Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld Curates Artwork and Celebrities

Nepotism does not necessarily facilitate creative prowess, but it can take a low-key art exhibition to full star-studded affair status like Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld’s recent Lower East Side opening. The son of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld brought in big names in curating Parisian artist Nicholas Pol’s first U.S. art exhibition, “The Martus Maw” on Tuesday. Pol’s 16 mixed-media paintings were on display at the old meat market on Essex Street for the likes of Restoin-Roitfeld’s glamorous mother and friends like Jean Paul Gaultier, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Stavros Niarchos. Though the artist’s work has been deemed “a messier, darker Jean-Michel Basquiat” by Vanity Fair, it was Restoin-Roitfeld’s attachment that brought the crowd. “Nicolas’s art is very abstract, but also very literal. You can stand here and just look at it for hours,” said Restoin-Roitfeld, whose publicist said he prefers to be referred to as an “art tailor” as opposed to a curator.