BROOKLYN, NY.- Following an enthusiastic response from visitors and critics, the Brooklyn Museum announced today that Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses will be extended through Sunday, January 3, 2027. Originally scheduled to close on December 6, 2026, the celebrated exhibition will remain on view for an additional four weeks, offering visitors more time to experience this extraordinary intersection of fashion, art, science, and nature.
A pioneer in her use of cutting-edge technologies, Van Herpen defies the limits of conventional fashion while embracing both traditional couture craftsmanship and innovative materials and techniques. Sculpting the Senses features over 140 of Van Herpen’s avant-garde designs, placed in dialogue with works of contemporary art and loans of scientific artifacts and natural history specimens. The Brooklyn presentation expands upon the original exhibition with Craftolution (2026), an ambitious new video installation commissioned by the Museum, that offers a meditative look into Van Herpen’s atelier and creative practice. Furthering the Museum’s legacy of landmark fashion exhibitions and its commitment to championing trailblazing women in art and design, Sculpting the Senses marks Van Herpen’s first major New York exhibition.
Visitors will also have a final opportunity to connect with the designer in person as part of her live performance series, Sculpting the (Un)Spoken. On October 30 and 31 and November 1, Van Herpen will be seated within Sculpting the Senses, inviting visitors to join her in conversation and meditative, attentive handwork, shaping and constructing a new look together in real time. As conversations arise at the table, shaped by the intimacy of pleating fabric by hand, each person’s unique movement and hand anatomy will subtly form variations in texture across the dress. Later, the most memorable moments from these conversations will be embroidered into the interior of the dress. The finished work will hold all the different voices, ideas, and shared time within its seams, expressing couture as a performance of material memory.
After its debut in 2023 at the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs in Paris, the exhibition has since traveled to Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Singapore’s ArtScience Museum, and Kunsthal Rotterdam. Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses is curated by Cloé Pitiot, Curator of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Contemporary Design, and Louise Curtis, Assistant Curator, Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris. The Brooklyn Museum presentation is supported by the Simons Foundation and is part of its “Infinite Sums” initiative. It is organized by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, with Imani Williford, Curatorial Assistant, Photography, Fashion, and Material Culture.
