Amy Becker
Amy Becker
5/17 – 8/12, 2013
Opening Reception:
Friday, May 17, 6–9pm
SMI Galleries at Academy Square
33 Plymouth Street (1st & 2nd Floors)
Montclair, NJ 07042
HOURS:
Monday-Friday 7am-7pm
973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com
Studio Montclair’s newest exhibit at Academy Square, Fashion As Muse, considers how visual artists use fashion, or any aspect of the fashion industry, as inspiration for their work. This exhibit is on view from May 17 to August 12, 2013 and will take place in Studio Montclair’s galleries at Academy Square, the SMI Gallery @ Academy Square and the SMI Virginia S. Block Gallery, located on the first and second floors of Academy Square 33 Plymouth Street in Montclair. All are invited to the opening reception that will coincide with the Montclair Gallery Walk on Friday, May 17, from 6 to 9 pm. The galleries are open to the public 7 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday.
The show’s co-curators—Patricia Selden, Virginia Block, and Karen Nielsen-Fried—chose work that reflects its linkage to contemporary fashion trends. In addition to clothing, artists explored fields such as interior design, product design, architecture, and politics.
As Block points out, this curatorial direction offers a perspective that challenges the late 20th Century’s art world’s view toward mirroring fashion trends anchored in prior historic periods.
“The first half of the twentieth century,” Block notes, “many fashion designers tracked and echoed trends in modern painting and sculpture. One memorable icon is Yves Saint Laurent’s color-block dress from 1965, which was inspired by Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie. Saint Laurent made the historical case for the artistic sensibility of his time.”
The three co-curators sought work that is the reverse of this movement. They wanted art that explores current fashion. “Claire Rosen, a Montclair resident, photographer and video artist, blends a fine art sensibility with commercial work to create imagery inspired by fairy tales, fables and other stories,” said Selden. “Claire’s fashion and fine art photography, and advertising work touch on bizarre, whimsical and rational themes.”
Fabiola Arias, a fashion designer and Parsons School of Design graduate, began her studies as a painter. She uses fabric the way Impressionists used paint on canvas. In her couture pieces, she hand sews small pieces of silk in different colors to the body of a gown to make the colors move and shimmer. Her gowns have been seen on the runway during Fashion Week in NYC and in Neiman Marcus stores.
Kathryn Eddy comments on the fashion industry. She asks, “What happens when animal ethics and popular culture collide? We live in a society obsessed with looking at celebrities and (their) fashion. As an artist whose work explores the human animal relationship, this series points out our obsessive fashion voyeurism and our subsequent blindness towards our farmed food animals.”
Co-curator Karen Nielsen-Fried expressed her ideas. “Fashion is connected to identity. No matter how we choose to clothe ourselves, down to the smallest element—we make a decision about what we want to say to the world about ourselves. We use our clothing and adornments to create the armor of our personhood. Fashion is a language of self-expression and even self-promotion. The symbolism of elements in fashion is deeply embedded in our collective consciousness. We all comprehend this non-verbal language.”
The work of photographer Nancy Ori is mesmerizing in its intricacy of detail. She photographed segments of Victorian era gowns in black and white. Although the viewer knows the fabrics are soft and rich, the structure of the garments is rigid and controlling. One image is so symmetrical it has a likeness to an architectural detail from an Italian renaissance church.
Block says, “There are four small but bold black and white collages by Florence Weisz that reflect the current fashion trend. These compositions are delightful divisions of space with stripes as the subject. Subtle textures are hidden and over-laid with watercolor. Occasionally she interjects short white or black lines that resemble stiches or markings on a dressmaker’s pattern. Here and there a spark of yellow appears just to keep us on our toes.“
“As curators, we were looking for unique interpretations of the theme, a diversity of works, and artists who have gone beyond the traditional approach in their choice of mediums,” says Block.
Fashion As Muse shows the works of Fabiola Arias, Amy Becker, Ron Brown, Kathryn Eddy, Alice Harrison, Linda Brooks Hirschman, Eric Levin, Elizabeth Jane Munro, Nancy Ori, Christine Parker, Lexie Rechan, Matt Roberts, Claire Rosen, and Florence Weisz.
Studio Montclair Inc. is a nonprofit organization of exhibiting professional artists and others interested in the visual arts. Its mission is to promote culture and education in the visual arts and encourage emerging artists. Founded in 1997, the organization includes over 300 members, including artists from around the United States. www.studiomontclair.org
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.