Karl Art SF 2025 | Levi's Plaza, San Francisco, Jan. 17-Feb. 8, 2025

THE ART OF FASHION

Oct. 3 | 6–9PM

Opening Night Schedule:

6:00 PM – Doors Open

7:00 PM – Runway Show by Brandin Vaughn
Show on View Oct. 3 to Nov. 3

RSVP

About

The center of the Levi's Plaza, a concrete fountain with many stepped sections, some with water, others dry, and a pool of greenish looking water at the bottom. There are trees with green leaves behind the water feature, and some leaves hanging down in the foreground of the photograph, framing the image. Partial views of the red brick multistory office buildings are visible from behind the fountain as well, with large, dark windows, and a different multistory building with a light stucco colored surface is further in the background.

The Art of Fashion

KARL is pleased to announce The Art of Fashion, opening October 3, 2025, with a live fashion show featuring Tony award winning and acclaimed designer Brandin Vaughn, known for dressing some of the biggest names in entertainment— such as Beyoncé in her historic Cowboy Carter and Renaissance Tours.

This collaborative exhibition continues KARL’s mission to dissolve the boundaries between disciplines, this time highlighting artists and designers working across mixed media, textiles, and fabric-based practices—materials and modes historically dismissed as craft but now decisively re-evaluated within the canon of contemporary fine art.

From quilting and garment construction to assemblage and soft sculpture, The Art of Fashion asks: what is fashion if not sculpture worn? What is fiber if not form? What happens when the seam becomes a gesture, the pattern a conceptual strategy?

Anchored by Brandin Vaughn’s presentation, the show will feature a curated group of artists who harness the language of material—thread, cloth, dye, repetition, touch—to explore identity, labor, and the gendered histories of making. Their work challenges the hierarchies that have long divided “art” from “craft,” and invites viewers to consider the aesthetic and political power embedded in the textile tradition.

This fall edition of KARL is both a celebration and a reclamation—of fashion as fine art, of fabric as theory, and of the artists whose practices bridge the tactile and the conceptual.

Participating Galleries and Organizations

The Bay Area has garnered significant media attention in recent years, often highlighting its challenges rather than its successes. With Karl, our goal is to celebrate the thriving arts ecosystem that persists and flourishes despite the headlines. Many of the participating organizations have championed artists for decades, while emerging galleries bring fresh energy to the local scene. Together, we aim to showcase the resilience and creativity that make this community so unique.