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OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. 26 T he debate regarding fashion's place in a museum is ongoing — just ask the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which famously raised the bar with its Costume Institute exhibitions. Traditionalists argue that the realm of fashion is a mere decorative craft — and, when shown in a museum, errs on the side of overt commercialism. Those of a more progressive mindset say otherwise, pointing toward the artistry and creativity fueling history's most dynamic designers — or the fact that clothing is wearable sculpture. By looking at his tenure as director of Dallas Contemporary, it's fair to say Peter Doroshenko falls squarely in the latter category, often pairing fashion alongside fine art within the museum's walls. In FASHION, IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER BY CHRISTINA GEYER 2018 and coinciding with her 10-year anniversary, a collection of London fashion designer Mary Katrantzou's work was staged simultaneously with an exhibition of paintings by Enoc Perez. Images by fashion photographer Bruce Weber hung in company with works by painter Dan Colen in 2015. And in 2014, Dallas Contemporary exhibited a show of images from fashion photographer Mario Testino. In January, Jeremy Scott staged a large-scale installation of his garments. This month, the world of fashion makes another entrée via two new exhibitions. The first is a showing of photographer Mario Sorrenti's images of model Kate Moss as they appeared in the book Kate, published by Phaidon in September; the second is an examination of imagery featured in Self Service magazine, an alternative fashion magazine founded in 1994 by art director, publisher, and photographer Ezra Petronio, who had a solo photography show at the Contemporary in 2011. While clothing isn't tangibly on display this time, the world of fashion and its commercial prowess is certainly a focal point of both exhibitions, whether through images of one of the world's most recognizable supermodels or via those we consume in the heightened world of high-fashion media. "We are bombarded with images every day," says Doroshenko of the exhibitions, both of which he curated. "The Mario Sorrenti and Self Service exhibitions are laser-precision glimpses into things we know and recognize, yet about subjects we know little about. Both are very different — Sorrenti about early Kate Moss and Self Service about publication design and photography. The commonality between both is discovery." If art is defined by shaping our thoughts through what we see, forcing us to look differently at an image or an industry, then one could argue that both of Dallas Contemporary's shows are ripe for careful study. "Mario Sorrenti: Kate" and "Self Service: Twenty- Five Years of Fashion, People and Ideas Reconsidered," April 13 through August 18, at Dallas Contemporary, 161 Glass St., dallascontemporary.org. Ezra Petronio Kate Moss by Mario Sorrenti