Dzine's fusion of commerce, kustom kulture craft and high art have made him an international sensation in locations as various as the Venice Biennale-where he famously customized an 18-foot boat into a blinged-out multimedia installation-and Chicago, where he first made a name for himself as a teenage graffiti artist. In September 2011, Dzine launched two kustom nail art salons in New York: one in the lobby window of the New Museum, at which various local nail artists offered free nail designs to visitors; and the other at Salon 94 Freemans gallery, where a kustom chandelier, four jewel-encrusted paintings, a gold-leaf hutch and flamboyant, wearable nail sculptures were exhibited alongside a nail salon with a part-time manicurist. Produced in the Get Nailed at the New Museum and Imperial Nail Salon-these events were huge hits, coinciding as they did with kustom nail art's massive international popularity, and led to the publication of this luxurious volume, which celebrates and contextualizes the kustom nail movement. Nailed looks at the history of nail design and adornment across cultures, documenting contemporary nail art with specially commissioned photography of the phenomenon from across the globe. With an introduction by Paper cofounder Kim Hastreiter and contributions by Luis Gispert, Yone, Jamel Shabazz and Fab 5 Freddy, Nailed includes overviews of Dzine's Get Nailed at the New Museum and Imperial Nail Salon projects.
Chicago-based artist Carlos Rolon (born 1970), aka Dzine, is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation award for Painting and Sculpture. His work has been included in exhibitions and is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Museo del Barrio, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Bass Museum of Art, Miami. (20120212)
