Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem Presents
A New Fashion Exhibition:
A Walk of Art
Visionary
Shoes
Refusalon Gallery
246 Powell St., San Francisco
November 7 - November 21, 2017, open daily 11am-7pm
Opening night: November 7, 2017, 6-9pm
Curator: Ya’ara Keydar
A new fashion exhibition focusing on conceptual, artistic, and extreme footwear, aims to reevaluate the occult power and mystery of shoes. Through more than 60 extraordinary examples, all created by the distinguished alumni and students of Israel’s most prestigious academy – the Bezalel Academy, A Walk Of Art treads the line between art and fashion. Though we are used to thinking of shoes as useful objects, none of the footwear presented here is meant for wearing or walking – in fact, most of the shoes were designed as single pairs and artistic one-offs. Freed from the need to take comfort and marketability into account, the creators were given creative license to express, through shoes, narratives that supersede mere design aesthetics.
These innovative and radical designs aim to defy space, anatomy, and gravity, pivoting around sculptural methods and blending traditional craft and nontraditional materials: from renowned artist Sigalit Landau’s salt-crystallized shoes to porcelain, glass, metal, wood, and 3D printed shoes, impossible platforms, wedges, and heels, this exhibition creates a meandering journey between the ephemeral and the perennial, the beautiful and the painful, the mythology and reality of some of the most charged and coveted objects in fashion history.
Is a shoe a work of art? Is a shoe that cannot be walked in still a "shoe"? Thanks to their iconic shape, loaded history, and symbolism, shoes have become the ideal objects through which to evaluate these questions, to break the perceived boundaries of design and to transform shoes into objects of significance in their own right.
Works by: Sigalit Landau / Kobi Levi /Daniella Lehavi / Shani Bar / Rotem Gur / Norman & Bella / Boris Shpeizman / Eitan Bartal / Reut Alon / Dafna Amar / Rotem Arbel / Agam Bar Ilan / Peter Becidan / Noy Biri / Ella Eini / Maayan Eisner / Emanueel Emy Fang / Aya Feldman / Mor Paola Gaash / Nimrod Gilo / Sharon Golan Baehr / Almog Hagbi / Chen Jes / Or Kolker / Tali Leitner / Shira Manor / Lia Mizrav / Shahar Petel / Nadin Ram / Noa Rubin / Alexandra Rudshtain / Omer Saig / Neta Soreq / Gal Souva / Tali Surit / Tal Tabori / Sapir Tzidon / Tzlil Vered / Hannah Zinger
Highlights
About Bezalel
The founding of Bezalel Academy predated the establishment of the State of Israel. For more than 100 years, the creative energy of Bezalel graduates and faculty have inspired and shaped Israel through art and innovation. Bezalel’s mission is not only to promote the tradition of ingenuity in Israel, but also to nurture a humanistic and pluralistic spiritwhich fosters tolerance and respect for the individual’s artistic endeavors.
Bezalel Academy boasts over 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students in nine illustrious departments: Architecture, Ceramics & Glass Design, Fine Arts, History & Theory, Industrial Design, Jewelry & Fashion, Photography, Screen Based Arts, and Visual Communications.
Learn more about Bezalel Academy at www.bezalelfriends.org
Get the Catalog
Full exhibition catalogue, 160 color pages, hardcover.
All proceeds are donated to support the students of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Your donation is tax-deductible.
Exhibition Credits
Curator: Ya'ara Keydar
Executive Director: Udi Urman, Friends of Bezalel
Graphic Design: Re-Levant, Amnon Illuz, Noam Noy
Exhibition Design: Amir Levin and Assaf Bitton
Consultant: Eliora Ginsburg
Public Relations: Steinreich Communications
Copy Editing: Hannah Schiff
Cover photo: "The Beauty Of The Temporary In Life, 2016," Porcelain and Leather Shoes by Nimrod Gilo, photograph by Alon Reuveni.