High-end designer exhibits work at the Frost Art Museum

Courtesy of Harold Lopez

Harold López/Contributing Writer

The birth, the inauguration, the fashion, the art: this is “Narciso Rodriguez: An Exercise in Minimalism,” a creation curated by ELLE Magazine’s creative director Alex Gonzalez, and the Frost Art Museum’s curator, Klaudio Rodriguez, located at the University’s very own Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum.

“I’m always learning something new. My background is Latin American and contemporary art, but I am always challenging myself to do something different to approach something in a different way. I look at how fashion is display. You moving through the space, as models move through the space,” said Klaudio Rodriguez. “Interested in looking at design in many different ways, I just find art by looking at architecture, industrial design, fashion design, and approach it in multiple different angles.”

Narciso Rodriguez is a New Jersey born Cuban-American fashion designer most notably known for collecting headlines when he designed the dress worn by Carolyn Bessette during her wedding with John F. Kennedy, Jr. in 1996. Narciso’s designs have also been worn by the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, and actress Sarah Jessica Parker, also known from her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series, Sex and the City.

“I think the parts of my work that is Cuban or Latin I am proudest of is to persevere and to work hard. It’s the advice that I give to all young artists/designers, that you have to believe in yourself,” said Narciso Rodriguez. “Even when people say, ‘No, you can’t do that! You will never be a designer’ I never stopped and listen to those people, maybe it was that work ethic.”

Being that it’s his first ever exhibition as a solo artist in Miami, Florida, it will be showcased during one of Miami’s biggest event of the year, Art Basel 2016. The exhibition features 40 pieces of art from the Narciso collection including garments and purses while adding that minimal touch that Rodriguez is known for.

The exhibition launched on Sunday, Oct. 16 and was open to the public from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Modesto Maidique Campus. Students, parents, and members of the Frost Art Museum were among the attendees on that Sunday.

“This will all become an investigative lab on about how is fashion art? How does (sic) art and fashion connect to mathematics, geometry, architecture, engineering?” said Miriam Machado, the curator of Education at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum.

In collaboration with the Fashion Institute, the museum will host a family day for attendees to become designers for the day, says Machado. The institute will bring their students and professors and will conduct classes here.

According to Klaudio Rodriguez, he’s interested in bringing the community, the students, different perspectives, new things to see and admire with this exhibit.

“Narciso specifically is an artist working an artistic endeavor. [The] importance was to keep re-inventing ourselves. Keep bringing something new to the students,” said Klaudio Rodriguez. “There is always something new to see. The whole point is that every time you come, there is going to be a different experience, something for you to learn.”

The exhibition is free for all FIU students anytime until Jan. 8 at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum.

“This is your museum. We’re here, we’re open,” said Klaudio Rodriguez.

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