Southampton Arts Center (SAC) has new artist-in-residence: Rebecca Moses.
From Aug.24-31, the CFDA member, designer and multi-disciplinary artist will take over the East End institution with The Art of Observation—think part exhibition, working studio, performance, and conversation.
With a career that has moved fluidly between fashion, art, illustration, and design, it makes perfect sense for Moses to take on the weeklong residency.
At its heart is the debut of I Think You Are Beautiful When You Are Bored, a series of 11 new portraits featuring women mostly dressed in black. Through unexpected jewelry, eyewear, cigarettes, gestures, and knowing glances, Moses gives each her own distinct attitude—elegant, defiant, amused, detached, provocative, mysterious, or simply bored.
Throughout the week, Moses will paint in public, inviting visitors into a creative process – leading to exchange that in itself could yield unexpected artistic creation.
On Friday, Aug. 28, Moses will be in conversation with her longtime gallerist Ralph Pucci and PALMER Magazine founder Stefano Tonchi to explore the intersections of art, fashion, design, and storytelling—and the evolution of a creative life.
One of the first American designers to make her mark in the European market in the 1990s, Moses modernized Italian ready-to-wear house Genny, reimagined cashmere through her namesake label, and later transformed heritage stationer Pineider into a lifestyle brand.
Her distinctive fashion illustrations and portraiture have since brought another dimension to her creative practice. A royal portrait artist, Moses has been commissioned by Vogue Italia, Vogue Japan, Marie Claire Italia, MAC Cosmetics, Fratelli Rossetti, Panerai, Kartell, Alcantara, Vera Wang, and others.
Her first book, A Life of Style, published by Monacelli Press, captured her singular point of view and inspired Pucci to commission a collection of mannequins based on Moses’s signature illustrated women.
Her work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Milan, and Tokyo, and she is represented by Ralph Pucci International in New York and Nilufar in Milan.
