Costume Designer
Beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performance for decades. Recognized with a 2024 EMMY award for “Outstanding Costume Design” in the HBO documentary “Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History of Popular Music,” Machine’s unconventional wearable art and installations have reached great acclaim. He was, additionally, the co-recipient of the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the 2017 Henry Hewes Design award, a 2022 United States Artists Fellow, and a 2024 TDF/Irene Sharaf “Kitty Leech Ascending Artist” award recipient. He delivered a TED Talk at TED Vancouver in 2023. As the 2024 Witt Artist in Residence, Machine participated in the University of Michigan’s Penny Stamps lecture series and opened a solo-installation in 3 parts, Ouroboros, at UMMA. Machine Dazzle has had solo exhibitions at NYC’s Museum of Arts and Design (Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle) and Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre (Machine Dazzle: Art and Intention). As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, Jennifer Miller, The Dazzle Dancers, Big Art Group, Mike Albo, Stanley Love, Soomi Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the Curran Theatre, and Spiegelworld; and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including designer Diane von Furstenberg and model Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala. Other collaborations include Bassline Fabulous with the Catalyst Quartet (Metropolitan Museum of Art); Treasure, a rock and cabaret of original songs + accompanying fashion show; and the 2023 premier of the Rameau comedic opéra-ballet Io (Opera Lafayette, The Kennedy Center).
Photo: Gregory Kramer