Hassan Hajjaj Wins 2014 PULSE Prize

PULSE New York named Hassan Hajjaj their 2014 PULSE Prize winner. Hajjaj was chosen for the award by an invitational jury including Kathy Battista, Director, Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s Institute of Art NY; Paddy Johnson, Founder and Editorial Director, Art F City; Julia Kaganskiy, Director of NEW INC, New Museum; and Alice Gray Stites, Museum Director and Chief Curator, 21c Museum Hotels. The jury selected Hajjaj, represented at PULSE by L.A.’s GUSFORD Gallery, for My Rock Stars, a portrait series of friends (and sometimes friends of friends) dressed up as rock stars. Hajjaj designs the costumes of the musicians and singers using traditional fabrics and found objects which he sources from local markets in his town of birth, Marrakech, and in doing so, bridges the gap between past and present cultures, creating pieces that seamlessly merge folkloric elements into Western contemporary art. www.gusfordgallery.com