ID LAB

ID LAB is an exhibition of works by artists who engage in the ongoing discussion about identity and images and employ to this end strong forms of identification from fashion and design. They connect the conceptual world of their artworks to the powerful language of fashion and thereby gain a direct connection to their viewer. The works are diverse and their subject matter varied; they do not stay within the confines of the framework they reflect, but grapple with traditions, processes, zeitgeist, and contemporary identity.

The exhibition is on the boundary of two adjacent worlds, subject to different mandates but possessing common origins and closely related languages: on the one hand, the visual art world in which artists objectify ideas or experiences and mete them out to the world within meaning-laden art world walls; and, on the other hand, the world of design in which designers reflect the zeitgeist and framework of daily life through product and production. Here we are delineating what divides design and visual art but the conjunctions are many; more joins these two worlds than separates them. Although the political and market frameworks may diverge, visual art and design build on the same visual laws and rely on creative individuals.

The artists presenting work in this exhibition take on the subject of contemporary identities and zeitgeist in different ways but have in common a use of color, form, and material to extend the artwork beyond the visual art world and into the world of design and fashion—where the visual language has been desacralized. These artists follow the mandates of the visual art world but annex the world of fashion and design.