Photograph Courtesy of Nancy LeVine.

Marita Dingus: Fashion Free-For-All

August 17, 2013 – January 6, 2014

PACCAR Gallery

Organized by the Northwest African American Museum
Guest Curator: Vicki Halper

Marita Dingus: Fashion Free-for-All exhibits complete outfits and accessories made by the artist as part of her personal wardrobe between 2002 and 2008.

In creating her clothing, Dingus uses the same techniques and aesthetic as in her figurative sculpture-recycled and reconfigured materials, mixed media, and raw exuberance. “There’s no difference between my art and my clothing,” she says. “Of course I want to cut up and modify both.” 

Dingus made the garments to celebrate her return to the Northwest after four years of living in the deep South, a culture that she found alien and sometimes frightening. (In 1998, James Byrd, Jr. was tied to a truck and dragged to his death in Texas, where she was then living.)  Like many in the art world, she once dressed in black. In the South, she wore khaki and white, “trying to look invisible.” Back in the Seattle area, she expressed her relief by dressing herself in colorful, improvised, and lighthearted clothing.

Stay tuned for an artist reception in September 2013.
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Northwest African American Museum
2300 S Massachusetts Street
Seattle, WA 98144
206-518-6000
www.naamnw.org