Brazen: Wearing Art

To coincide with and celebrate Frieze, Hunter Gather and Transition gallery have  teamed up again to launch the exhibition ‘Ornament’ in their store.  They commissioned six artists; Kirsty Buchanan, Annabel Dover, Cathy Lomax, Alex Michon, Alli Sharma and Corinna Spencer to paint their art directly onto handbags which is the centrepiece of the exhibition.

Art and fashion have always gone together hand in hand and this collaboration is interesting as each artist takes an old bag and customises it in their own way.  But we’re not talking about painting on flowers or graffiti al la Louis Vuitton, the artwork inspiration is more complex and it’s context is  ‘a subversive look at female adornment played out on found handbags and real faces’.

Transition gallery said:

“The six artists play with the notion of the bag as the must-have designer item by transforming found handbags into unique painted objects’ embellished with images that look into facets of female adornment such as jewellery, necklines, reflections, drag queen and perfume bottles.”

My favourite piece in the collection is by Alex Michon, her  bag was embellished with shards of broken glass to represent diamonds and her perception of the ‘overarching femininity of drag queens’.

The exhibition is on until the 17th November, 2013.