+ continues to redefine how we experience contemporary creation. By bringing historical works into conversation with emerging voices, she creates a space where dialogue feels alive and evolving. With “secondskin”, Laffanour doesn’t just present an exhibition, she invites us to feel it, to inhabit it, and perhaps to rethink the very surfaces we live in.
