Grace Wales Bonner Fetes the Opening of “Spirit Movers” at The MoMA

Designers contain multitudes. The clothing and accessories one sees on the runway are often steeped in layers upon layers of inspiration and points of reference in history. This holds true for Grace Wales Bonner.

On Thursday night, the London-based designer gathered friends and fans alike at New York’s Museum of Modern Art to celebrate the exhibition opening of “Spirit Movers,” a collection of, per the show’s opening statement, “artworks with a particular focus on Black cultural and aesthetic practices inspired by the styles, experiences, forms, and sounds of the African diaspora.”

The works on display range from a ring by Alexander Calder to a set of lithographs by Jean Dubuffet, but it was a row of four ceiling-height trumpets, a work by Terry Adkins entitled “Last Trumpet,” that drew the most attention.

“I was drawn to artists that started to collect or assemble materials that had another life—so they’re finding a new way of repurposing something and bringing a new energy and life to it,” Wales Bonned told Vogue. “It’s also thinking a lot about craft and detail and a very intimate relationship with making, the kind of obsession and dedication to be meticulously gathering these materials and putting them together in a certain way, whether that’s assemblages or even a painter creating repetitive marks.”

At the opening, Wales Bonner fielded congratulatory hugs from the likes of Jeremy O. Harris, Paloma Elsesser, Joan Smalls, Antwaun Sargent, and Binx Walton.

It marks the 16th installment of the MoMA’s Artist’s Choice series, with Wales Bonner serving as the first fashion designer to be tapped for the series, though she joined esteemed art world fixtures like Ellsworth Kelly, Amy Sillman, and John Baldesarri as past collaborators.

“She’s obviously sort of stratospherically taken off in a way that combines design with archival research and storytelling,” Michelle Kuo, the museum’s Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture, told Vogue. "Every collection she does is tethered to a specific history or narrative, and she’s said that fashion was a way for her to make really direct contact with audiences. It’s a different way of telling histories.”

For those feeling extra festive, the celebrations carried on in the Financial District at WSA, where partygoers were delighted with tasty cocktails, a sweeping view of the East river, and a performance by Sabazz Palaces.