In Jean-Philippe Delhomme's illustrated world, captions speak as loudly as his expressive paintings of people on the verge of crisis. He being French, perhaps these crises are an existential thing. But this is a new brand of existentialism for sure, custom-made for our consumer society.

Delhomme's droll satire exposes the aspirations of highly mobile people looking for just a little something more: To be recognized by notable art dealers at Art Basel Miami; to understand the meaning of an abstract sculpture without reading the catalogue; never having to apologize for letting the decorator choose all the books in the library. And so it goes.

Jean-Philippe Delhomme in his New York Studio (photo: Peggy Roalf) with the Unknown Hipster. Right, the original sketch; left, the Hipster on Governor's Island. Art copyright and courtesy the artist.

In The Cultivated Life: Artistic, Literary, and Decorating Dramas (Rizzoli 2009), a multitude of characters, brought to disarming actuality by Delhomme's brush, point out the pitfalls of the art, design and literary worlds. In one, a female painter tells an overly enthusiastic visitor to her studio, "Sorry, but I can't help despising my collectors." A few pages later, a cool character, with turned up jeans, enters a gallery thinking, "I know it's ridiculous, but every time I enter a gallery I feel I have to look interesting." In the section about decorating dramas, a sandaled hipster seated on a Frank Gehry cardboard chaise, says, "Design therapy led me to realize that more than a modernist, I'm narcissistic."

Once the book was published last spring, Delhomme made a leap to yet another level of discourse on art and design. He created a character who attends art fairs, fashion shows, and galleries in the name of identifying the very coolest of the cool. The Unknown Hipster is everywhere, invited, or more likely, not. He speaks in a singular voice about the meaning of life as seen through his silent musings.

In a departure from his characteristically refined gouache paintings, Delhomme picked up a set of colored pencils at the art store one day and began drawing the Hipster in a style that is even more abstracted, adding significant details here and there to boost the impact of the story being told. The Hipster, with his long beard, is always in aviators and most often, a jacket and jeans. He always carries a canvas tote, and looks nothing like his creator - but he surely must be the artist's alter ego.

In the current post the Hipster tells of avoiding the September 10^th opening night art crush in Chelsea and heading instead to Governor's Island for the decidedly less hip and, more than likely, poorly attended opening of a contemporary Dutch design, art and fashion exhibition. Here he finds meaning in the concept of repairing and mending everyday things, leaving with both his jacket and sweater fixed with a Dutch invention called "wool filler." His escape from art world hype is again rewarded by the laser light recreation of the Twin Towers seen against the darkening sky from the ferry.

"Life borrows from contemporary art so often that everything seems to have been done before," said one of Delhomme's characters in A Cultivated Life. If this is one of your concerns, The Unknown Hipster is here to guide you on explorations of art and culture through the other side of the mirror.

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