Fashion illustrations by Joseph Omolayole, 2020, digital drawing

Join us at Art Market San Francisco to talk fashion

Fashion allows us to dream about who and what we can be. Garments give us the possibility to create ourselves. But who is fashion really for?

This panel discussion will discuss what fashion is, where it becomes art, and what that can look like. We will discuss what the future could look like and how to approach creating garments with disabilities in mind, while still dealing with authenticity.

Tunic created by CE artist Miriam Munguia in collaboration with teaching artist Victor Molina. This was the last piece Munguia worked on before her passing in late 2021. Photo by Graham Holoch

The panel brings together professionals from the art and textile world, artists, and curators, including Creativity Explored artist Joseph Omolayole.

Following the Mode Brut fashion exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Design which featured dozens of designs created in partnership with disabled Creativity Explored artists, the panel aims to continue a discussion about industry accessibility at the nexus of fashion and art.

An installation of garments and accessories by Creativity Explored artists will be on view in the VIP Lounge during the fair.

For tickets visit the Art Market San Francisco website ▸

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About the panelists

Tony Bravo is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Arts and Culture writer. Bravo joined The Chronicle staff in 2015 as a reporter for the former Style section, where he covered New York Fashion Week for the Hearst newspapers and served as the section’s editorial stylist, in addition to writing the relationship column “Connectivity.” He primarily covers visual arts and the LGBTQ community as well as specializing in stories about the intersections between arts, culture and lifestyle. His column appears in print every Monday in the Chronicle’s Datebook section. Bravo is also an adjunct instructor at the City College of San Francisco Fashion Department.

Laura L. Camerlengo is associate curator of costume and textile arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Since 2010, she has curated or co-curated costume and textiles exhibitions for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She most recently served as the presenting curator of Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love. She is the author of The Miser’s Purse (2013), a contributor to Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade (2017) and Contemporary Muslim Fashions (2018), and the volume editor of Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2021). She holds a master of arts in the history of decorative arts and design from Parsons, the New School for Design/Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York.

Josefin Lundahl is the Curator & Exhibitions Coordinator at Creativity Explored. Lundahl is a Swedish art historian with over a decade of work in art education, curation, advising, and consulting in the US and Europe. After receiving her M.A. in Art History at Uppsala University – focusing on the art market – and while working in the educational sector, she independently ran a gallery project with the mission of creating a space for emerging artists to exhibit and start their careers. Lundahl seeks to create a platform that redefines what art can and should be with artists, collaborators, and collectors. Consulting both artists and art lovers alike, her goal is to find more equity and democracy in the market and make art more available.

Joseph Omolayole graduated from Skyline College with a degree in Fashion Merchandising, joining Creativity Explored in 2016. Omolayole remarks, "Art and fashion are my passion." Omoloyale has a rich traditional 2-D practice, applying his interest in fashion to his illustrations. His realist approach to his subjects complement his studious nature, applying details that only an expert would identify. In working from home, Omolayole has remained focused on fashion, designing, draping and assembling in his own room. His newest designs will debut on the runway at the Museum of Craft and Design in Fall 2021. About working in the Creativity Explored studio, Omolayole says, "Looking at the special talent at Creativity Explored inspires me and gives me ideas. I do not copy these ideas but I make them my own."

After graduating from SFAI, Ben Ospital started his fashion career as a buyer for Saks Fifth Ave in New York. Then in 1980 opened MAC Modern Appealing Clothing in San Francisco with his Mom (Jeri) and sister (Chris). With an eye to the new MAC continues to lead the pack in selling exciting clothes from Japan, Belgium and our own backyard in San Francisco.

Tokyo Gamine was founded in 2015 by designer and artist Yuka Uehara as a way to create new forms of couture in collaboration with her clients. Her designs take inspiration from nature, mythology, and the wearer’s personal history. The label has since been seen at many red carpet events such as the San Francisco Opera, Symphony, and Ballet openings as well as the Academy Awards. Tokyo Gamine also dressed the SF Girls Chorus and designed costumes for SF Symphony’s production of Candide. Most recently, Tokyo Gamine created Kizuna, a collection of ten gender-free, one-sized pieces featuring the art of eleven Creativity Explored artists for the Mode Brut exhibit at the Museum of Craft and Design.

About the VIP Lounge installation

The fashion installation by Creativity Explored at Art Market San Francisco, features garments created for and during the recent Mode Brut exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Design, which closed in January 2022. The fashion-focused exhibition showcased outfits and fiber art by disabled Creativity Explored (CE) artists working in partnership with local designers. To prepare for the exhibition, CE invited designers and brands to collaborate on new fashions while centering the experiences and art practices of over fifty neurodiverse artists.

The resulting garments challenge us to consider for whom fashion is made while weaving the threads between art practice and fashion design. Questions around identity, gender roles, and accessibility came into focus as more and more garments were created by CE artists during the pandemic. Despite the hurdles, the community of Creativity Explored artists and collaborators created four original fashion lines overflowing with joy, whimsy, and indefatigable creative vision. Visit the installation during the fair to experience a selection of Mode Brut fashions in person, including never-before-seen garments created since CE studios reopened.