Since 1995, the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto has explored society through shoes, from the legacy of men in high heels to footwear’s role in forensics. Next month, the museum will highlight the growing relationship between art and sneakers, focusing on recent artist collaborations that bridge star-studded drops with deeper cuts.
The upcoming exhibition, “Art/Wear: Sneakers x Artists,” will delve into this trend through 48 legendary artist-driven sneaker designs from the museum’s collection, new acquisitions, and outside loans, some directly from the artists. The exhibition will run from October 3, 2024, to March 26, 2025, at the Bata Shoe Museum, 327 Bloor St W, Toronto.
“Art/Wear” will be displayed on the museum’s third floor in thematic, chronological sections, mapping “the history of how sneakers came to be a focus for artists,” according to the museum’s executive director and curator Elizabeth Semmelhack.
The exhibition begins with the mass production of canvas sneakers and ballpoint pens and markers, discussing the origins of drawing on sneakers with teen girls in the 1950s and 1960s. The first known artist sneaker collaboration, a pair of high-top tennis shoes by psychedelic artist Peter Max for Randy’s shoes, will be featured here.
Next, “Art/Wear” will explore how graffiti writers like Stash, Futura, and Cey Adams pioneered the link between art and sneakers. Five pairs of KAWS sneakers will anchor this section, along with two complete KAWS x Sacai outfits, to “explore the complete embodiment of art.”
The final section will focus on sneakers by fine artists like Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, and Daniel Arsham. Packaging will be a key feature, showing how sneakers, their boxes, and tissue paper give consumers access to artists’ work. Semmelhack likens these limited editions to fine art prints. A skate deck triptych by Murakami will also be displayed.
While sneakers can often feel like a male-dominated space, “Art/Wear” includes sneakers from about half a dozen female artists, including Shantell Martin, Vicky Vuong, and Kate Knudsen, the widow of Doobie Brothers drummer Keith Knudsen.
The exhibition doesn’t shy away from controversy. Semmelhack included a pair of Tom Sachs’s Nikes, despite the Olympian outfitter dropping Sachs amid controversy last spring. She explained that Sachs’s work is central to the history of artist and brand collaborations.
Global commerce has opened up the artist patronage system, allowing artists to translate their work onto a wide array of products and reach new audiences worldwide. Compared to scarves, jewelry, or clothes, what makes sneakers so alluring?
Sneakers offer a stronger structure, allowing an artist’s designs to shine without the fatigue of holding the body in any one way. The packaging and related ephemera surrounding sneaker drops generate a particular kind of excitement.
“Sneakers are not blank canvases,” Semmelhack added. “The storied histories embedded in classic silhouettes, the cultural significance of specific brands, and the longstanding importance of sneakers in the creation of cultural and personal identity are all at play in artist collaborations.” As the exhibition will show, these sneakers prove that art has power beyond the gallery.
Sayart / Amia Nguyen, amyngwyen13@gmail.com
