Now, de Betak, who sold his company in 2021, is turning the spotlight on his own creative practice. On November 5, he opened his first solo exhibition of artworks at Salon 94 in New York. The electronically programmed Truss Light Sculptures are inspired by the scaffolding and fixtures of his early runway shows and in some cases literally made from them. “That equipment is old-fashioned now, but I wanted to honor it,” de Betak says. “And I liked the irony that I spent so much energy over the years trying to hide it.”
On view at Salon 94’s Upper East Side town house through December 19, the exhibit presents two series. In the gallery’s contemporary space, the first is composed of freestanding and wall-mounted aluminum structures fitted with LED bulbs. The upstairs Stone Room, a historic space with Caen stone plaster walls and arched windows, is the backdrop for a second series of versions in bronze. To make them, de Betak had a French foundry recast each part down to the smallest screw by hand, a process that sometimes required more than 20 molds.
