DANIELA HOLBAN

Artfare provided a platform that allows artists and galleries to build a loyal and active base of patron collectors. For collectors, Artfare unlocked access to a carefully‑curated group of artists, compelling artworks, and unique experiences that facilitate deeper connections with the artwork they buy.

Artfare strived to empower artists to develop and cultivate patron relationships independently by providing them with the tools they need to grow and sustain their practice—without the exclusive need for gallery representation.

Artfare’s vision was a connected global network of thriving local art communities.

During my tenure at Artfare, I played a crucial role in launching the artist-centric platform, which fostered connections between artists and patrons through a digital space while facilitating events, exhibitions, studio visits, and art sales. As the Senior Curator, I actively discovered and invited talented artists to join our platform, managing over 1000+ portfolios. My responsibilities also included coordinating community outreach programs, overseeing expansion initiatives, and forging partnerships. Additionally, as one of the co-founders involved in building the company from its inception, I contributed significantly to product launches, marketing strategies, and growth initiatives

Role: Co-Founder & Head Curator (2018-2023)

Curated by Daniela Holban & Kelly Schroer
Jan 31–Feb 3, 2019

9 W 8th St.
New York, NY

ARTISTS: Miya Ando, Kenseth Armstead, Sarah E. Brook, James Clar, Tahir Carl Karmali, Lola Flash, Liz Nielsen, Laura Splan, Shoshanna Weinberger, Dustin Yellin, and others

‘Artfare launched with a carefully-curated group of 60 artists, chosen for the quality of their work, diversity in practice, and professional rigor. This exhibition featured a selection of participating artists that reflect a cross-section of our larger overall program.’

NOoSPHERE Arts seeks to serve as a bridge between international artists and the NYC art world: Our goal is to offer the U.S. audience access to current art from other countries and to bring creative people together for artistic cross-pollination and transnational collaborations. The organization produces multidisciplinary public arts programming.

Role: Curator & Cultural Producer

REPOPULATIONS

NOoSPHERE Arts presents REPOPULATIONS, a group exhibition and series of performances opening during Kingsland Wildflowers' Fall Festival, taking place during Climate Week 2019. Curated by Daniela Holban, the show will feature works by 20+ artists.

REPOPULATIONS examines the parallels between declining local natural habitats within the Greenpoint landscape: Native plant and wildlife alongside the artists' populations have become depleted over time due to the neglect and contamination of their ecosystems by both industrial and property development. A commentary on a microcosm of a greater global crisis, the exhibition addresses the importance and celebrates the repopulation efforts of these ecosystems in several ways – by presenting a selection of artists working in the area as well as showcasing artworks that comment on environmental themes. 

With Works by: Jon Barraclough, Marijke Brinkhof, Juliet Jane, Maki Kaoru, Aomi Kikuchi, Sol Kjok, Tom Koken, Sjaak Kooij, Ofra Lapid, Till Lauer, Allison Maletz, Julianne Nash, Agata Nowicka, Brian Rattiner, Beau Bree Rhee, Noam Shoan, Asia Sztencel, Adriano Valeri, Ingvild Waerhaug, Martynka Wawrzyniak, Albin Wiberg, Alex Wolkowicz and Gabriel Zimmer.

Each season of our outdoor summer series is structured around a theme referencing systems thinking. This is a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability spearheaded by leading thinker Fritjof Capra, a longtime NOoSPHERE Arts collaborator. Systems thinking shows that all the major problems of our time—including energy, economics, climate change, and inequality—are interconnected and interdependent. In 2023, we will explore the theme of Nature’s Cycles.

A cycle is an interval of time during which a characteristic event occurs, often repeated regularly or in a sequence of events. There are cycles in everything—seasons, circadian rhythms, cellular life, planetary systems, politics, and economics—and cycles in one realm affect cycles in others. Thinking about cycles can help us to discern structure, order, and patterns in the world around us, and to realize that everything in life will ebb and flow—an encouraging thought in times of darkness.

“The fundamental dilemma underlying systemic problems is the illusion that unlimited growth is possible on a finite planet. We need to teach our children, our students, and our corporate and political leaders the fundamental facts of life – that one species' waste is another species' food; that matter cycles continually through the web of life; that the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun; that diversity assures resilience; and, that life, from its beginning more than three billion years ago, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.” (Fritjof Capra)”

Presented by NOoSPHERE Arts as part of the annual WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series / @noospherearts

NOoSPHERE Arts’ 2023 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and Broadway Stages.

CALENDAR

Sat, June 24:

WE ARE NATURE 1:

Solstice Event

w. Farima Berenji and The Shul Band

Sat, Jul 22:

WE ARE NATURE 2:

Wildflower Festival

Dance, Music, Art, and Play across the roofs

Sat, Sep 23:

WE ARE NATURE 3:

Earth Ethics

Climate Week Event

Sat, Oct 21:

WE ARE NATURE 4:

Open House New York

Westerlies, 2023

Artists: Ezra Campelli & Jeremy Clemente

Site-Specific Sonic & Sculptural Installation

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Westerlies is an immersive installation that combines sound and sculpture, specifically designed for the unique environment of the Kingsland Wildflowers Green Roof. This captivating project revolves around a cluster of towering bamboo aeolian flutes, harmoniously played by the ever-present winds that sweep across the rooftop gardens. As visitors wander through the vibrant wildflower landscape, they become attuned to the captivating rhythms of the wind, a powerful yet unseen force that influences the intricate balance of our surroundings.

Throughout the installation period, Westerlies evolves in tandem with the changing seasons and the shifting patterns of the wind. The resulting music emanating from this ethereal bamboo forest transforms, offering visitors a diverse range of sonic experiences. It provides a contemplative space where one can reflect on the presence of these winds and their profound significance to the interconnected web of life we all inhabit.

The bamboo tubes themselves are etched with the artists’ poetry, imagery, and field notes as ecologists. These intricate markings reflect their deep connection to the creatures they study, the Earth itself, the notion of identity, and the complex systems that unite life forms both vast and minuscule.

Westerlies invites you to embark on a multisensory journey, exploring the intersection of nature, art, and the intangible forces that shape our world. By engaging with this immersive installation, visitors gain a heightened awareness of the intricate ecological processes at play and the beauty that emerges when art and science intertwine.

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Ezra Campelli and Jeremy Clemente are the winners of the 2023 Broadway Stages’ Arts Residency Award @ Kingsland Wildflowers. Their site-specific installation will remain on view on the Upper Meadow for the entire outdoor season: June 24 - October 23

Broadway Stages’ Arts Residency Award @ Kingsland Wildflowers is an annual open call contest for unique, site-specific installations created by local artists for our green rooftops. Typically, the winning proposal is displayed on the Upper Meadow of the Kingsland Wildflowers rooftop community center throughout the outdoor season. The program aims to showcase non-intrusive, sustainable artwork that highlights our one-of-a-kind surroundings and encourages reflection on the environment and the mission and vision of the WE ARE NATURE series.

Presented by NOoSPHERE Arts part of the annual WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series / @noospherearts

Curated by Daniela Holban / @daniela_holban

A group site-specific exhibition focused on environmental reflection

9/30/22 - 10/23/22

520 Kingsland Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

with a Special Performance: Vital Cloak by Cristina Canepa

REPOPULATIONS: New Horizons is the second iteration of the Climate Week-inspired exhibition series REPOPULATIONS which focuses on environmentally-themed subjects and takes place yearly during the summer and early fall months. Curated by Daniela Holban, this exhibition is part of the larger NOoSPHERE Arts' WE ARE NATURE Series: art events that make full use of the unique stage setting of the Kingsland Wildflowers bird sanctuary at Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to engage a diverse audience in environmental efforts through art.

REPOPULATIONS: New Horizons brings together a group of contemporary artists to reflect and discuss environmentally-focused themes, the state of the world today, and new conceptions of the future. The exhibition will focus on female-identifying and non-binary artists, in an attempt to construct visions of the power of creation + destruction and metaphorically reclaim sacred spaces for the priestess archetype. This temporary environment will be used for reflection, meditation, and celebration of nature, humanity, and inspiration, a place meant to contemplate how we will build a new world after the pandemic: the epoch-defining event of our time. The exhibition will present site-specific installations, immersive sound experiences, video, sculpture, and 2D works and will occupy Last Frontier NYC and parts of the Kingsland Wildflowers Rooftops.

The exhibition is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC), NOoSPHERE Arts, and Broadway Stages. Exhibition preview on ARTFARE.

ARTISTS

Isabel Beavers

Sarah E. Brook

Sabrina Barrios

Beatriz Chachamovits

Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow

Rachel Frank

Jodie Mim Goodnough

Valerie Hallier

Deborah Jack

Cheryl Maeder

Virginia Luna Montgomery

Aradhita Parasrampuria

Valincy-Jean Patelli

Daniela Gomez Paz

María-Elena Pombo

Ásdís Sif

Asia Sztencel

Whitney Vangrin

Alex Wolkowicz

CURATOR

Daniela Holban

Press: Art Spiel

The 3rd iteration of our annual rooftop series combining Arts, Environmental Activism, and Community Building @ and around Kingsland Wildflowers @ Broadway Stages, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC.

Set in a surreally beautiful nature sanctuary sprouting on top of an ExxonMobil industrial plant on the bank of Superfund site Newtown Creek, the recurring WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series offers a combination of multiple art forms – dance, music, performance, visual art, poetry, prose, and film – addressing humanity’s place on Earth in aims of engaging a diverse audience in environmental efforts through art.

For the 3rd iteration of WE ARE NATURE, we selected from Dr. Fritjof Capra’s book "Patterns of Connection" four essential characteristics of life, around which our artists created new, site-specific works.

Envisioned as an annual summer-long program, the WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series takes place in and around the Kingsland Wildflowers native-flora gardens. Conceived by wildlife experts at NYC Audubon Society, these patches of green across four staggered rooftop levels offer a natural habitat for local fauna and migratory birds. Set against the 360 degrees view of the gritty, industrial environs, with the futuristic, space-like domes of Newton Creek Water Treatment Plant in the middle ground and Manhattan on the horizon, the stunning beauty of these multicolored flowering meadows shines even brighter: a rare nature sanctuary in surroundings increasingly hostile to all living beings.

This spectacular setting is uniquely suited to engage a diverse audience in environmental efforts through art. The recurring WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series offers a combination of multiple art forms – dance, music, performance, visual art, poetry, prose, and film – addressing humanity’s place in the greater All.

OUR 2021 SEASON WILL RUN FROM JUNE 6 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 26

SUNDAY, JUNE 6

Opening of Public Outdoor Season | 10th Anniversary Celebration

~ Dance collaborations across our roofs:

Brianna Taylor/Confluence Performance Project with live music by Nico Tower + Maira Duarte/Dance to the People

~ Reveal of site‐specific sculpture for Kingsland Wildflowers by Yvonne Shortt in collaboration with Anhkhlave Arts Alliance

~ Live music acts against the Manhattan Skyline:

Katy Gunn; Matapena and more…

~ Silent auction of artworks by international NOoSPHERE Artists

~ Creek Side Stage with joyful La Banda Chuska !

Friday, June 25

WE ARE NATURE 1 |2021

~ Creekside Dance Performance

~ Live Theater: Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth

~ Live Music

Saturday, July 31

WE ARE NATURE 2 |2021 — Cohosted with CreateART @ Kingsland Wildflowers Festival

~ Dance & music collaboration

~ Eco-fashion show

~ Live performances

~ Fine art print exhibition

~ Afterdark screening of short films

Saturday, Aug 28

WE ARE NATURE 3 |2021

~ Performance + film by Residency Award Winner

~ Sustainability-themed dance + shorts

Fri-Sun, Sep 10-12

WE ARE NATURE 4 |2021 - Short Film Festival

Climate Week, Sep 20-26

WE ARE NATURE 5 |2021 — Cohosted with CreateART

~ Site-Specific Dance Performance & Music Collaborations

~ Talks by noted environmentalists

~ Climate Week Offical Event

~ Satelite event in collaboration with The Highline

WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series

SEPTEMBER, 2020: Dance, Art, and Call for Action on the green roofs of Greenpoint, inspiring environmental engagement through awareness of humans’ place in the greater All - A Climate Week Official Event

“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.” — Andy Goldsworthy

Scaled-down and Covid-adapted, the two events were scheduled as bookends to Climate Week 2020. Each featured a theme introduction by renowned scientist, educator, writer and activist Fritjof Capra (Honorary Scholar-in-Residence at Mothership NYC), a newly commissioned site-specific dance work performed across several outdoor stages, and guest artist performances.

Sun, Sep 27, 2020, 6:00-8:00 pm | WATER: Site-specific dance piece inspired by Newton Creek by Kizuna Dance and live music by Katy Gunn

In their newly commissioned site-specific dance, which included both solos and ensemble work, Kizuna Dance, explored the Shinto practice of MISOGI- the process of washing the body with water for ritual purification.

A co-production by NOoSPHERE Arts & CreateART sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series

SEPTEMBER, 2020: Dance, Art, and Call for Action on the green roofs of Greenpoint, inspiring environmental engagement through awareness of humans’ place in the greater All - A Climate Week Official Event

“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.” — Andy Goldsworthy

Scaled-down and Covid-adapted, the two events were scheduled as bookends to Climate Week 2020. Each featured a theme introduction by renowned scientist, educator, writer and activist Fritjof Capra (Honorary Scholar-in-Residence at Mothership NYC), a newly commissioned site-specific dance work performed across several outdoor stages, and guest artist performances.

Sun, Sep 13 | AIR: Site-specific dance piece inspired by bird migration by Kelly Ashton Todd with live music by Christiaan van Voorst van Beest; opening & closing ceremonies by Sparrowhawk & Lady Kabbaz

In the newly commissioned site-specific dance, Kelly Ashton Todd performs through the lens of a bird. “Nest” intertwines livability within the city while questioning the day-to-day support of our governance and wellbeing. With live improvised accompaniment on upright bass from Christiaan van Voorst van Beest, the music evokes the sounds of nature as it struggles within its urban environment. Mirroring the building of a nest, the performance pushes moments of quiet and stillness while surrounded by cityscape.⁣

A co-production by NOoSPHERE Arts & CreateART sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

{CTS} Creative Thriftshop was started as an "un-gallery" of sorts that represented international, emerging and underrepresented artists without a traditional brick-and-mortar space.

Building on this reputation for "quality art on the move," CTS organized some 200+ exhibitions & events worldwide, exemplifying the post-Fordist ideal; entrepreneurial, flexible, creative, unconventional, and nomadic. CTS notably mounted fearlessly large installations with some of the art world’s smallest budgets. “Back to the Futurama” & “The Future is Here” (New York & Miami, 2010), “Hope Blooms” (Miami, 2009), “When The Future Was Not Going to Happen, Art Took Care of Itself”, (New York, Basel, Paris, & Berlin, 2008), and “Personal Living Space” (Venice Biennale, 2005) are all prime examples of CTS’s worldly ambition.

The mission was to create opportunities that fostered the growth of each artist through broadening their reach by not only participating in museum and gallery exhibitions but also art fairs, charitable benefits, residencies, lectures, & biennials around the world.

Role: Sales, Artist & Media Associate

The Ear Classical is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to revive mainstream classical music composition. It strives to reconnect composers with the general public through concerts, composer competitions, podcasts, and an online community. Think ‘The Voice’ for classical composers. Every live event includes short, new, classical pieces, and audience interaction. The Ear has held 5 concerts since its inception in 2015 and has over 1200 active composers in its network.

Role: Artist Management, Event Production and Outreach

The Met Store offers products, publications, and gifts inspired by The Met collection, the Museum's unparalleled program of exhibitions, and 5,000 years of art from around the world. Online and at all three of the Museum's iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters—we help bring life to art and art to lives, every day.

Every product created is the result of careful research and expert execution by The Met staff of art historians, designers, and master artisans, who ensure that each item is worthy of the original art object that inspired it. Engaging with contemporary designers to source specialty products showcasing both traditional and cutting-edge techniques.

The Met Store is fortunate to enjoy a very special relationship with the Museum and its fabulous collections and exhibitions. The annual program inspires and informs the products and books that fill our stores. Every once in a while, we have the opportunity to commission and collaborate with designers featured in an exhibition, or to invite designers to respond to the themes and objects explored within our galleries. China: Through the Looking Glass is one such exhibition.

Organized by The Costume Institute in collaboration with the Department of Asian Art, China: Through the Looking Glass explores the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion and reveals how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. It draws together more than 140 examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear, juxtaposed with film and masterpieces of Chinese costume and art, including paintings, porcelain, jade, bronze, and lacquer.

Alexander McQueen, Cartier, de Gournay, Dries Van Noten, Giambattista Valli, Irene Neuwirth, Jennifer Fisher, Judith Leiber, Marc Alary, Mary Katrantzou, and Stephen Jones have been invited to respond creatively to the themes explored in the exhibition, and we are delighted to present this exclusive collection of fashion accessories, jewelry, and stationery.

Role: Product Development, Planning and Buying

The Met Store offers products, publications, and gifts inspired by The Met collection, the Museum's unparalleled program of exhibitions, and 5,000 years of art from around the world. Online and at all three of the Museum's iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters—we help bring life to art and art to lives, every day.

Every product created is the result of careful research and expert execution by The Met staff of art historians, designers, and master artisans, who ensure that each item is worthy of the original art object that inspired it. Engaging with contemporary designers to source specialty products showcasing both traditional and cutting-edge techniques.

The Spring 2016 Costume Institute exhibition, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, explores how designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear.

The show traces the founding of the haute couture in the 19th century, coinciding with the invention of the sewing machine, at the time when the distinction between garments made by the hand (manus) and the machine (machina) was first made. The more than 100 examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear presented in the exhibition serve as tangible explorations of the ongoing dichotomy from industrialization to present day, in which hand and machine are presented as discordant tools in the creative process, questioning the relationship and significance of this distinction.

Within the exhibition, visitors are presented a series of contrasting haute couture and ready-to-wear ensembles as case studies used to unravel the realities and mythologies of the hand/machine conundrum. Traditional métiers of the haute couture including embroidery, featherwork, artificial flowers, pleating, lacework, and leatherwork are presented alongside innovative technological processes such as 3D printing, circular knitting, computer modeling, laser cutting, and more.

As an extension of the themes presented, The Met Store has an exclusive retail assortment of over 150 products from stationery, personal accessories and jewelry to scarves and limited-edition prints. A selection of products are by designers featured in the exhibition, including COMME des GARÇONS, Junko Koshino, Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, and Noa Raviv. Also featured are pieces by up-and-coming designers whose practice reflects the exhibition theme, including Flowen, Monocircus, and Tzuri Gueta.

Role: Product Development, Planning and Buying

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN: SAVAGE BEAUTY

MAY 4TH - AUGUST 7TH, 2011

The exhibition, organized by The Costume Institute, celebrates the late Alexander McQueen's extraordinary contributions to fashion. From his Central Saint Martins postgraduate collection of 1992 to his final runway presentation, which took place after his death in February 2010, Mr. McQueen challenged and expanded the understanding of fashion beyond utility to a conceptual expression of culture, politics, and identity. His iconic designs constitute the work of an artist whose medium of expression was fashion. The exhibition features approximately one hundred ensembles and seventy accessories from Mr. McQueen's prolific nineteen-year career. Drawn primarily from the Alexander McQueen Archive in London, with some pieces from the Givenchy Archive in Paris as well as private collections, signature designs including the "bumster" trouser, the kimono jacket, and the three-point "origami" frockcoat are on view. McQueen's fashions often referenced the exaggerated silhouettes of the 1860s, 1880s, 1890s, and 1950s, but his technical ingenuity always imbued his designs with an innovative sensibility that kept him at the vanguard.

The Museum’s Special Exhibition Store worked with the Alexander McQueen fashion house and estate to create a limited edition product series including the skull scarf, the famous Armadillo shoe objet d’art, original fashion illustration prints, accessories and the exhibition catalogue.

Role: Planning and Assortment Management

A large-scale sculpture by acclaimed British artist Cornelia Parker, inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper and by two emblems of American architecture—the classic red barn and the Bates family's sinister mansion from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho—comprises the fourth annual installation of site-specific works commissioned for The Met's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. (MET Rooftop, April 19th, 2016 - October 31, 2016).

Nearly 30 feet high, the sculpture is fabricated from a deconstructed red barn and seems at first to be a genuine house, but is in fact a scaled-down structure consisting of two facades propped up from behind with scaffolding. Simultaneously authentic and illusory, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) evokes the psychological associations embedded in architectural spaces. It is set atop The Met, high above Central Park—providing an unusual contrast to the Manhattan skyline.

Showcasing a fragment of her installation, Parker’s exclusive scarf and pocket square designs “sum up the whole essence of ‘Transitional Object’”.

Role: Product Developer and Spex project planner

April 27, 2016–July 24, 2016

One of the most productive periods in the history of the region from Iran to Anatolia (in modern Turkey) corresponds to the rule of the Seljuqs and their immediate successors, from 1038 to 1307. The Seljuqs were a Turkic dynasty of Central Asian nomadic origin that established a vast, but decentralized and relatively short-lived, empire in West Asia (present-day Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey). Under Seljuq rule, the exchange and synthesis of diverse traditions—including Turkmen, Perso-Arabo-Islamic, Byzantine, Armenian, Crusader, and other Christian cultures—accompanied economic prosperity, advances in science and technology, and a great flowering of culture within the realm. Opening April 27 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the landmark international loan exhibition Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs features spectacular works of art created in the 11th through 13th century from Turkmenistan to the Mediterranean.

Typically culture moves from the invader to the invaded, but when the Turkish Seljuqs moved into what is today Iran, they didn’t have an Islamic tradition or literary heritage of their own. So instead of imposing their own, the Seljuqs adopted the cultural language of their Persian instructors in Islam. This lead to the Persian language spreading across what today is Iran, edging out Arabic, which would live on in works of religious scholarship.

The Met’s spring exhibition, “Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs,” runs from April 27 to July 24, and it explores the artistically and culturally verdant period when a Turkish dynasty ruled in West Asia. The MET Store co-produced an exclusive, limited run of rugs that embodies the cross-cultural exchange that the empire fostered from 1038 to 1307. A selection of original hand-made Turkish ceramics, glassware, limited edition scarves, and jewelry are also available in the special MET boutique during the run of the exhibition.

Role: Product developer, buyer, and planner.

New Africa Shop at The Met

In a series of important exhibitions during Fall 2015, the Met celebrated African culture, history, and art across the centuries. From Egypt to the Congo, from South Africa to Angola, the galleries featured rarely seen masterpieces of sculpture, jewelry, photography, textiles, and more, reflecting over 4,000 years of artistry.

To complement these acclaimed exhibitions, our new Africa Shop brims with beautiful objects by gifted artists and designers, past and present. From hand-carved ebony jewelry to lustrous raffia textiles, there is something for everyone.

We have collaborated with Aissa Dione on a collection of distinctive raffia and cotton accessories, evoking the prestigious luxury cloths in the current special exhibition Kongo: Power and Majesty. Ms. Dione is an award-winning textile designer based in Senegal. She is internationally celebrated for applying her talents to ancestral Mandjaque weaving, a time-honored technique passed down through generations.

The burnished glow of carved ebony, the dark tropical hardwood tree native to Africa, is seen in the shop in the form of handmade jewelry and storage vessels. These appealing pieces were made from ebony wood that was harvested in an eco-sustainable manner, and each is unique.

Also on offer are magnificent vintage kente and Kuba cloths. Among the highest expressions of African weaving artistry, elaborate kente cloths are identified with wealth and status in Ewe and Asante societies. The Kuba cloths are embellished in a range of sophisticated decorative patterns and techniques.

Original works by noted contemporary artists, home accessories, baby gifts, books and maps, and much more can be found in our exclusive Africa Shop, located on the second floor of the Museum.

Role: Buyer, Product Developer and Planner

October 12, 2015 - January 24, 2016

Exhibition Overview

The reunification of ancient Egypt achieved by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II—the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom—was followed by a great cultural flowering that lasted nearly four hundred years. During the Middle Kingdom (mid-Dynasty 11–Dynasty 13, around 2030–1650 B.C.), artistic, cultural, religious, and political traditions first conceived and instituted during the Old Kingdom were revived and reimagined.

This transformational era is represented through 230 objects and groups in this major international exhibition. Fashioned with great subtlety and sensitivity, and ranging in size from monumental stone sculptures to delicate examples of jewelry, the works of art are drawn from the preeminent collection of the Metropolitan—which is particularly rich in Middle Kingdom material—and thirty-seven lenders in North America and Europe. This is the first comprehensive presentation of Middle Kingdom art and culture, featuring many objects that have never before been shown in the United States.

A fully illustrated catalogue, suitable for scholars and general readers alike, was published by the Metropolitan Museum and distributed by Yale University Press. The book is available in the Museum’s book shops ($75, hardcover).

The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Related events include a Sunday at the Met on October 25; a one-day symposium on Friday, January 22; a studio workshop on jewelry design on October 17 and 24 (register at www.metmuseum.org/artmaking); a workshop for K-12 educators; a Met Escapes program for individuals living with dementia and their care partners; and thematic gallery talks in the Museum’s permanent collection.

Role: Spex Product Developer, Buyer and Planner

i-DENTITY: 25 Years of i-D magazine

The Fashion and Textile Museum,
London, UK

14 October – 17 December 2005

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of i-D Magazine, the Fashion and Textile Museum launched an exhibition using images, short films, graphics, scents, and 3D sound from Illustrious to provide a multi-dimensional tour of the magazines history as well as the wider concept of ‘identity’.

Directed and curated by the the magazine’s founder, creative director and editor-in-chief, Terry Jones, the exhibition sought to capture the essence of i-D, whose premise from its conception has been to empower people to express their own ideas and their individual identity.

As part of this multi sensual experience, Illustrious provided a three dimensional immersive soundtrack, which used musical compositions and voice recordings to create an audio collage charting the history of the magazine.

The exhibition will visit Paris, Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Beijing throughout 2006 and encompass two and a half decades of cutting-edge creativity traced through i-D's rich archive, from its beginnings in 1980 to the present day. Reinforcing the magazine's position as the founder of all style magazines, it will also capture the essence of i-D, whose premise from its conception has been to empower people to express their own ideas and their individual identity.

Role: Marketing, PR and Production Assistant