Grace Wales Bonner to curate an exhibition at MoMa New York

The collections created by Wales Bonner for her eponymous brand, whether for men or women, created solely with her own signature or in cahoots with adidas, always generate a lot of hype. Yet if you go beyond the trends, the sporty-chic aesthetic and the fame that her collections always manage to achieve, you discover a world far removed from the ephemeral world of fashion. Opening on 18 November, the new chapter in MoMa New York's Artist's Choice series will host Grace Wales Bonner at the helm of an exhibition titled Spirit Movers, taking a journey through the artistic and socio-cultural influences that inform the designer's work. A selection of works curated by the designer will translate the concept of Spirit Movers into art, which according to Wales Bonner indicate multiple stories, inspire contemplation and create unexpected connections between people and places. As in her collections, the main focus of her exhibition will be the African diaspora, an exhibition that delves into Black aesthetics and culture through sound, image and of course style.

Wales Bonner's career now includes remarkable achievements, considering the young age of the designer and her brand, having led her to design multiple collaborations with adidas and the new Jamaican national football team's jersey. The designer's love of past eras and the history of art and sport is clearly expressed in each of her designs, which is why the announcement of her exhibition in one of the world's most famous exhibition spaces comes as no surprise. Fifty works of art chosen by Wales Bonner will ignite a dialogue in unison, exploring all the other senses in addition to the visual aspect of art. The opening of the exhibition will also see the launch of Grace Wales Bonner: Dream in the Rhythm-Visions of Sound and Spirit in the MoMA Collection, a catalogue that immerses itself in the MoMA archive by taking Wales Bonner's project beyond the physical experience of a museum visit. «Grace Wales Bonner has changed the way we see style,» explained one of the exhibition's curators, Michelle Kuo. «Not only as surface but as structure,” said one of the exhibition’s curators, Michelle Kuo. «Every detail of her polymathic designs, publications, exhibitions, and films is related to long histories, deep archives, and cultural identities across the diasporic world. Like her exhibition, this book is a deeply personal meditation on and around modern Black expression—and it reflects Wales Bonner’s commitment to archival research as both a form of spirituality and an aesthetic practice.»