Just got a new pair of BCBG sandals. If you have never worn four inch heels, I suggest you buy this brand. They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. No pinching and the interior is fully padded so they are of the work-all-day-dance-all-night variety.
Not sure if they come in a men’s size, one required for the posers of Karen Bakke’s fashion illustrations. The show, entitled Queens of New York, at the Sue and Leon Genet Gallery at The Nancy Cantor Warehouse School of Design (the Syracuse University Building located in Armory Square) will be up until May 30, 2015, if you were not at last night’s reception.
Karen Bakke was one of my professors at SU circa the ’80s when I was a fashion design major. She taught me how to use a knitting machine among other things. She’s retiring this year and going out with a fashion bang.
Her artwork is really exquisite. She uses charcoal to begin the drawings on Rives BFK paper. Her lines are gestural yet confident. Deliberate, which I love. Then she adds mixed media – acrylic, some paper collage and even actual makeup to add that whimsical touch of glitter.
My favorite is the one above. It is a gorgeous face combined with the unexpected man hand. They are all illustrations of men dressed as women, so it’s kind of a casualty of the experience. Karen told me that she’s had people criticize the proportions because the faces are so beautiful, but it’s clear that she is a master technician and the sizes are accurate.
You really have to see this show. There is a fun interactive feature where you too can become a queen by sliding on a wig or two and maybe a boa and look at yourself in a faux-gilded mirror. The pieces are really perfect when witnessed as a group and it is a testimony to a fashion artist who transcends the boundaries of time. They are timeless gorgeous-sos, which is the highest gorgeous I can give. It goes gorge then gorgy then gorgeous-so.
The gallery is located at 350 West Fayette Street, Syracuse, NY, 13202.
Oh, and P.S. – Mary Schalk of Mary Schalk Design did the flowers and I got to take one home. OMG they are perfection in a shoe too!
I really had to read it twice to get the man-size shoe reference, Karen. Silly me. Oh!
Bakke’s work does look exquisite. I should take a walk over to the Warehouse for a closer look. Great post.
It is one of the best one-person art exhibits I have seen in this area. Cheryl Chappell at Edgewood Galleries frames Karen’s artwork and I’d seen one of the pieces before when I ran into Karen Bakke there (she lives nearby, as do my parents). I absolutely love her work and more so now seeing the theme united in one gallery. Mark, it is definitely a must see.