Major fashion exhibition featuring Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray opens at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) recently opened Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous, an exhibition exploring the thirteen-year friendship and intimate creative collaboration between the late British designer Lee Alexander McQueen and French photographer Ann Ray. Organized by Barrett Barrera Projects, Rendez-Vous is on view at GRAM from October 5, 2024, through January 12, 2025. 
 
The fashion and photography exhibition features over 50 spectacular pieces by McQueen spanning 1994 to 2010, alongside nearly 70 photographs by Ann Ray, who McQueen personally selected to photograph his design process and the behind-the-scenes experience of his runway shows. 
 
Grand Rapids is currently the final planned stop in the multi-city U.S. tour of Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous, and GRAM is the only Midwest venue to host the exhibition to date.
 
​“The Grand Rapids Art Museum is honored to bring to West Michigan the work of the world’s foremost contemporary designer, the late Lee Alexander McQueen, as well as that of artist Ann Ray,” commented GRAM Assistant Curator Terra Warren. ​“In Rendez-Vous, Ray’s evocative and touching photography of McQueen’s ambitious process, his increasingly adventurous and era-defining garments, and the models who adorned his creations brings the designer’s fabled career and life into a new, more human light than we’ve ever seen before.”
 
Over fifty McQueen garments in the exhibition were sourced from Barrett Barrera Projects, the largest private collection of McQueen’s work and the owner of Ann Ray’s full McQueen photographic archive. The exhibition also includes dress objects McQueen gifted to Ray over the course of their work together, giving visitors to the exhibition rare insight into their unique partnership.
 
Speaking of their close friendship, Ray said, ​“You know, it was simple. He was part of my life, we loved each other, I had rendez-vous.” McQueen and Ray’s work together began with a simple agreement in which money, business considerations and fashion had no place. ​“I like your images but I’m broke. Give me your photos, I’ll give you clothes,” Ray recalls McQueen expressing to her early in their relationship.
 
Together, the objects and photographs provide an opportunity to reexamine the life and legacy of McQueen — a beloved but widely misunderstood figure — and to disentangle the person from the persona, the man from the myth.
 
Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous is organized by Barrett Barrera Projects. Presenting Sponsorship is generously provided by Daniel and Pamella Roland DeVos, with Lead Sponsorship by A.K. Rikk’s and Supporting Sponsorship by Wege Foundation. Additional support is provided by GRAM Exhibition Society.

Related Events
 
A Conversation Without Words: Alexander McQueen and Ann Ray
Sunday, November 17, 1:30 – 3 pm
Members $35, Non-members $40 
Dive deeper into Rendez-Vous during an afternoon lecture with Sarah Rogers, former director of the Kent State University Museum. From her time leading of one of the most comprehensive collections of historic and contemporary fashion in the United States, Sarah will share a unique perspective on McQueen and Ray’s artistic practice and their impact on the art and fashion world.
 
Lee Alexander McQueen was born in 1969 to a working-class East London family. At the age of sixteen, he dropped out of high school to pursue his love of fashion — first as a tailor’s apprentice on Savile Row and later in the prestigious MA Fashion program at Central Saint Martins. In 1993, he founded his eponymous label, which he oversaw until his death in 2010. Between 1996 and 2001, McQueen served as the creative director of the storied Parisian couturier Givenchy, a subsidiary of the luxury conglomerate L.V.M.H. He was awarded British Designer of the Year multiple times, and in 2003 he was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II. Over the course of his brief eighteen-year career, McQueen singlehandedly altered the course of modern fashion with his decade-defining silhouettes and expressive runway presentations that combined the conceptual depth of avant-garde performance art with the high glamor of luxury fashion. 
 
Ann Ray is a multi­dis­ci­pli­nary French artist, filmmaker, and author. Her professional career began while working for Givenchy in Japan in the 1990s. While living there, she became immersed in Japanese culture and craftsmanship, learning philosophies of creation from senseis in various trades such as ceramics, painting, and kimono design. These relationships had a fundamental impact on her own art and professional life at Givenchy. When she met Lee Alexander McQueen at Givenchy in Paris in 1997, marking the start of their thirteen-year creative partnership and friendship, the artistic point of view she acquired during her time studying under Japanese masters formed the basis of their early conversations. In the performing arts sphere, Ray works for Opéra Garnier in Paris and New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Her work has been exhibited at venues worldwide, including Palais du Tau in Reims, Palais Garnier in Paris, Ca’Pesaro Museum in Venice, the Museum at FIT in New York, and Rencontres d’Arles. Ray’s artworks appear in art collections internationally, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Fondation Carmignac (Paris). She has published seven books, including Nicolas Le Riche (2008), Love Looks Not with the Eyes (2012), Les Inachevés (2018), and Eyes Shut (2022). Ray works and lives in France between Paris and Brittany. 

About the Grand Rapids Art Museum  
Connecting people through art, creativity, and design. Established in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, the Museum is internationally known for its distinguished design and status as the world’s first LEED® Gold certified art museum. Founded in 1910 as the Grand Rapids Art Association, GRAM has grown to include more than 6,500 works of art, including American and European 19th and 20th-century painting and sculpture and more than 3,000 works on paper. Embracing the city’s legacy as a leading center of design and manufacturing, GRAM has a growing collection in the area of design and modern craft. For museum hours and admission fees, call 616.831.1000 or visit artmuseumgr.org. 

Barrett Barrera Projects 
Barrett Barrera Projects is a cross-disciplinary group of originators who redefine art experiences and push boundaries to explore the continuously expanding spectrum of art forms. At Barrett Barrera Projects we focus on the intersections, because that’s where new ideas and experiences emerge. BBP offers complex exhibition experiences that challenge the traditional boundaries separating art, fashion, design and performance. Our team produces, manages, consults and advises on touring exhibitions, in addition to managing our own exhibition and gallery spaces.