Names and faces
■ U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat is pushing for the release of A$AP Rocky, who has been behind bars in Sweden while police investigate a fight involving the rapper. Earlier this month, a Swedish court ordered Rocky to spend two weeks in pretrial detention while police investigate the June 30 fight in downtown Stockholm. Quickly after the news broke, the movement #JusticeForRocky pushing for the rapper’s release trended on social media. On Friday, Espaillat, a New York Democrat, said he was pushing to help Rocky come home. “I will continue fighting until A$AP Rocky is released from Swedish prison and brought back. Everyone deserves to be treated equally and A$AP Rocky’s rights continue to be violated. It is not a fair process,” the congressman said in a statement. “Currently, I’m speaking with the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Sweden and ask that everyone continues showing their support to help us in this process of getting justice for Rocky.” Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was allegedly involved in a fight before appearing at a music festival in Sweden.
■ When people hear the name Ed Hardy, they likely think of the flashy, tiger- and skull-emblazoned clothing that rocketed to popularity in the 2000s. Others recognize Hardy as a trailblazing tattooer whose unique designs were licensed for use on apparel and merchandise, and whose legacy transcends the brand’s current notoriety. But few know him as a prolific fine artist. Five miles southwest of Tattoo City, a San Francisco shop he founded, an exhibition opening Friday at the de Young Museum sheds light on Hardy as a wide-ranging artist and tattoo pioneer. Through 300 paintings, prints, drawings and objects, “Ed Hardy: Deeper than Skin” is the first retrospective of his work and shows how Hardy intertwined fine art with tattooing to push both forward. “Ed Hardy’s mission [was] to elevate the tattoo form from its subculture status back in the 1960s at least to a level of a folk art. I think he surpassed that,” said curator Karin Breuer. The exhibition, which follows Hardy’s donation of 152 prints to the museum, bursts with color as it tracks the 74-year-old artist’s evolution. Prints from his college days at the San Francisco Art Institute are displayed alongside lithographs and etchings by the likes of Rodolphe Bresdin and Gordon Cooke, who inspired Hardy.