Serge Becker

Serge Becker (born in Paris) is a Swiss creative director, nightlife and hospitality designer, and impresario. He is known for his irreverent approach to design, adventurous programming of venues, and a multicultural audience. Becker is part of a second wave of New York City restaurateurs, that incorporated nightlife and theatrical elements into their design driven venues. A tightly curated guest list, staff casting, styling, and expert music selection were essential elements to this generation of hospitality operators, in addition to the traditional culinary focus. Becker in particular is known for using vernacular design references and transforming previously “undesirable spaces and locations” with a Cinderella effect. Becker was dubbed a “Cultural Engineer” by André Balazs in the New York Times[1] for his innovative creations and prescient timing.

Serge Becker
Serge Becker
Serge Becker
Born1961 (age 61–62)
Paris, France
OccupationCreative Director, Nightlife & Restaurant Designer, Impresario
NationalitySwiss
EducationKunstgewerbeschule Zürich

Biography

Born in Paris in 1961 and raised in Zürich from age 8. Serge Becker is the son of Ruth Becker, a Swiss Theatre and TV administrator and a Vietnamese Father. He studied graphic design at Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich from 1977-1982.

While studying he worked at night as a DJ at popular local clubs. Together with photographer Pietro Mattioli he selected records at one of Zürich’s early punk evenings, documented in the book 1977.[2] In the early 80’s he started to book early New York City rap performers like Kurtis Blow, Davey D, and Grandmaster DST to help introduce this burgeoning culture to Switzerland.

Inspired by that raw energy, he moved to New York City in 1982, where he started a 3-year stint as art director at the art nightclub AREA. This led to a 15 year long creative partnership with AREA co-founder Eric Goode. Together they designed and operated seminal New York City clubs and restaurants, directed music videos, and produced art and photography.

In 1998 Becker joined George C. Wolfe, Josh Pickard and Paul Salmon to open Joe's Pub at The Public Theater. The same year he started the multi-disciplinary design firm Can Resources with architect Derek Sanders and creative director Lisa Ano (of M & Co.). The office designed multiple commercial and residential projects including the beloved Flower Box Building in the East Village.

In 2000 Ano and Becker also launched the critically acclaimed cult magazine List, a publication presenting all content in list format. It was an instant hit but the magazine and Can Resources both fell victim to the dot-com bubble crash and 9/11.

In 2004 Becker and Sanders joined artists Thomas Sandbichler and Jeff Gompertz to open the multi-media art club Volume in North Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The short-lived venue was a trailblazer for the coming development of the neighborhood and set a high standard for innovative immersive cultural programming.[3]

In 2005 Becker and Sanders opened the Mexican restaurant and bar La Esquina which introduced an authentic Mexico City style menu in a theatrical speakeasy environment.

In 2007 Becker joined Simon Hammerstein and Richard Kimmel to open the Neo-Burlesque theatre The Box, and in 2008 Becker went back to his roots to open the Swiss Restaurant “Café Select” with his Swiss friends Oliver Stumm and Dominique Clausen of “A touch of Class” DJ and production team.

In 2011 Becker connected with his Joe’s Pub partner Paul Salmon, the brothers Binn and Genc Jakupi and Meriem Soliman to open the Jamaican concept venue Miss Lily’s.

In 2012 Becker ventured to London to open Mexican restaurant La Bodega Negra with local restaurateur Will Ricker and entrepreneur Eddie Spencer Churchill.

2016 brought a career change for Becker as he was appointed creative and artistic director of the New York Museum of Sex by owner Dan Gluck. His extensive brief was to help Gluck expand the museum into a full two building, eight gallery institution, broaden the curatorial scope, and build a robust events program.[4] He was also tasked with helping Gluck conceptualize, curate, design, and build “Superfunland”, a cheeky large-scale immersive “journey into the erotic carnival” that opened in late 2019 to massive crowds and positive reviews.

Nightclubs, Restaurants, Hotels

Museums and Galleries
  • 2009 Swiss Institute New York, Design of Sculptural Reading Room
  • 2013 “AREA: The Exhibition”, Group Show, The Hole Gallery, curated by Jeffrey Deitch and Glenn O'Brien; Production Design[11]
  • 2016-2020 Creative and Artistic Director Museum of Sex, New York; Overseeing program, design and execution In collaboration with curator Lissa Rivera and founder Dan Gluck[12]

Exhibitions
  • 2016 "Night Fever" New York Disco 1977-1979 The Bill Bernstein Photographs
  • 2016 "Sex Lives of Animals"
  • 2017 “Known/ Unknown" Private obsession and hidden desire in Outsider Art
  • 2017 "NSFW - Female Gaze"
  • 2017 "Canon" Juan Jose Garboza & Gubo Andrew Mroczek
  • 2017 "Zana Bayne" Stage Costume Anthology
  • 2017 "Celestial Bodies" the couples Virtual Reality experience with Diplo[13]
  • 2018 "The Incomplete Araki" Life and death in the work of Nobuyoshi Araki[14]
  • 2018 "Leonor Fini" Theatre of Desire 1930-1990[15]
  • 2018 "Punk Lust" Raw provocation 1971-1985
  • 2019 "Stag" the illicit origins of pornographic film
  • 2019 "Mariette Pathy Allen" Rites of Passage 1978-2006
  • 2019 "James Bidgood" Reveries
  • 2019 "Superfunland" Journey into the Erotic Carnival

Publications
  • 2000 List Magazine an anthology of lists with co-editor Lisa Ano[16]

Art Direction and Production Design
  • 1992 "I’m a frayed knot" (Gary Indiana) Rivington Theatre; Production design
  • 1993 "Dido and Aneas" Opera at the Academy; Production design
  • 2002 "60 Years Capitol Records" campaign; Creative direction

Music Videos and Film Direction

References
  1. Detrick, Ben (2011-07-27). "At the Twilight of Night Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  2. "1977 | Edition Patrick Frey". www.editionpatrickfrey.com. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  3. Staff, W. W. D. (2004-02-09). "Turn It Up". WWD. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  4. "Artforum.com". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  5. Giovannini, Joseph (1988-04-07). "More Than a Club: It's Open House". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  6. Jacobs, Andrew (1998-10-25). "Will Everybody Go to Joe's?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  7. Bruni, Frank (2005-08-31). "A Secret Too Dark to Keep". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  8. "Serge Becker | Aleim Magazine". aleim.com. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  9. McLean, Craig (2012-04-10). "The Manhattan maestro bringing cool to London". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  10. "Serge Becker's Miss Lily's Is Going Home to Jamaica". Vanity Fair. 2018-03-22. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  11. Lunch, Quiet (2013-11-11). "The Hole |x| ABSOLUT | AREA: The Exhibition.Quiet Lunch". Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  12. Greenberger, Alex (2017-06-16). "Museum of Sex Names Serge Becker Creative and Artistic Director". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  13. Breindel, Alexander (2018-04-20). "We Visited The VR Exhibit At The Museum Of Sex: Here's What We Saw, Heard, Touched, and Felt". Resource. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  14. Farago, Jason (2018-02-28). "A Maverick of Japanese Photography, Bound Tight to Ritual". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  15. McDermon, Daniel (2018-11-06). "Sex, Surrealism and de Sade: The Forgotten Female Artist Leonor Fini". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  16. "LIST". www.ideanow.online. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
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