During its many decades on the Peninsula, Gallery House has exhibited art in a wide variety of media, but a collaboration with Cañada College’s Fashion Design and Merchandising program brought a catwalk to the co-op gallery for the first time.
The gallery is home to about 20 members who work in paintings, digital art, photography, ceramics, woodworking and jewelry.
-
SLIDESHOW: Designer and model Gabriela Cardenas walks the runway in a dress inspired by artist Azita Gandjei’s work.
Click to the next slide to see the designer and artist together with the work that inspired the garment.
Photo by Vivian Cromwell. -
SLIDESHOW: Artist Azita Gandjei (right) joins designer and model Gabriela Cardenas (left) at the Canvas Couture Fashion Show at Gallery House in Menlo Park on April 26. Photo by Vivian Cromwell.
Nine of those member artists teamed up with 12 fashion design students from Cañada College to stage Canvas Couture, a runway show featuring fashions inspired by their art. The event took place on April 26 with two sold-out showings in the downtown Menlo Park gallery.
The artists and designers had been working together since January on the show, with some students even coming to work in the artists’ studios, according to Jeanne Ichnowski, Gallery House’s community outreach liaison, who organized the event together with Jaleh Naasz, fashion design program coordinator at Cañada College.
Volunteer models from Cañada College, who included some of the designers themselves, walked the runway wearing 12 designs that drew on themes and aesthetics from works on display in the gallery.
The Cañada students actually took on a double challenge, using an artist’s work as inspiration in addition to creating garments that were environmentally conscious, as these pieces were also presented in “Eco Elegance,” a fashion show at Cañada College held on Earth Day.
The show offered garments in an array of textiles, with some more traditional and some unconventional. The final design to walk the runway was a black-and-white dress created from recycled banner fabric. Naasz designed the dress in collaboration with students, drawing from ideas they sketched for how best to use the banner.
Other designs on the runway featured some unique uses of fabrics, such as Emily Liza Hebb’s coat, with a colorful, pixel-like swirl made of a patchwork of recycled garments on the back, inspired by a mixed-media work by Peter Koltai, or Gir Session’s cocktail dress, with fabric highly embellished to resemble woodgrain and decorated with lichen, drawing on the botanical themes and organic shapes of Carina Rossner’s jewelry.
The show offered a chance to hear from both artists and designers, who took turns sharing the themes and inspirations behind their works before each design hit the runway.
With some pieces, the influence of the art on the design was more straightforward and with others, it was more implied.
Moises Cruz Jauregui designed a deep blue velvet gown sprinkled with sparkling fish on the skirt that were revealed after the model pulled off the blue overskirt initially worn over the gown. It drew on a piece by photographer Steven Shpall in which a woman wearing a blue gown is encircled by goldfish.
“My inspiration comes from anything that flies or splashes. I enjoyed working with Moises, who actually picked one of my favorite pictures — a picture of goldfish — as inspiration for his work,” Shpall said in his introduction.
One of two designs by Yelena Panchenko, a floaty white dress with white fabric poppies at the neckline, built on a motif from artist Asia Morgenthaler’s “White Poppy” ceramic piece. Panchenko’s design asked viewers to imagine the loss of color from California’s iconic orange poppy, as a metaphor for the bleaching and destruction of the world’s coral reefs.
-
SLIDESHOW: Model KeShawna Nolan walks the runway in a one-piece dress designed by Gir Session, inspired by the work of artist Carina Rossner. Click to the next slide to see the designer and model together with the work that inspired the garment. Photo by Vivian Cromwell. -
SLIDESHOW: Model KeShawna Nolan poses with designer Gir Session, inspired by the work of artist Carina Rossner, during the Art & Fashion Show at Gallery House in Menlo Park on April 26, 2025. Photo by Vivian Cromwell. -
SLIDESHOW: Designer and model Yelena Panchenko walks the runway in a dress inspired by artist Martha Castillo’s abstract work. Click to the next slide to see the designer and artist together with the work that inspired the garment. Photo by Vivian Cromwell. -
SLIDESHOW: Artist Martha Castillo (left) joins designer and model Yelena Panchenko (right) at the Art & Fashion Show at Gallery House in Menlo Park on April 26, 2025. Photo by Vivian Cromwell.
Rosine Abergel Ferber’s floral painting, “Fleurettes: Vase Gris et Fleurs,” drew Nicholas Melendrez to hand-paint flowering vines on an all-black workwear ensemble.
“The black attire represents a strong portrayal of masculinity, and the story of the colorful flowers show the elements of vulnerable emotions,” Melendrez said in his introduction, adding, “It was such an amazing time to work with (Rosine).”
The Canvas Couture show is part of Gallery House’s community outreach effort, Ichnowski told this publication. The co-op gallery moved to Menlo Park in 2024 after a 65-year tenure in Palo Alto.
A reception for a new show highlighting the work of artists Michael Endicott and Rosine Abergel Ferber will take place May 9, 6-9 p.m., at Gallery House, 826 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park. For more information, visit galleryhouse.art.
