Exhibitions and programmes across art, fashion, and emerging technology
I curate exhibitions and cultural programmes across art, fashion, and emerging technology. I start from the idea that artists are worldbuilders, and that the interesting work happens when their worlds are put in relation to one another and to the room, the platform, or the street they meet in. Since 2021 most of that work has involved mixed reality: placing digital work in physical settings, building venues inside virtual worlds, and designing the gathering so that it changes what the work can become.
Or email david@cashlabs.io.
David Cash
Curator and cultural producer, Toronto. Roles are stated on every entry. Entries run newest first.
Exhibitions and programmes curated
In Vogue Vision, Next in Vogue, Vogue Singapore, Capitol Theatre, October 16 to 18. A spatial gallery for Apple Vision Pro: eight Vogue Singapore covers and Nick Knight's 360-degree Charli XCX shoot from SHOWstudio, demonstrated live, built with Nomtek in two weeks. Curator and co-producer, with SHOWstudio and Nomtek.
Fashion Week Connect, INTER, New York, September 6. Digital fashion exhibition at the opening of NYFW. Curator, producer, and creative director, with council member Dani Loftus. Founder, Digital Fashion Designers Council.
The Vogue Closet, Next in Vogue, Vogue Singapore, The Singapore Edition, November 17 to 18. Physical and digital fashion in one exhibition at the conference and third-anniversary gala: CuteCircuit, Miss Sohee, Bad Binch TongTong, and digital twins in AR with SPIN.FASHION. Co-curator, bringing CuteCircuit and digital fashion to the closet. Cash Labs also produced the Next in Vogue 2023 Innovation Report.
Cash Labs Gallery at Metaverse Fashion Week, Decentraland, March 28 to 31. Four floors with ARTISANT, SHOWstudio (Nick Knight's ikon-1), Danit Peleg x NounsDAO, and Vogue Singapore. Gallery curator.
Metaverse Art Week: The World is Made of Code, Decentraland, August 24 to 28. Art Plaza outdoor sculpture and video programme: Nick Knight, Krista Kim, Nicola Formichetti, SamJ, Marjan Moghaddam, Operator, and others. Curator, for the Decentraland Foundation.
Cash Labs Gallery permanent collection, Decentraland, August. From Physical to Digital (Damien Hirst, Justin Aversano, Laurel Charleston, Kenny Schachter, Frank Stella, David Henry Nobody Jr.); Art for the Metaverse (Krista Kim, Jason Ebeyer, IX Shells, David Bianchi, Bryan Brinkman); SHOWstudio takeover previewing ikon-1; art film festival. Gallery curator. The first two floors drew on the curator's own collection.
Metaverse Pride, Decentraland, June. Pride Panel Series and Cash Labs Gallery programme: Mike Ruiz's Leathermen, a UnicornDAO takeover, Disruptive Eves. Panel curator and host, for the Decentraland Foundation; gallery programme presenter.
Into the Metaverse, Spatial x Samsung x The Fabricant x World of Women, Samsung 837, New York, during NFT.NYC, June. An AR activation, speaker programming, a digital fashion exhibition across dozens of screens, and live performance artists and drag queens woven through the space. Forbes used the event as its cover image for its NFT.NYC coverage. Co-curator; curator and producer for The Fabricant.
Metaverse Fashion Week, Decentraland, March 24 to 27. Lead curator. Concept, curation, and production for the Decentraland Foundation.
Cash Labs Gallery launch, Decentraland, March. Photography, moving image, and fashion as sculpture: Antoni Tudisco, Krista Kim x The Fabricant, Karl Lagerfeld x THE DEMATERIALISED, Jason Ebeyer, Botter Paris; SHOWstudio rooftop film programme from Nick Knight's archive. Founder and curator.
NFTUkraine, OpenSea, March. An NFT art fundraiser with more than 100 submitting artists, including Krista Kim, Kevin Abosch, Jason Ebeyer, Brendan Dawes, Nicole Ruggiero, Olive Allen, and Mike Ruiz; all proceeds to Ukraine's official wallet. Co-organizer, with Kenny Schachter.
L is for LGBTQIA+ & LOVE, Rarible homepage drop and exhibition at The Meeting Place (Spatial), February 14 to 18. Co-curator, with Benny Or. Invited by Rarible and Hollywood NFTs.
NY FEM FACTORY NFT show, Satellite Art Fair, Miami Art Week, December. Women and LGBTQIA+ NFT artists, with a VR metaverse space. Co-curator, with Jessica Yatrofsky.
Continuum by Krista Kim, The Sagamore, Miami Beach, during Art Basel Miami Beach, December. Curator and producer.
RAREWORLD: An NFT Takeover, SuperRare x SuperWorld, Art Basel Miami Beach, November 30 to December 5. Twenty AR works across the Convention Center grounds. Co-curator; concept and production.
NFTS.WTF x 100x.art, Decentraland Metaverse Art Week, Max Stealth Galleries, July 17. Co-curator, with Glassy Music, Pilar Cote, and NFTS.tips.
Fête Galante, pop-up gallery, Queen Street East, Toronto, on the closing night of Fashion Art Toronto. Group exhibition of fashion, visual art, sculpture, music, and live performance with CVSTMS, Rachelle Anne Wear, and more than a dozen other designers and artisans. Curator and producer.
Selected artists and designers exhibited
- Adam Nathaniel Furman
- Aeforia
- Antoni Tudisco
- ARTISANT
- AVAVAV
- Bad Binch TongTong
- Botter
- Brendan Dawes
- Bryan Brinkman
- CuteCircuit
- CVSTMS
- Damien Hirst
- Danit Peleg
- David Bianchi
- David Henry Nobody Jr.
- Dom Qwek
- Eceertrey
- The Fabricant
- Federico Clapis
- Filip Hodas
- Foodmasku
- Frank Stella
- Fvckrender
- Gavin Shapiro
- Glitch of Mind
- Hawkward
- Ines Alpha
- IX Shells
- Jake Cormack
- Jason Ebeyer
- Jessica Yatrofsky
- Justin Aversano
- Karl Lagerfeld
- Kenny Schachter
- Kevin Abosch
- KidEight
- KidSuper
- Krista Kim
- Laurel Charleston
- Marc-O-Matic
- Marjan Moghaddam
- Mike Ruiz
- Miss Sohee
- Nick Knight
- Nicola Formichetti
- Nicole Ruggiero
- Olive Allen
- Operator
- Ouchhh
- Parrott_ism
- Rachelle Anne Wear
- SamJ
- Sylo
- Yosnier
Programme development and production
Amazon, global stealth initiative. Curated and brought in more than 150 creative and technical partners. Senior Web3 consultant; talent and technical curator.
David Cash Studios, Toronto. Production company making commercials, music videos, fashion films, and campaigns. Founder; director, art director, and producer.
MVFW 2022 Panel Series, ten conversations on the main stage, and the MVFW Film Festival with SHOWstudio. Curator and host; producer, Cash Labs.
Fashion Art Toronto Virtual Fashion Series, June 22 to July 6. Five runway films, five Toronto locations, streamed live on Instagram and YouTube. Media director; concept, production, direction, and edit.
Fashion Art Toronto season campaign (Primary Colour Blocking 2020). Campaign creative director: concept, casting, direction, and production.
Pride Toronto. Hired and managed a team of 60+ cinematographers and editors covering a one-million-person festival. Team lead, video.
Artists I work with
SamJ. Advisor.
Anonbinare. Advisor.
Operator. Art advisor.
David Bianchi. Publicist.
Nick Knight. Publicist.
Krista Kim. Global strategic producer of Continuum, 2021 to 2023; publicist, 2022.
Frank Stella. Publicist.
Justin Aversano. Publicist.
Selected exhibitions as artist
NFTism: No Fear in Trying, Unit London (curated by Kenny Schachter), September 11 to 25. Featured video, "What is an NFT."
Fashion Faux Pas (don't believe what you see on television), Fashion Art Toronto, Daniels Spectrum, April 24 to 28. Seven films on old televisions, seven handmade podiums, seven large-format posters, two roaming models in custom clothing. Featured artist; multimedia installation and performance.
Animals Are People Too, Juvenis Festival, Kingston, May 3 to 5. Multimedia gallery project with local youth. Guest artist and project leader.
CA$H ONLY, Superposition Gallery, 208 East 73rd Street, New York, opened September 15, during NYFW. Film, prints, canvas, and clothing on identity, fashion, and consumer culture. Solo exhibition, curated by Storm Ascher.
Tumbler and Tipsy by Michael Kuluva, New York Fashion Week, September. Artwork on the runway collection (with Natty Cakes); Amanda Lepore opened the show.
The Summer Collection, Ospizio Giovani Artisti, Rome, June 21 to July 4. Exhibiting artist, OGA Collection.
CVSTMS x Rachelle Anne Wear, Fashion Art Toronto, Daniels Spectrum, April 20. Fashion film, projection art, and runway performance: a multimedia art protest as a runway show. Featured designer and artist.
RED: A Study of the Human Form in Colour, RED Gallery, 244 Queen Street East, Toronto, July 20 to 27. Twelve models, five Toronto designers; nearly sold out in a week; one of blogTO's top ten art shows of the summer. Exhibiting photographer; self-produced. Collaborators: Brit Wacher, Untitled&Co, Rachelle Anne Wear, Masha Apparel, Rejh Lorenzo Cabrera.
Three in depth
Fashion Week Connect at INTER, New York
A physical exhibition of digital fashion across 4,000 square feet: more than 50 screens, 55 digital fashion displays, and 144 digital and connected looks, a 360-degree projection-mapped runway, and AR mirrors by FFFACE.ME that dressed guests in a Prada look with an Ines Alpha filter. Every garment came with a code; guests scanned it, wore the piece on their own phones, and kept it. The press release called it the largest IRL digital fashion showcase in Fashion Week history.
Artists and brands included Balenciaga, Prada, Antoni Tudisco, Ines Alpha, The Dematerialised, Fvckrender, the Institute of Digital Fashion, Glitch of Mind, and DRESSX. Guests included Nicola Formichetti, Megan Kaspar, and Alex Wang, with senior people from Chanel, Estée Lauder, Meta, Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Kering. The programme continued to London (Digital Fashion Week at Epic Games), Paris (Fabrix at Palais de Tokyo, supported by the FHCM), and Singapore (Next in Vogue with Vogue Singapore, where DFDC was title sponsor and lead innovation partner).
Sources: DFDC release, GlobeNewswire, September 10, 2024; WWD, July 30, 2024; Vogue Singapore; Vogue Philippines.
RAREWORLD: An NFT Takeover
A guerrilla exhibition that used Art Basel itself as the venue. Twenty large-scale 3D works by SuperRare artists were placed in augmented reality across the fair grounds, visible to anyone who opened the SuperWorld app and pointed a phone at the right spot. The fair was the plinth; the app was the door. Visitors who found every piece and posted the set earned a badge for the hunt, and the works sold on SuperRare by reserve auction during the fair.
Artists: Aeforia, Antoni Tudisco, Bryan Brinkman, David Bianchi, Dom Qwek, Eceertrey, Federico Clapis, Filip Hodas, Gavin Shapiro, The Fabricant, Jason Ebeyer, Kenny Schachter, KidEight, Krista Kim, Marc-O-Matic, Marjan Moghaddam, Ouchhh, Parrott_ism, SamJ, and Sylo.
Guerrilla in the proper sense: the fair had not been asked. The New York Times called it "a novel way to get in front of influential eyeballs," and on opening day Art Basel's lawyers sent a demand letter, which I kept. The show was also covered by the Financial Times, Hypebeast, Whitewall, FAD, and METAL Magazine.
The same week, at Satellite Art Fair, I co-curated the NY FEM FACTORY NFT show with Jessica Yatrofsky (women and LGBTQIA+ NFT artists, with a VR metaverse space).
Metaverse Fashion Week
The first fashion week held inside a virtual world. Four days of runway shows, flagships, parties, and talks across a Fashion District, with Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Tommy Hilfiger, Philipp Plein, Selfridges, and Estée Lauder, whose walk-in Advanced Night Repair bottle was the first beauty activation in the metaverse. At the centre sat the Cash Labs Gallery: 25 artists including Karl Lagerfeld x The Dematerialised, KidSuper, AVAVAV, and Krista Kim x The Fabricant, a film festival with SHOWstudio, and a ten-panel series I curated and hosted with Alexandre de Betak, Nick Knight, DressX, Danit Peleg, and thirty other voices, now archived in full on this site.
The 2023 edition brought the gallery back across four floors: ARTISANT's Iconic Cash wearables, Nick Knight's ikon-1 with SHOWstudio, Danit Peleg x NounsDAO on 3D-printed fashion, and a Vogue Singapore rooftop with a digital fashion competition and panels.
WWD called me "Decentraland's fashion week curator" in its preview, its dispatches, and its 2023 announcement.
Publications, recognition, and education
Publications and editorial
Before the Crash: The First Master's Thesis on NFTs, Read Five Years Later. Author.
Vogue Singapore. Articles include "What the very first Metaverse Fashion Week was like, according to a curator," "The highlights from Decentraland Metaverse Art Week," and "The endless potential of 3D sculptures in the metaverse." Contributor, technology.
NFTS.WTF, founded by the WTF DAO. A staff of 60+ writers and a peak audience of 400,000 monthly readers. Editor-in-chief.
Vogue Italia / PhotoVogue. Contributing photographer.
Awards and recognition
Fashion Innovation Award, Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards, for Cash Labs.
NewGen List, Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards: one of the 25 "best and brightest talents in Canadian fashion."
Top 50 Voices in 3D/AR/XR, Threedium.
RED named one of blogTO's top ten art shows of the summer, Toronto.
Selected press
WWD, March 2022: "the founder of NFT firm Cash Labs who's serving as Decentraland's fashion week curator." Exclusive brand previews of Metaverse Fashion Week.
WWD, July 2024: Digital Fashion Designers' Council debuts with Fashion Week Connect. Exclusive.
Vogue Philippines, June 2024: "It's David Cash's metaverse, we're all just living in it." Profile by Audrey Carpio, photographed by Nancy Kim.
Elle, March 2022: "Web3 agency Cash Labs curated a mixed-media gallery space." The highs and lows of the first Metaverse Fashion Week.
Dazed, March 2022: the CashLabs Space, with fashion films by Chanel and Lanvin. What to look out for at the first Metaverse Fashion Week.
SHOWstudio, March 2022: Nick Knight and David Cash on digitising fashion. Also August 2022 and March 2023 features on the Cash Labs Gallery.
Hypebae, March 2022: the Cash Labs gallery with Karl Lagerfeld x The Dematerialised. Look inside Metaverse Fashion Week.
Vogue Singapore, 2024: David Cash and Antoni Tudisco on the DFDC and Fashion Week Connect.
TheIndustry.fashion, March 2022: The Interview: David Cash, Lead Curator for Metaverse Fashion Week.
The New York Times, Financial Times, Hypebeast, Whitewall, FAD, and METAL Magazine, November and December 2021: coverage of RAREWORLD at Art Basel Miami Beach.
Forbes, July 2022: the Into the Metaverse panels at Samsung 837 as the cover image for NFT.NYC coverage.
blogTO, 2017: RED among the top ten art shows of the summer.
Education
MA Art Direction, Polimoda, Florence. Thesis: NFTs & Decentralization, the first master's thesis on NFTs, awarded 30/30. Advisor Silvia Tolaro.
Luxury Fashion Management, Parsons Paris, The New School. Summer intensive.
BA Art History, minor in Film & Media, Queen's University, Kingston.
From the chronology
Art Plaza, Metaverse Art Week 2022
A gravity-defying open-air sculpture garden at the centre of the festival. I brought the theme to life with 3D sculptures and video works by more than a dozen artists, including Nick Knight, Krista Kim, Nicola Formichetti, SamJ, Marjan Moghaddam, and Operator, shown at some of the largest scale and highest fidelity Decentraland had held, beside the Artnet and Sotheby's galleries. The same week the Cash Labs Gallery opened its permanent collection across four floors.
Sources: Decentraland press release, August 2022; SHOWstudio; Vogue Singapore.
L is for LGBTQIA+ & LOVE
A Valentine's Day drop and a live metaverse exhibition bringing together ten queer digital artists around identity, affection, and self-expression, built as a place to go on a virtual date or meet someone new in Web3. Artists: Nicole Ruggiero, SamJ, Mike Ruiz, Hawkward, Foodmasku, Laurel Charleston, Jessica Yatrofsky, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Yosnier, and Jake Cormack.
Source: Rarible blog, February 2022.
Metaverse Pride 2022
Decentraland's first Pride Month. I curated and hosted the panel series, opening with the kickoff talk on June 3 and making room for trans and non-binary voices, BIPOC communities, and, with CyberBaat, queer artists living and working in Africa. At the Cash Labs Gallery: Mike Ruiz's Leathermen (June 5), a UnicornDAO takeover with Pussy Riot (June 11), and a Disruptive Eves exhibition on vogue culture (June 28). The panel recordings are in the Interview Archive.
Sources: Decentraland blog and press release, May and June 2022.
Fashion Art Toronto, Virtual Fashion Series
Fashion Art Toronto's first virtual fashion week, made in the first months of the pandemic: five runway films in two weeks, each shot at an outdoor location in the city and streamed live, opening with L'Uomo Strano's Strange Fruit. It was one of the first three fashion weeks worldwide to go online and the first in North America.
Sources: FASHION Magazine, June 2020; Fashion Art Toronto.
Work with me
I take on exhibitions and programmes for institutions, platforms, and brands; advisory, jury, and speaking work on curation and mixed reality; collaborations with artists and galleries; and commissioned writing on exhibitions and immersive art.
Or email david@cashlabs.io.