Cool Hunting

When Gregory Siff isn't acting in independent films, modeling for Abercrombie, or hosting Disney's Z Games, he's painting, creating installations and sculptures, or customizing Stan Smith adidas. The NYC-born, 27 year-old wunderkind tailors the kicks, called "Gregory's," according to the character of the individual. Currently he also offers more minimalist versions, like those pictured, at Rudy's Barbershop in the Hollywood Standard hotel. His graffiti sneakers follow the same sincere poetics that run throughout his body of work, touching on love, loss, and spirituality.

About the same time Siff moved to L.A. from New York two years ago, he started "filling up his closet with canvasses and getting messy." Holes burnt through canvas, heart icons, tally marks, and ephemera create Siff's visual vocabulary that, whether playful, romantic, or both, has been featured at the Standard, Virgin Megastore, Tower Records, and elsewhere in Los Angeles (including at the gallery space, The Reserve), New York, and other places. Most recently, his heartfirebreathe manifesto has taken the form of an installation in the Standard Tank, titled trying to forget about you. The canvas from the show will be burned on Valentine's Day 2006, the same day that he'' unveil, at midnight, the next piece, i forgot about you. The rebirth-themed installation will transform the previous piece into symbols like phoenixes, sunflowers, and hearts and the series will eventually exist as a documentary about the process and remains of trying to forget about you that will be donated to a museum.

If you're interested in your own pair of Gregory's, contact him at gregorysiff [at] yahoo [dot] com.