MACHINE DAZZLE.
an award-winning designer for stage and gallery, performer, musician, artist and provocateur.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY.
Beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performance since his arrival in New York in 1994. He designs intricate, unconventional wearable art pieces and bespoke installations. As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, The Dazzle Dancers, the Curran Theatre, Spiegelworld (among others); and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including Diane von Furstenberg and Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Met Gala. Recent collaborations include Bassline Fabulous with the Catalyst Quartet (Metropolitan Museum of Art); Treasure, a rock-and-roll cabaret of original songs + accompanying fashion show; and the Rameau comedic opéra-ballet, Io (Opera Lafayette). Dazzle was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award, a 2022 United States Artists Fellow, and a 2024 EMMY Award Winner for “Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Non-fiction, or Reality Programming” for his work in the HBO concert documentary Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History of Popular Music. Machine Dazzle has had solo exhibitions at NYC’s Museum of Arts and Design (Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle), Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre (Machine Dazzle: Art and Intention), and the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ouroboros). In 2024/2025, he opened gallery exhibitions “Soft Serve” at Wasserman
Projects (Detroit, MI) and “Obsession and Evidence” at Gallery AP Space (New York, NY).
ARTIST INTERVIEW.
Stay tuned for the interview, to be released on September 14.
I like to create something original and have my own "definition" of what is appropriate for the moment. If anything, the "expected" costume is what NOT to do. I work organically using intuition. Rhyme and reason are distant relatives... in my blood, but my black sheep persona keeps me from creating a "product" that is easily consumed. I like to keep it personal, emotional, unsettling, imperfect.
Artist Website.
Machine Dazzle dressed the performers with
VISUAL ACUITY
the costuming said
AS MUCH AS THE WORDS.
THE NEW YORKER
GALLERY.
Discover photos and videos from Machine's work.
CREDITS: Machine Dazzle: Guggenheim, photos by Gregory Kramer, all other photos courtesy of the artist.