Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art: September 2012

“Fashionality” is a newly coined term that refers to the visual culture and semiotics of dress and adornment. Combining the words “fashion,” “personality,” and “nationality,” it suggests the interplay between clothing, identity and culture. Reflecting wide geographic and cultural diversity, this exhibition focuses upon the ways in which the concerns, identities and aesthetics of those living in Canada are expressed, deconstructed and reconfigured through the idiom of dress.

This blog records exhibition-related information, as well as work and events related to artists appearing in the show.

Monday, 3 September 2012

Fashionality Farewell

Fashionality closes at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection today. It's been an amazing show, and response has been fantastic! How wonderful to have so many incredible artists together in one place -- and a place that lends itself so well to the many themes of the exhibition.

Many, many thanks to all the awesomely talented artists, the supremely generous lenders, to the incredibly hard-working and gracious McMichael staff, and to the numerous, and highly enthusiastic visitors to the show. It's been a immensely creative, social, and educational experience, not to mention a delight to the heart and to the eye. 'Till next time!

Meryl McMaster, Caduceus, 2010. From the ongoing In-Between Worlds series. Digital C-print.

Canadian Art Feature

Canadian Art magazine's most recent e-update revisited the Fashionality Faces feature from the summer issue. The introduction reads:

"The flamboyant exhibition Fashionality closes at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection this week. Find out more about its larger-than-life feel and its works by Kent Monkman, Camille Turner and others in this feature from our Summer 2012 issue."

You can read the article here:

http://www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2012/08/30/fashionality/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+August+30+2012&utm_content=Weekly+August+30+2012+CID_6e2fc766412913fc737e2a3c100dc7ac&utm_source=E+Weekly+Campaign&utm_term=Fashionality

And check out the über Canadian Canoe Lake photo spread featuring artists Camille Turner (as Miss Canadiana) and Cathy Daley, with curator, Julia Pine, in the middle.