BEYOND FASHION: FIBER AND FASHION ART BY VINCENT QUEVEDO

March 4, 2011 - February 12, 2012

Higbee Gallery | Vincent Quevedo 

Our physical and emotional states are layers upon layers of independent planes stacked but separated in opaque and sometimes translucent elements that make up who we are.  These layers build character that defines the uniqueness of an individual.  Sometimes, these layers build a visual facade concealing internal elements.  My work is about exposing the internal elements and revealing the parts that make the whole.   My body of work is a unique blend of ideas and materials reflecting contemporary culture and my translations of it relative to the attitudes and reactions connected to emotions.

“Beyond Fashion: Fiber and Fashion Art by Vincent Quevedo” are pieces from my past collections that are not an attempt to persuade viewers to accept my personal ideologies, but to recognize and distinguish the power of clothing relative to beauty, intrigue, intimacy and complexity.  Although wearable, their intent includes a theatrical presence demanding a certain level of attention beyond that of ordinary clothing or art. This compilation also examines the potential of clothing as a sculptural entity dependent on visual cues in space.  This is not to say these pieces have no meaning, indeed they do, but the literal or abstract presentation I leave for the viewer to define.  These pieces are not conceptual in idealization but realized with the assuredness of my skillful eyes and hands.  Each one is meant to have a story and/or provoke you to make one up.  It is this story, limited only by your imagination, that gives importance to these pieces.

Furthermore, I am interested in blurring the demarcation of art and fashion masterfully using texture, proportion and volume to articulate the substance and delineate the boundaries of my designs. My interests include dissecting components only to redefine and reconfigure them into another form that may have had some similarity to the original.  I tend to defy current aesthetic values related to fashion while creating art. An important ingredient in my work is the relationship between the body and the material while exploring the space created between the two.  It is about the body and the relationship it has to the environment and allowing it to be interpreted by others.  I only present my interpretation of an ideal wearer that seems to have an answer to all questions but in reality only prods for new answers hence provoking questions that continue to be asked yet never answered.  Art, like fashion, responds to so many challenges from the mundane to the thought provoking that leave you full of emotion.  It is the past that feeds the soul while the present and future form the queries that trouble or intrigue us.  It is my passion to respond with both doubt and confidence.  Interrogated by self worth and existence I find the barriers to react less threatening than most.  It is that realization that makes me react with such intensity and desire making my art sensual, sexual, and exaggerated.  This compilation is a response to questions that are not answers, but just another way of asking questions the way I would ask.