contemporary art with the north face x gore-tex
The North Face has joined with GORE-TEX and Storm King Art Center in upstate New York to mark the launch of HKe, the brand’s newest performance collection. The event centered around the unveiling of a new large-scale sculpture by Dutch designer and artist Johannes Offerhaus. The installation combines the language of technical apparel with the material and spatial logic of outdoor architecture.
Installed on one of Storm King’s open fields, the work introduced Offerhaus’s Tower, a nine-meter-high structure composed of SPECTRA® textile, carbon tubes, aluminum, and ropes. Its geometry draws from tent systems and alpine pack design, reflecting a shared ethos between art, design, and high-performance gear.
images © Malakhai Pearson
Johannes Offerhaus’ transportable sculpture
The collaboration between The North Face and Johannes Offerhaus extends beyond just the sculpture at Storm King Art Center. The project first appeared in the HKe campaign, which took place last month in Tungstølen, Norway (see here). There, the artist and a small team carried each component by foot across a glacial landscape, assembling the ultra-lightweight structure on site before disassembling and removing every piece. It was an homage to the outdoor spirit and respect for place that mirrors The North Face’s commitment to minimal impact.
In Upstate New York, Tower reads differently. Anchored in Storm King’s grassy terrain, the same lightweight system interacts with open air and shifting weather, making movement and tension visible through its ripstop planes. The use of SPECTRA® — a high-strength polyethylene also featured in the HKe collection — emphasizes the connection between technical textile innovation and the physical environment it is designed to endure.
The North Face and GORE-TEX arrive at Storm King for the launch of the HKe collection
high-performance material for artwork and apparel
The team at The North Face notes that its HKe collection (developed with GORE-TEX) reflects a growing intersection between performance design and cultural identity. It invites a rethinking of what outdoor gear can represent, merging utility and aesthetics without hierarchy. With this newly installed, large-scale artwork, The North Face and GORE-TEX demonstrate the performance material’s utility for both apparel and for sculptural exploration.
At Storm King, this dialogue feels natural, as the museum’s collection has long engaged with artists who explore scale, structure, and ecology. Offerhaus’s Tower continues this lineage to evoke the precision of pattern cutting and the logic of engineered form.
Johannes Offerhaus unveils his newest Tower sculpture in upstate New York
the nine-meter installation was built from SPECTRA® textile carbon tubes aluminum and rope
SPECTRA fabric connects The North Face apparel innovation with large scale textile architecture
Offerhaus translates the logic of outdoor gear into a spatial language of tension and movement
HKe explores the relationship between cultural identity and technical performance
Offerhaus first assembled Tower in Norway, carrying each part by foot across the glacial terrain
project info:
artist: Johannes Offerhaus | @johannesofferhaus
brand: The North Face | @thenorthface x GORE-TEX | @goretexbrand
location: New Windsor, New York
museum: Storm King Art Center | @stormkingartcenter
date: October 21st, 2025
photography: © Malakhai Pearson | @johannesofferhaus
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