GAL APPROVED. See Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Art At Guggenheim. Smell These Beauty Products. Taste The Pepper From La Plantation Kampot Pepper!

By Maureen Martin and Delaina Dixon | August 9, 2019 | Beauty

SEE. Jean-Michel Basquiat has been featured in many exhibitions, and “Basquiat’s Defacement”: The Untold Story, is at the Guggenheim Museum. This exhibit focuses on the painting – “The Death of Michael Stewart,” a horizontal, two-foot-wide canvas painted it 1983. It’s in response to the tragic murder of Michael Stewart, a 25-year-old African-American artist who was arrested by transit cops and fatally beaten into a coma. Basquiat painted the image on the studio wall of friend Keith Haring, and it is “a guttural artistic primal scream in response to trauma.” Basquiat died five years later of an overdose and Haring arranged to have the painting cut out of his wall and displayed in an ornate gold-leaf frame. This art work hung over his bed as he lay dying of HIV/AIDS. Chaédria Labouvier curated the show and is the first African American to mount a show at the Guggenheim, calling the show “an untold story.” Labouvier she believes “we need to see Basquiat in a political context as a figurative artist who borrowed a bit from such lofty predecessors as Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet and helped inaugurate the Neo-Expressionism of the ‘1980s.” Catch “Basquiat’s Defacement”: The Untold Story exhibit at the Guggenheim through November 2019.

SMELL. Wellness is a big business and now thanks to Walmart you don’t have to spend big bucks to get the best plant-based organic beauty products. A new skincare line exclusively sold at Walmart, Earth to Skin, gives you lux lotions, gels, creams and serums that are GOOP worthy! The super fruit citrus day gel smells divine and made Luxe Gal’s face tingle upon application, leaving it feeling smooth to the touch. The honey skin cleaner is also aromatic and cleans gently without leaving your skin feeling dry. You will notice the packaging of all their products say “pricey” but check the price — everything is comfortably under $10 so apply daily and generously.

TASTE. If you ever needed an excuse to buy a pepper grinder, we’ve got a great one, thanks to La Plantation Kampot Pepper. Yes, the Australian company sells pepper too, and what pepper it is. As we crushed the Red Kampot Whole Peppercorns, we could smell the peppery aroma being released. Just a little goes a long way when you dab it on your food. But don’t stop there. Mix it with the White Kapot and Black Kapot Whole Peppercorns inside your grinder for an out of this world taste!

photo credit: Collection of Nina Clemente, New York, Photo by Allison Chipak, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2018; Walmart; Amanne Media