A collaboration among artists, designers, and curator celebrates creative alchemy: the coming together of multiple talents to produce a work greater than its parts at the COPE NYC Obsessive Sea exhibit. The artists’ obsession with the sea shines through their artistic vision and unique choice of materials. The morphing of the manmade to the natural wows the viewer by freezing the very essence of ocean shapes, movements, and fluidity.

Parisian sculptor, Jacques Jarrige, known for his sinuous furniture and sculpture, here turns his hand to ribbons of aluminum hanging from the ceiling of the Acumen Capital building’s second floor gallery. The four hanging “ribbons” became the focal point of the High School of Fashion Industries magnificent fashion show on Nov. 10. The young designers modeling their own work for a large audience, posed amidst Jacques’ creation. Then they moved on to circle Carla Goldberg’s large glass panels designed to represent the shapes of the ocean’s foam. Next, they posed at overlapping inflated plastic coral reefs illuminated from within, created by Aurora Robson, environmental artist known for transforming plastic debris into oceanic marvels. Sui Park’s work,Undulating Beauty, created with cable ties, is dynamic and mystical. The blackness of the waters is captured with a plastic topography.

Michael Kukla’s dynamic sculpture’s webs, where shadows play with light on the smooth white surfaces, are a fluidity of structure: smooth, dense, but liquid. Installed in the center of the exhibit, Kukla’s piece became a midpoint for the fashion runway.

The video of Brazilian models Lara Gerin, Mari Malek, and Diandra Forrest photography by renowned Alex Korolkovas, set the mood for an intersection of art, design, and fashion. This is a must see contemporary exhibit of extraordinary interpretations of the sea.