New Exhibition, SHOP, at UNDERLINE Gallery Celebrates Fashion in New York

UNDERLINE Gallery (238 W. 14^th St.) proudly presents SHOP, a unique group exhibition that reflects the growing intersection between fashion, art, craft and technology to coincide with a month resonating fashion in New York City. Curated by Jennifer Minniti, Chair of Fashion Design at Pratt Institute, SHOP opens on Thursday, September 8 (in participation of Fashion’s Night Out), with a reception from 6 to 8pm, and runs through October 9. The show also includes a lineup of provocative workshops and events throughout the month.

“SHOP is a place that celebrates ‘the making’ and provides an antidote to the banality of the mass-produced and fast-fashion distribution,” says Minniti. In a time of unprecedented access to information, new ideas, materials and technologies, artists and designers have the power to transcend the mundane and to offer the new and the novel as contemporary culture makers. SHOP aims to shift consumer culture by engaging the customer in a spirited shopping experience: one that is rooted in the creative process and resurrects an awareness of the product and the purchase. SHOP offers a range of artist editions in limited production that are made by hand, as well as by rapid prototype and other smart-solution technology.

“This new technology is so relevant right now,” adds Patrick Sullivan, owner of UNDERLINE Gallery. “At a time when everyone has access to designing, making, and generating product, it’s important to highlight and distinguish the artist’s voice, proving that work can still be custom and collectible.“

The artists and designers included in this exhibition were chosen for their strong individualism, and for their work that reflects this growing intersection between craft, technology, art and fashion. Fashion designers Anke Loh, Susan Cianciolo, Caroline Priebe, and others, pursue the extraordinary in their relentless and creative pursuits to find beauty in the seemingly conventional. Libby Black, and artist who is known for recreating luxury retail products and entire retail environments by hand, challenges the customer’s shopping experience by acknowledging the absurdity in obsessive consumption.

In addition to apparel, accessories, video, paintings, and made-to-order pieces for sale, podcasts with the artists that narrate their processes are downloadable right in the gallery. Events throughout the month include participation with Fashion’s Night Out on opening night, September 8, private trunk shows throughout the duration of the show, and a fashion-food event to close the exhibition.