COCA Millstone Gallery: Friday, 20 September 2019

Join us for an opening reception for Adornment
September 20, 5:30-7:30 PM

Yvonne Osei will collaborate with two licensed barbers to transform the Millstone Gallery space into a barbershop. The community will have the opportunity to be a part of this performance by receiving free haircuts during the opening reception of “Adornment”.

Live music by Makeda Kravitz

For centuries, people all over the world have enhanced their physical presence to add value to the way they appear and how others perceive them. Every society has cultivated and promoted ideals that define and qualify beauty through clothing, textiles, haircuts, jewelry, body paintings and tattoos. Adornment, however, refers not only to an object and its cultural meaning and relevance; it also encapsulates the entire state of adorning.

This exhibition explores the artist (adorner), the creative process (adorning) and the art (adorned), with a focus on the human form – its presence, stature, functionality, capabilities, expression and dynamism. It also explores how adornment can foster associations and disassociations through symbols of luxury, group affiliations, celebration and festivities, as well as conformance and defiance of authority. Adornment also explores how people choose to define themselves individually or collectively, as well as how they accept or challenge what society ascribes as possessing value.

Adornment is curated by Yvonne Osei, COCA Curator in Residence.

524 Trinity Avenue,

St. Louis, MO 63130

www.cocastl.org