When Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld assembled the team behind his latest exhibit, "The Martus Maw" by Nicolas Pol, he hired Nadine Johnson & Associates as his public relations firm. Born in the Belgian Congo, Johnson moved to New York and began to successfully distinguish herself in public relations where her penchant for partying proved to be an asset. As was her marriage to Richard Johnson, Page Six editor for the New York Post. Neither did her maternal responsibilities interfere with her career, as her friend Euan Rellie describes the scene: “Toby Young and I used to live down the street from Nadine on Perry Street. She would come to our parties, impossibly languid and chic, usually carrying her then six-year-old son. She would put him down asleep on a sofa somewhere and be the life and soul of the party, drinking and carousing, before eventually picking him up like a handbag and taking him back down the street to bed.” Nadine Johnson & Associates was formed in 1990 and counts among the fashionable and wealthy many clients such as Andre Balazs and Larry Gagosian. Johnson's group was also responsible for promoting Indochine's 25th annniversary event.

Nadine Johnson photograph © 2005 Nikola Tamindzic. All Rights Reserved.
Nadine Johnson photograph © 2009 Billy Farrell and Patrick McMullan. All Rights Reserved.

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld lists among his favorite artists Tom Sachs and among his prized possessions the invitation that the artist sent out for his Lever House opening in New York last May. In typical Sachs' fashion, the invitation was a Hello Kitty wind-up toy in do-it-yourself plastic packaging with the name of the artist taped to it (pictured below). 

As described in a catalog for one of his shows, Sachs is a "bricoleur—one who hobbles together functional contraptions out of already given or collected materials which he re-tools and re-signifies info new objects with novel uses, but more importantly, which he regenerates into a new, oscillating syntax: one of loss, gain, and more than anything, one of play."

Sachs is famous for works that explore themes such as branding, consumerism, and product fetishization; one such example is "Hello Kitty Nativity" in which he staged a Christmas scene for the windows of Barneys with the iconic character Hello Kitty in Chanel in the starring role. Sachs is also a talented photographer, including a recent session with Vladimir and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld for Pop Magazine. Check out the extensive snapshots of Sachs' studio on Supertouch Art, it is truly amazing to see the working space of this creative genius including gems such as his personal survival kit...

Tom Sachs portrait © 2009 Olivier Zahm. All Rights Reserved.
Tom Sachs Lever House invitation photograph © 2009 Condé Nast. All Rights Reserved.
Tom Sachs survival kit photograph courtesy of Supertouch Art.