Pangea Kali Virga, a born and bred New Yorker, is an enthusiastic creator whose work spans many sides of the fashion and art industry. She is a fashion designer, stylist, curator, and producer with high standards and a conceptual spirit.
Her aim is to build collaborative networks and moving experiences through her work and all of her projects while uplifting the community and showcasing sustainable practices. Pangea is a nomadic designer and has been located in Kansas City, New York City, Vietnam, and now Miami.
Since graduating from FIT in 2012 with a degree in Fashion Design, Pangea has participated in ten runways as designer, curator, or collaborator, stretching the format’s territory to include performance art, sculpture, and corresponding musical compositions. She also served as Designer Curator for the 16th annual West 18th St. Fashion Show where she steered and advised the many collections, as well as styled the runway. In 2018 Pangea designed both men and women’s collections for Yaly Couture in Vietnam.
Pangea is the Executive Producer and co-founder of Miami On Sight, a community-minded fashion project, celebrating the city and its people through showcasing established and emerging local sustainable designers in unique, iconic Miami locations. Miami On Sight produces recurring fashion and design events with a focus on outreach, accessibility, environmentalism, and inclusivity to create connections between the arts community and the general public.
Pangea, also a talented stylist, has produced dozens of editorial photo shoots that have been featured in leading fashion journals including Models.com, Lucy’s, and Contributor.
Pangea continues to push her work, collaborating in multiple mediums with artists and musicians alike. Ms.Virga is currently living in Miami, Florida and can be hired for sustainability consulting, custom orders, and styling services..
History Will Always Find You And Wrap You In Its Thousand Arms
Upcycled fiber from old clothing/interior design swatches/leather/vintage yardage, human hair, upcycled rhinestones, upcycled beads, vintage thread, blood. 50in x 60in
‘History Will Always Find You And Wrap You In Its Thousand Arms’ comprises the second part of a quilt triptych, encapsulating the artist’s personal and ancestral past as well as her thoughts on the concept of the past via memory, identity, and physics. By examining identity through personal past, Pangea explores the power that ancestral stories, genetics, childhood, and experiential existence hold over every minute of our lives – from decisions we make and circumstances we are in, to the society we are ensconced in. This heavily adorned quilt is lavishly embellished with portraits of Pangea’s matriarchs and patriarchs, flowers from their childhood, a birth chart, quotes from books and poetry, a seraphim, ten swords, mangrove roots, self-portraits, and other symbols of personal identity and time. Reference and process images and materials accompany the installation. The work was born from inquiries concerning whether familial and personal past dictates one’s future, if fate exists, if one can escape the past, and how the past is continuously defined and redefined. Each element of the quilt was meticulously handcrafted from upcycled materials using a zero-waste process that took over a year of labor. Materials were collected from community swaps, family heirlooms, and designer scraps, which highlight the power and usefulness of waste.
Techniques used include embroidery, patchwork, beading, painting, quilting, typography, and collage. The quilt encompasses the artist’s past and considers the unfathomable power that the past exerts over the present and future. This highly personal quilt series will never be for sale, and is only available to the public through exhibitions and print reproductions.
