February 18, 2019

GARB Exhibition Opens

A Collision of Image, Body, Art, Object, Fashion and Costume

GARB, an art and sculpture exhibition featuring the collision of image, body, art, object, fashion and costume opened February 15, 2019 at ArtCenter College of Design’s Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery in Pasadena and continues through June 9, 2019. Admission to the gallery is free and free parking is available on the Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena.

Co-curated by Ann Field, chair of ArtCenter’s Illustration department and John David O’Brien, artist, writer and ArtCenter professor, the exhibition blurs the borderlines between art and body image. GARB manifests different and contrasting approaches in which clothing, attire, costumes and body extensions intersect in the visual arts and beyond.

Juxtaposing wearable art and sculptural clothing with artifacts of fashion and costuming, the exhibition features LA Opera costume sketches from the upcoming production of Mozart’s The Clemency of Titus, and Edith Head sketches sourced from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library.

In the exhibition, illustrators such as Tony Viramontes, Bob Peak and Ann Field focus on fashion and how that imaginative universe is created by bridging distances and gaps in places and cultures. Images of and sketches for costumes lent from the collections of the LA Opera and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are juxtaposed against three-dimensional works where artists such as Anna Sew Hoy, Phyllis Green, Phranc, Dennis Callwood and Jean Medina have modified clothing and turned to sculpture. The exhibition delves into how attire can function in a shape shifting dimension that expresses the ways identity and cultures are made evident and put into question.

Artists and sources contributing to GARB include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Colleen Atwood, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Dennis Callwood, Adriana Carvalho, Jacqueline Durran, Ann Field, Phyllis Green, Tim Goodchild, Edith Head, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Sha Sha Higby, Constance Hoffman, Anna Sew Hoy, LA Opera, Jeanne Medina, John Neumeier, Bob Peak, Arianne Phillips, Phranc, Kevin Pollard, Beverly Semmes, Mattie Ullrich, Tony Viramontes, Albert Wolsky and Nancy Youdelman.

A special event will take place on Thursday, March 14 at 7 p.m. in the gallery featuring performance artist Sha Sha Higby, an important figure in the fiber art world. Higby will perform Paper Wings III, a theatrical experience praised as radically original and unforgettable. The artist creates an underwater scene through undulating lighting effects on white gossamer wings while sounds evoke bird song. The effect of bird song underwater is other worldly, and that sense of an encounter with another world increases, beautifully, throughout the entire performance. It is all like a waking dream.

Although Higby performs in a mask, completely hidden inside an elaborate costume which transforms again and again in amazing ways, the sense of her intimate presence and deep connection with the viewer is astonishing. Higby not only dances but begins to produce sound from inside the costume, like an alien language. This performance is not a story so much as an encounter.

GARB is co-curated by Ann Field and John David O’Brien, in association with Stephen Nowlin, director of the Williamson Gallery.

Williamson Gallery exhibitions are made possible in part by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance; and through the generosity of the Williamson Gallery Patrons.

ArtCenter College of Design’s Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery is located at 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena. For more information, contact williamson.gallery@artcenter.edu, call 626 396-2397 or visit http://williamsongallery.net/garb

Williamson Gallery Hours:

12 to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday
12 to 9 p.m., Friday
Closed Mondays and holidays

Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
ArtCenter College of Design
1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103

Social Media:
@artcenteredu
#GARB
#FiberArt
#ArtToWear

About the Alyce De Roulet Williamson Gallery: The Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at ArtCenter has established a broad reputation for exploring the intersection of science and art. Through a two-decade series of programs and exhibitions, it has contributed to the emergence of an international movement among universities, journals, conferences, artistic studio practices, and design strategies that promotes an intensified collaboration between the humanities and sciences.

About ArtCenter: Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.

Contact:
Teri Bond
Media Relations Director
ArtCenter College of Design
teri.bond@artcenter.edu
O 626 396-2385