Professor Devan Shimoyama is among the artists included in the first global survey exhibition dedicated to the use of clothing as a medium of visual art, “Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art.” The exhibition, on view through August 14 at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, examines work by thirty-five international contemporary artists, from established names to emerging voices, several of whom will be exhibiting for the first time in the United States.
By making or altering clothing for expressive purposes, these artists create garments, sculpture, installation, and performance art that transform dress into a critical tool. Adopted globally as an artistic strategy, garmenting uses the language of fashion to challenge traditional divisions of form and function, cast a critical eye on the construction of gender, advance political activism, and address cultural difference.