Ugg to sponsor two California artists at Made in L.A. 2020

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Sep 10, 2020

Decker Brands subsidiary Ugg has announced its role as a sponsor of the opening weekend of the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. 2020, presented in partnership with The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 

Now making its fifth return, the event will open in the fall of 2020 and run through the end of the year, showcasing new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances and paintings from 30 Los Angeles-based emerging artists.

As a sponsor, Ugg will promote two Made in L.A. 2020 artists, Fulton Leroy Washington, or "Mr. Wash," and Sonya Sombreuil in the work "Feel ____," a film series that spotlights California artists "who tell personal stories about their lives, their work and what fuels their creativity," the footwear and lifestyle brand said. 

The film featuring Mr. Wash takes place inside his home apartment and art studio in Compton, California, and tells the story of how he took up drawing, painting and creative storytelling while serving twenty-one years in jail for a nonviolent drug offense in the late 1990s. Originally given a life sentence, Wash had his sentence commuted and was granted clemency by President Barack Obama in 2016.

In the Ugg film, viewers learn about Wash's first subjects--his fellow inmates--and get a sneak peak of one of his Made in L.A. 2020 paintings, an homage to Kobe Bryant.

Sombreuil's film celebrates her fashion label, Come Tees, and her signature graphic screen-printed pieces influenced by her California upbringing and relationship to Los Angeles streetwear culture. 

"My whole aesthetic is very located in an origin story, being surrounded by books and records," said Sombrueil. "I think that so much of my art is about locating that feeling."

Sombrueil's work at the Hammer features paintings that function as walls for a kind of imagined space that acts as a gallery, venue, and gathering place, and are a historical recreation of spaces that she's been through in her origin as an artist, Ugg said. 

"We are really proud to partner with the Hammer, one of the foremost museums in the country known for their belief that art and ideas illuminate our lives and build a more just world," said Andrea O'Donnell, president, fashion lifestyle with Deckers Brands.

Both films were shot by Kauai Moliterno and Michael Barth, with stills being captured by Neil Favila with support from Production LA.  In the films, both artists wear Ugg footwear--Wash in the Ugg Neumel chukka and Sombreuil in the new Classic Ultra Mini.

To further boost the partnership, Ugg will unveil two limited-edition t-shirts featuring the Made in L.A. 2020 works of Mr. Wash and Sombreuil, which will become available when the exhibition opens at the Hammer gift shop and ugg.com. For each purchase, a donation will be made to the Equal Justice Initiative.

The brand said it will continue to pull the Feel campaign into future seasons.

"Feel ____ with Mr. Wash and Sonya Sombreuil will be followed by 'Feel You.' in mid-September, as an unapologetic celebration of individuality and style featuring a multitude of artists, creatives, designers, and activists from around the globe," Ugg said.