A Great & Terrible Beauty
Salon Solo show

A GREAT & TERRIBLE BEAUTY SALON SOLO SHOW

Following her participation in the inaugural Irish Fashion Week, Rachelle Cunningham was inspired to create an exhibition that translated the spirit of the collection into an immersive artistic experience. Hosted in the intimate setting of Salon du Temple in Paris, the two-day salon exhibition welcomed collectors, press, and her creative community into a candlelit, velvet-filled space inspired by the cocooning, boudoir-like atmosphere that defines her work. The exhibition centred on a new series of paintings celebrating the muses who have shaped her journey—women of the past, present, and future whose lives embody creativity, resilience, and freedom. Poets, performers, writers, musicians, actresses, and dancers became symbols of the progress women have made in carving out space within the arts, while also celebrating the individuality and diversity of contemporary womanhood.

At the heart of the exhibition was a live performance inspired by Rachelle's original textile work created for Irish Fashion Week, reimagining the mythology of Lilith and Eve as mother and daughter. Accompanied by an original poem performed by an opera actor and narrator, a cast of women emerged among the guests as living muses stepping from the paintings themselves, dissolving the boundary between art and life. Cast through an open call to her online community, the performers represented women from a wide range of creative professions and backgrounds, including an actress with a disability, reflecting Rachelles’s commitment to greater representation within art and fashion. Supported by collaborators, including makeup by Byredo and shoes by Carol costumes developed with the help of her interns, the exhibition became an intimate celebration of storytelling, connection, and community bringing together strangers who, through the experience of art.