LUN*NA MENOH
SELECTED WORKS
BIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lun*na Menoh is a Japanese-born Renaissance artist who lives in Los Angeles. Her work deals with garments that expose the invisible thread between performance and fabric by making sculpturesque dresses, paintings, sculptures, and a series of runway shows with her conceptual but wearable outfits. Starting In 1999, she made a series of paintings of men’s white shirts that are given a dirty, stained ring around the collar. In early 2005, she started making music, and currently performs as Les Sewing Sisters. In 2019 Les Sewing Sisters held a musical tour through 22 closets of private homes in Los Angeles. Their pop songs are about dresses and dressmaking but are approached with experimental touches, such as using the sewing machine as a musical instrument, and their debut album was released in 2021 with Lun*na Menoh's performance of Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” using Sewing machine noise. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, and the Hayward Gallery, London. Since the early 1990s she has presented work at Los Angeles art spaces and venues including Sue Spaid Fine Art, Beyond Baroque, Track 16 Gallery, Velaslavasay Panorama, and South Coast Plaza. Her work is held in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
SELECTED SOLO and TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024
TOTAH, New York, NY, Clockwise
2023
TOTAH, New York, Who is Lun*na Menoh?
2017
ArtX, Long Beach, California, A Ring Around The Collar
2015
SPARC Gallery, Pasadena, California, Dirty Laundry
2012
Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan, C.A.J. Artist-in-residence show (with Adam Lee Miller)
2010
Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, Ring Around the Collar / Musician
2006
Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, 1998-2006 and Ring Around the Collar runway show, music by Jean Paul Yamamoto
1994
Laguna Art Museum Satellite, Cosa Mesa, California, Boutique Mystique
1993
Sue Spaid Fine Art, Los Angeles, Salon de Lun*na
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015
Tokyo, Japan, Art Island Tokyo
Edouard Paradis Gallery, Marsaille, France, Artorama
2013
Atelier/logement de Denis Brun Marseille, France, Ouvertures d'Ateliers d’Artistes de la Ville de Marseille, Sun of a Beach 1
2007
LACE, Los Angeles, Fulfill Your Sexual Desire In The Playmate's Confession Tent (for Paper Magazine)
2006
Berman / Turner Project, Los Angeles, Queen of the Night
2005
Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, Nouvelle Nuptials New Visions in Wedding Traditions
BGH Gallery, Los Angeles, Twisted Christmas
2004
18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica CA, Leopard Spots: Between Art, Performance and Club Culture
2003
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Andy Warhol Retrospective (group fashion event)
2001
Norwich gallery, Norfolk, UK, East
1999
Dirt Gallery, Los Angeles, Primordial/Soup to Nuts
1998
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, Fashion and Surrealism.
Jan Baum, Los Angeles, Precious
Hayward Gallery, London, UK, Addressing the Century - 100 Years of Art & Fashion (cat.)
1997
Special k Exhibition, Los Angeles, Yard Sale
1996
Site Gallery, Los Angeles, Lovers Labors Lost
1995
Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, California, Action Station Exploring Open Systems
Jan Baum, Los Angeles, Felicity
RUNWAY SHOW PERFORMANCES
2017
ArtX, Long Beach, California, Runway show A Ring Around The Collar
2014
Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, Runway show A Ring Around The Collar
2011
Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, Runway show for Maximum Miniature (music by Pre Sewing Sisters)
2009
Royal/T, Culver City, Los Angeles, Runway show for Headdress 2009
2008
Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, Runway show Lun*na Menoh: Couture Salvage (music by Jean Paul Yamamoto)
2006
Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, Runway Show Ring Around the Collar (music by Jean Paul Yamamoto)
2001
ARC Studio, Los Angeles, Runway show Ring Around the Collar
1998
Art Share, Los Angeles, Runway show for Spring-Summer 1770-1998
1995
Jan Baum, Los Angeles, Runway show He(ad)dress
1992
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Venice, California, Runway show for Dress for Poets
1988
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Fashion and Surrealism
MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE
2019
Les Sewing Sisters Come To Your Home Tour
2016
The Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, Bolero
2015
The Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, We as the Sewing Machine - Les Sewing Sisters
2013
the Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, Certification of your dirty collar
2008
Jean Paul Yamamoto, Improvised Sewing
2006
LACE, Los Angeles, Re-Cut, Tribute To Yoko Ono
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023
Krugman, Paul. Opinion | “Trump, Lord of the Ring (Around the Collar)” New York Times, August 2023.
2022
Berman, Tosh. “Lun*na Menoh.” Detroit Research, Volume Three, Spring & Summer 2022 (cover)
2019
Gluck, Melissa. “Your Closet is their Stage.” Los Angeles Times, November 2019.
2016
Brower, Gideon. “Ravel’s Bolero performed with sewing machines.” KCRW Design and Architecture, July 26 2016.
2006
Pagel, David. “Slip into Something Silly.” Los Angeles Times, December 2006.
1994
Dubin, Zan. “Whimsey to Wear: Art: Playful work reflects Lunna Menoh’s perceptions but is non-judgmental
PUBLICATIONS
2018
Claire Wilcox and Valerie D. Mendes ‘20th Century Fashion in Detail’, Thames & Hudson/V&A, 2018
2014
Lun*na Menoh ‘A Ring Around The Collar’, TamTam Books, 2014
2012
Alison Bancroft, ‘Fashion and Psychoanalysis: Styling the Self’, I.B. Tauris, 2012
2003
Christopher Breward ‘Fashion’, Page 15, Photo Spring and Summer Collection 1770 - 1998, Oxford University Press, 2003
1998
Peter Wollen, ‘Addressing the Century: 100 Years of Art & Fashion’ Page 65, Spring and Summer Collection 1770 – 1998, Hayward Gallery, 1998
PERMANENT COLLECTION
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
AWARDS
Best Documentary Film, for Who Is Lun*na Menoh?, CAAMFest, San Francisco
Art Grant, Ring Around the Collar (runway show), Peter S Reed Foundation, New York