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It’s official: the theme for the 2023 Met Gala is “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.” The exhibition will examine the life—and creative legacy—of the late designer, who shaped the face of fashion for more than half a century.
The theme announcement is an important one. It dictates the dress code (celebrities, designers, and change-makers are challenged to create costumes that serve as both a fashion statement and a tribute to the concept), the decor, and most importantly, the larger purpose of the night itself. The gala is, yes, a major star-studded fundraising event, but its importance goes beyond dollars raised and social media impressions made. It’s a grand display of art as fashion and fashion as art, showing how both forms comprise and define our cultural fabric.
Each theme is chosen with the utmost consideration—what story does this tell? What history does it teach? In 2018, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” showcased hundreds of holy items from the Vatican. A few years earlier, “China: Through the Looking Glass” celebrated China’s influence on Western and Eastern design, while May 2019 explored “Camp” and its exaggerated artifice.
Below, we’ve charted out each year’s Met Gala theme dating back to 1995, the first year Anna Wintour became a chair of the event.
2022: “In America: An Anthology of Fashion”
“In America: An Anthology of Fashion” was the second part of the Metropolitan Museum's examination of American fashion. (The first, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” debuted in September 2021 and served as the theme for that year's Met Gala.) Whereas “Lexicon” was an expansive look at American fashion as a whole—especially its younger designers—Anthology acted as a historical retrospective on both the designs and the stories of their makers: “The stories really reflect the evolution of American style, but they also explore the work of individual tailors, dress-makers, and designers,” Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute, explains. “What’s exciting for me is that some of the names will be very familiar to students of fashion like Charles James, Halston, and Oscar de la Renta, but a lot of the other names really have been forgotten, overlooked or relegated into the footnotes of fashion history.”
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unearth, performance still, 2019
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What is the Meta Gala exactly?
It is an evening of extravagance where guests dress to the nines dawning fiercely thematic attire and raising paddles for a critical cause. A fête with a flare, the Meta Gala is PICA’s annual fundraiser where artists, arts supporters, and people of all shapes and sizes come to revel in the spectacle!
Things Take Shape will feature installations by Bora Architects and Portland Garment Factory, with live performances, a portrait lounge by Gia Goodrich, cocktails by Merit Badge, and delicious family-style meal from Field Day Feasts and Gatherings. At the live auction guests can win a whirlwind trip to Japan, custom styling, and a wide array of unique prizes. Stay tuned for live and silent auction updates, as well as costume inspiration.
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Mon, May 1, 2023
The 2023 Met Gala will take place May 1. Last year's Met Gala, themed "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," marked a return to the event's annual schedule for the first Monday in May after the pandemic caused the 2020 gala to be canceled and the 2021 gala to be postponed to September.Jan
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Narcissister Organ Player
In partnership with the Hollywood Theatre’s Feminist March programming, PICA co-presents the new documentary NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER, showcasing one of the world’s most acclaimed mixed-media and performance artists and her rich and multi-layered explorations of gender, racial identity, and sexuality.
Directed by the masked and merkin-clad artist herself, NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER deconstructs her celebrated stage shows combining dance, elaborate costumes, pop music hits, unabashed eroticism, and heavy doses of humor. This film goes behind her iconic mask, revealing her experience growing up ostracized in blonde-haired, blue-eyed Southern California as the child of a Sephardic Jewish mother and an African-American father. As Narcissister pushes the boundaries of contemporary art, she must also contend with the waning health of her biggest champion: her eccentric and loving mother. With as much to say about self-love as self-loathing in women’s lives, NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER is a thrilling, profound, and utterly moving experience.
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Image courtesy of Foundation Teatro a Mil
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Manuela Infante's engagement is made possible through Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America, a program of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition and Oregon Cultural Trust.
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Image courtesy of Paper Monument
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Read, PICA Artistic Director & Curator of Visual Art, Kristan Kennedy's essay in new Paper Monumnet publication!
As Radical, As Mother, As Salad, As Shelter: What Should Art Institutions Do Now?
With contributions by: Regine Basha, Chloë Bass, Dena Beard, Zachary Cahill, Ken Chen, Lori Cole, Anne Ellegood, Anthony Elms, Deborah Fisher, Zanna Gilbert, Namita Gupta Wiggers, Larissa Harris, Pablo Helguera, Megan Heuer, Kemi Ilesanmi, Mary Jane Jacob, Alhena Katsof, Kristan Kennedy, Alex Klein, Jordan Martins, Amanda Parmer, Risa Puleo, Laura Raicovich, Sara Reisman, Chris Reitz, Nicolás Rodríguez Melo, Stephen Squibb, Elizabeth Thomas, Gilbert Vicario, and Anuradha Vikram
Available now at papermonument.com
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PICA Congratulates
- Lisa Jarrett, PICA Board Member, was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant
- Portland artist and educator Sharita Towne & activist scholar Lisa K. Bateswere awarded a Creative Capital Grant for their project BLERG: The Black Life Experiential Research Group, an interdisciplinary collaborative for inquiry and activism at the intersection of art, urban planning, and radical geography. In shifting through historical and contemporary Black geographies, the work provides clues to understanding how Black possibilities live, breathe, and reclaim space.
- Kaneza Schaal, Creative Exchange Lab and TBA Festival alum, was awarded a 2019 United States Artists Fellowship
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No matter the time of year, you can always support PICA! Become a member for less than $5 a month and receive a year of benefits for you and one other person, including a 20% discount on year-round performances and events as well as TBA Festival passes and tickets!
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