COUTUME

Multidisciplinary artist Preston Douglas Boyer presents COUTUME, an exhibition of an experimental collaboration between fine artists and interior designers, including Marissa Reynolds and James Myers. COUTUME will be on view at LaRucheHTX, RUBY Projects’ residency for experimental art forms and conceptual installations, from November 8th – December 20th, 2024, with an opening event on Friday, November 8th from 5-9 PM.

COUTUME means custom in French, referencing Preston’s and LaRucheHTX’s mutual French heritage, as well as haute couture. The exhibition focuses on the idea of customizing the gallery space, turning the curation process into a collaborative performance exploring the interplay of fine art and design. Preston and Houston-based interior designer James Myers curate one half of the gallery, inviting interior design firm Reynolds Design International (RDI) to take over the over half and provide an exclusive peek into their collections. Preston’s response to RDI’s design choices and installation will take on the form of a performance in which he reacts to their decisions with his artwork. The final state of the exhibition will consist of the remnants of this performance.

COUTUME explores design through a broad lens, referencing fashion as well as interior design. Preston  has a background in couture, evident in the fabric pieces draped throughout the space in an intentionally disruptive manner, and, in works like Holy Matrimony, presenting fashion design as an artistic collaboration. As a compliment to several artworks in COUTUME, Preston  will be offering a service transforming people’s used  wedding dresses into custom fabric “paintings.”

The curation of the exhibition, inspired by the European idea of the Kunsthalle, is intentionally experimental in both form and function. Through activating and changing the space with various pop-up gatherings throughout the course of the exhibition, COUTUME will function as a performance piece, a collaboration between fine art and design that allows us to play with the customs of both.