Texas Fashion Collection organizes exhibition by alumna at UNT ArtSpace Dallas

Friday, March 7, 2014 - 20:40
Category:

What: Linda Ohrn-McDaniel: A Decade of Design, an exhibition organized by the Texas Fashion Collection and featuring the fashion designs of UNT alumna Linda Ohrn-McDaniel

When: March 27 (Thursday) to May 3 (Saturday), gallery hours are 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Gallery talk is March 28 (Friday) from 1 to 2 p.m. and opening reception follows from 2 to 4 p.m.

Where: UNT ArtSpace Dallas in the UNT System Building, 1901 Main St. in Dallas

Admission: Free

Parking: Paid parking is available in the Elm Street Garage or in metered spots along Main Street.

More information: Visit the exhibition page on the UNT ArtSpace Dallas website.


DENTON, Texas (UNT) – The premiere Fashion on Main Exhibition Series at UNT ArtSpace Dallas includes the fashion designs of a College of Visual Arts and Design alumna whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Linda Ohrn-McDaniel: A Decade of Design exhibits March 27 (Thursday) to May 3 (Saturday) at the gallery in the UNT Systems Building in downtown Dallas.

Ohrn-McDaniel came to UNT from Sweden in 2000 and earned an M.F.A in fashion design. She has earned juried recognition and awards including the Ohio Arts Council Award for Individual Excellence in 2009 and the Lectra Outstanding Faculty designer award in 2006. She is an associate professor at Kent State University where she teaches fashion design with a focus on patternmaking, construction, draping and machine knitting.

"As her professor, I worked closely with Linda in the development of her body of work," said Marian O'Rourke-Kaplan, associate professor of fashion design at UNT. "I was thoroughly impressed by her level of creativity, concept development and execution. Watching Linda continue to grow as an artist has been an amazing journey. Her work continues to grow in complexity of concept, richness of technique and quality of execution."

Ohrn-McDaniel said she enjoys problem solving and material process in her designs. Her ideas and stories are strongly conveyed through her garments, yet they remain comfortable and wearable. She sets her own creative challenge through narrowing the range of color and shapes that she will explore through her work.

In this exhibition she uses circles and hearts, and sticks to a palette of black, white and red. While these shapes and colors may seem simplistic, her art is anything but. She uses that technique as a way of pushing herself to expand in other areas such as fit and surface design. As she shares her creative process with each piece the viewer is taken on a journey, and like a three-dimensional tapestry, the rich layers of details, draping and texture come together to convey an idea or tell a story which will warm the heart and stimulate the mind.

Linda Ohrn-McDaniel: A Decade of Design, organized by the Texas Fashion Collection, will be shown at UNT ArtSpace Dallas on the first floor of University Center Building, 1901 Main Street. The exhibition is free. Hours are 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Paid parking is available in the Elm Street Garage or in metered spots along Main Street.

For more information, visit the UNT Galleries website.

About Linda Ohrn-McDaniel

Linda Ohrn-McDaniel graduated from Uppsala University with a B.Ed., focused on teaching textiles, and English as a second language. She earned her M.F.A. in fashion design from the University of North Texas. Currently an associate professor at Kent State University, she previously worked at Wade College in Dallas, Texas. After Ohrn-McDaniel's first solo exhibition in Degerfors, Sweden, in 2000, she was set on a career in fashion, using clothing as a form of artistic expression. Since then the focus of her creative work has become circles and hearts. Through these two themes she explores texture, color, shape and fit in her garments. Her work has shown successful and resulted in pieces shown in many juried exhibitions on the national and international level as well as solo exhibitions and awards. The most prestigious awards are the Lectra Outstanding Faculty designer award in 2006 and the Ohio Arts council's Award for individual Excellence. In June 2009 she also published a book: "Life, Thoughts & Garments." In the book she presents 31 of her designs both through pictures and brief write-ups on inspiration, techniques and materials.

About the Texas Fashion Collection:

The UNT Texas Fashion Collection is dedicated to the preservation and documentation of historically significant fashion, and serves as an educational and inspirational resource for students, researchers, and the general public. The collection of top designers' works began in 1938 through the efforts of Stanley and Edward Marcus. The Dallas Fashion Group saw that it came to UNT in 1972 to support a growing fashion design program. Today, the collection houses more than 18,000 items of historic dress in a 4,500 square foot climate-controlled space.

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