Ruben Toledo: Fashionation

Fashionation: welcome to the greatest show on EARTH. For Ruben Toledo, Fashion is much more than just a luxury commodity - it sells dreams by the yard, has magical anticipatory powers, is clairvoyant and is able to morph at a moments notice. This collection of over 150 drawings, water colors and pen and ink portraits by artist Toledo explores with his typical Cuban Black Humor and sweetly cynical New Yorker's eye the ever changing landscape of fashion and the body language of style. This highly personal look into Toledo's brain unwraps the layers of mystery and strange associations that give fashion its enduring and enigmatic power. Peek inside the workrooms of the Couture ateliers and bohemian studios; visit swanky temples of high fashion retail and witness the life and death of a trend. This cabinet of curiosity contains the satirical observations that together form a map of Toledo's favorite state of mind and destination: FASHIO-N-ATION. For him, fashion is an old tree that loves to show off its brightest flowers, but it also has very long roots that penetrate DEEP into the underworld - into the catacombs of memory, the labyrinth of obsession and fixations. This duality of fashion is one of the fascinating ingredients woven together that form this visual love poem to the world of fashion.