The chic interiors of the Ace hotel in East Liberty will provide a perfect visual backdrop for Material Worlds. Hosted by CMOA, the haute happening will spotlight local talent in fashion design as well as in runway work and event production.
Showcasing innovative new lines by 10 designers and teams, Material Worlds is part of CMOA’s ongoing exploration of the art of fashion via the lens of van Herpen’s prolific career. With a nod to Iris van Herpen’s forward-thinking vision and cutting-edge production methods, the show is being curated around the theme of “Fashion meets Technology.”
Here we feature all the amazing artists involved in Material Worlds. Read more about the show here.
Atticus Adams
Atticus Adams is a sculptor whose work embodies the transformative power of art to create beauty, meaning, and emotional impact from industrial materials. Using aluminum, bronze, copper, and stainless steel mesh—generally found in screen doors/windows and filters—he creates abstract pieces and installations inspired by memories.
Atticus works spontaneously, feeling his way toward the objects that take shape in mind as he shapes them almost entirely by hand. To some pieces he adds color and texture by applying paint, broken auto glass, beads or bells.
Brandon Darreff
Brandon Darreff is currently a third-year architecture student attending Carnegie Mellon University. When not at school he lives and works in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his parents and three siblings. He is particularly interested in the intersection of visual art, design, and the built environment and hopes to pursue a career which allows for a continued investigation of the possibilities when merging all three.
Julianne D’Errico
Julianne D’Errico is a multidisciplinary artist who is currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. She recently received her Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University. Julianne works as a designer, painter and performance artist.
Lea Albaugh
With a background in architecture and art games, Lea combines digital and traditional fabrication — from cutting-edge computer-controlled processes to obscure historical techniques — to produce wearable, interactive, and narrative works with a focus on spatial exploration and augmented social encounters. Her recent projects have included: an electromechanically actuated cocktail dress, a two-player computer game played on an embroidery machine, interactive fictions, a phone-based party game for secret agents, and a fortune-telling machine for a wedding.
Memphis George (see photo at top)
As a primarily self-taught jewelry artist, Michelle Sophia Sabol began working under the nameMemphis George and Memphis George Jewelry was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1998. It remains a distinctly unique couture brand in the handmade studio artist movement. Memphis George Jewelry has been worn to the Oscars by award nominees and in films by stars such as Selena Gomez and Jane Lynch, among others. It is in the private collections of the former editor of W magazine, the arts and entertainment editor of the Los Angeles Times and other prominent art-to-wear collectors.
Ms Sabol has studied and worked in avant-garde cinema, film and television production, and the fashion industry in San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA. In addition to selling her handmade couture, running a busy studio and her gallery and art show schedule, she is currently working as a Teaching Artist through multiple Pennsylvania state and local Pittsburgh grants partnering with community service organizations to teach art-to-wear as self-expression, an educational tool and a healing art.
Rachel Muse
As a fourth-year Architecture student at Carnegie Mellon University, Rachel Muse appreciates the built environment and the creative act of making. She grew up in upstate New York and was introduced to fashion when she made her own prom dresses in high school. While she plans to become a licensed architect, she is pursuing a design fabrication minor where she explores the world of technology through digital fabrication in parallel with handcraft across a multitude of materials and forms.
Sarah Jane Sindler
Sarah Jane Sindler uses ‘KING RELD’ as her umbrella pseudonym to encapsulate her genre of creative craft in metalsmithing and wearable design which bleed into her performance art and installation work. She creates spaces where viewers and collaborators become part of unforgettable experiences.
As a Colorado native, Sindler is interested in natural aesthetics and biomimicry while keeping a keen eye on technological and high-end materials. Chatham College is her alma mater in Pittsburgh, PA. After her studies in Visual Art and Environmental Writing, she plunged into the vibrant and collaborative arts culture of Pittsburgh. Sindler’s ambition to coordinate intriguing experiential events leads her towards projects which involve many artists in the community.
So-Hee Woo
So-Hee Woo, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, is a working Industrial Designer in Pittsburgh. Interested in experimenting with design and technology, she intends to speculate how tech can redefine how we experience life in the future. Explore more of So-Hee’s work at www.soheewoo.com.
Stephanie Moye
Stephanie Moye is a multi-talented trendsetter in the fashion and hair industry; including an award-winning costume and fantasy hair designer for over a decade. Her designs can be viewed in Vogue, Essence, TIME, Jet, and Radar magazines, including several others. She’s sole proprietor of Moye’ Hair Etc! a multi-ethnic salon located in Penn Hills; and S. Moye’ Fashion for womenswear highlighting daywear to eveningwear.
When asked what one of her attributes is; Stephanie quotes, “I enjoy enhancing others beauty”.
Zain Islam-Hashmi
Zain is currently a third-year student at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture degree, with a minor in Physical Computing. Born and raised in Central New Jersey, Zain continuously tests the limits of architecture, design, fashion and much more through his works, and is extremely interest in the role and implications these fields play in people’s daily lives. Through his studies, Zain has found an inclination towards fabrication and making real-life objects and aims to push the boundaries of different creative outlets to see what limitless potential the different intersections have. In all his work, Zain focuses in on the human experience and views the profession as a means of helping people to see and appreciate the world around them in a new way, being drivers of the creation of memories that people will take with them for the rest of their lives.