Art and Design Gallery

African Diaspora
Fashion Design AAS Exhibition

African Diaspora, presented by the Fashion Design AAS exhibition committee honors the
powerful influence of African culture on contemporary fashion. Opening December 14 in FIT’s Art and Design Gallery, African Diaspora is free and open to the public daily.

FIT’s Fashion Design, Illustration, and Photography AAS students created works inspired by the current exhibition Africa’s Fashion Diaspora, on view at The Museum at FIT (MFIT) through January 29. This showcase of student work delves into themes of identity, resilience, and creativity, celebrating the contributions of African-descendant communities to style and self-expression in fashion design. By exploring the interconnectedness of Black culture across borders, the exhibition invites visitors from all backgrounds to engage in this shared narrative, emphasizing the dynamic role of African influence in today’s fashion landscape.

Garment: by AAS student Maya Kodama
Photo: by student Valentyna Titarenko

City in Bloom:
Rediscovering Nature's Fragments

City in Bloom is a meditation on the resilience of the human experience, and the restorative capacity of nature within urban life. From shaded tree-lined streets to verdant plants nurtured in apartments, these moments of “urban nature” assert themselves, reminding city dwellers that serenity, a sense of place within the infinite universe, can be accessed—even in the most industrialized of spaces, nature’s carefully calibrated biorhythms persist.
 
Bringing together works by FIT students, faculty, and invited artists, CiTY iN BLOOM highlights sustainability and re-use, with several of the works in this exhibition featuring repurposed materials, and either explicitly or implicitly emphasizing the importance of protecting and appreciating nature. At the same time, the exhibition examines whether nature is available to everyone. Or, is finding nature, belonging in nature, an act of privilege? Where and how do we find nature when the urban landscape surrounds us?

 

Lighted Earth

Lighted Earth was an exhibition in collaboration with Graphic Design Students at FIT, Jewelry Design Students at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM, and Fashion Designer and IAIA Artist in Residence Patricia Michaels. 

The exhibition featured student projects from IAIA's Jewelry Class and garments and printed textiles by Michaels, shown alongside a documentary made by the film department at IAlA that included student interviews and insights on the collections from lAIA Jewelry Design Faculty. FIT Graphic Design Students developed the identity and interpretive materials for the exhibition.

Image shown here:  Dress design by Indigenous Fashion Designer Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) and Haiden R. Gould (Diné), Fashion Design Student, IAIA.