Inventing Isabella
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Boston, MA

Isabella Stewart Gardner used art, fashion, and photography to cultivate her image. Though her name is on the Museum she founded, Isabella remains an enigmatic figure. As someone who often defied the expectations of her gender and class, many stories, scandals, and myths surrounded her during her lifetime and still do today.

Inventing Isabella unites many pictures of Isabella—from formal oil paintings to informal drawings and personal and press photographs—that Isabella chose to preserve. Combined with select examples of her clothing and jewelry, we see how Isabella fashioned herself and entered long and intricate collaborations with artists to craft her public image.

In conjunction with Inventing Isabella, the Museum will also showcase the work of two contemporary artists, Fabiola Jean-Louis: Rewriting History and Carla Fernández: Tradition is not Static.

Completed in partnership with R. Kurt Weidman

Project scope:
Exhibit design
Graphic design and graphic production
Graphic fabrication and installation