Fashioned: One Becomes Another

  Paintings and found objects get reborn in unique exhibit at the Anita Sue Kolman Gallery

Abstract paintings become haute couture dresses; a chair becomes a birthing place for mushrooms; and vegetable bags become high-design sculptures in an exhibit that explores transformation and renewal.

Look #7, Pryor & Straub Collaboration

August 31, 2011 (Minneapolis)--Project Runway designer Christopher Straub, fiber-art pioneer Nancy MacKenzie, abstract painter Patrick Kemal Pryor, and eco-sculptor Kate Casanova transform ordinary objects and found materials into distinctive artworks in “Fashioned: One Becomes Another,” at the Anita Sue Kolman Gallery, September 10-October 29, 2011.

In a true collaboration between fashion and high art, Minnesota native and Project Runway contestant Christopher Straub turns giant, abstract paintings by Patrick Kemal Pryor into eight designer dresses that function as much as fashion as they do elaborate three-dimensional sculptures.

“It has forced me to develop a new way of painting,” says Minnesota artist Pryor. “I had to worry more about pattern than composition. And I’ve always wanted my paintings to be able to literally move…this collaboration allows that.”

Pryor’s colorful and abstract images were as large as 60 square feet before he handed them over to Straub for re-imagining. The end result is a series of breath-taking canvas dresses that honor Pryor’s aesthetic through Straub’s unique cuts and swirling designs. 

“He honored the paintings, used the fabrics and the shapes to inform the designs,” says Pryor. “He transformed them into something of his own but still mine. I love that.”

Minnesota native Kate Casanova also reconstructs objects, turning an old living-room chair into soil for a fruiting mushroom plot. Giant pink mushrooms grow from the cushion, creating a vibrant, living artwork.

“I was really drawn to this idea of taking something and transforming it into something else entirely,” says gallery owner Anita Sue Kolman. “It’s this whole idea of artists using materials in ways they don’t normally do.”

Kolman was drawn to Minnesota artist Nancy MacKenzie’s works for the same reason. MacKenzie sculpts intricate artworks from a mix of bailing twine, plastic vegetable bags, and twigs. Her vegetable bag sculptures are so elaborate and colorful they conceal their humble origin.

“For a long time, Nancy has been using materials in a way that we now call ‘recycling’. And she does it in such a way no artist I have seen ever has. What she creates is really beautiful.”

The opening reception is Saturday, September 17, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. At 7:30 p.m. is the world premiere of original Christopher Straub designs fashioned from abstract paintings on canvas by Patrick Kemal Pryor. Models will display the dresses before they become sculptures on dress forms.

The gallery and reception are free and open to the public.

The Anita Sue Kolman Gallery is located in Studio 395 in the Northrup King Building at 1500 Jackson Street in Minneapolis. For more information about “Fashioned: One Becomes Another” and the Anita Sue Kolman gallery, please visit the gallery’s web site at www.askanita.com or call 612-385-4239. You can also reach Anita Sue Kolman, the gallery owner, at anita@askanita.com.