Pop-up Studio and TAC Maker Space
Bard Graduate Center
Through May 13, 2018
Textile Arts Center has partnered with the Bard Graduate Center to set a pop-up studio and maker space in the BGC Gallery space, as part of the public programming for the “Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles” and “The Codex and Craft in Late Antiquity” exhibitions. The TAC Maker Space provides an opportunity for the public to interact with textile processes and techniques, and will feature three artists in residence working in the space. Neil Goss is the artist featured in April. He has dedicated the past eight years to researching and experimenting with sustainable art materials and processes. He preserves primitive technologies like backstrap weaving and natural dyeing to create contemporary works of art. Subversion plays an important role in his practice while focusing on contradiction, duality, biocentrism and interconnectedness.
Work by Neil Goss, 2018.
Joseph La Piana: Tension In Between
Sara Kay Gallery
Through May 19
“Joseph La Piana, Installation View,” Courtesy of Sara Kay Gallery
Sara Kay Gallery presents Tension Between, a solo exhibition by Joseph La Piana of site-specific installation and works on paper from the artist’s Tension series, including various relief drawings on watercolor paper, vellum and chipboard. La Piana’s work experiments with form of a fabric in all stages of design by challenging the “tensile strength” of stretchable fabric. Sara Kay aptly explains her enthusiasm for La Piana’s work as, “I’m especially excited to present La Piana’s works on paper as they serve as the blueprint, the DNA for the various stages of life leading up to the sculpture. They provide us with an understanding of how tension can work and be transformed in space.”
AIR Gallery
April 19 to May 20
“Drawers, 2002, Yarn Body Suit,” Courtesy of A.I.R Gallery
A.I.R gallery is a non profit organization which supports women’s work. In their current exhibition, they feature contemporary artists — Kathleen Schneider, Dominique Duroseau and Karen Leo. I would highlight Leo’s interdisciplinary work in which she creates “short videos using animation, costumes and hand-made puppets.” In her artist statement, Leo explains that “I use humor to explore my characters’ feelings of doubt and rootlessness. References may be made to: action films, antiquated audio-visual equipment, disappointment, boxing, children’s toys, Bruce Willis, physical limitations, and wonder.”
Sapar Contemporary
Through April 18
“The Zac Posen mannequin designed for the show,” Courtesy of Sapar Contemporary, The Cut
Curated by Emma Kathleen Hepburn Ferrer, the exhibition provides an intimate view of pioneering designers’ rarely exhibited work. Designers like Zac Posen, Manolo Blahnik, Roland Nivelais, Raquel Davidowicz, and Geova Rodrigues engage in different stages of ideation and reflect the unseen aspects of fashion, art, design and textiles. For instance, the curator of this exhibition and an ambassador for UNHCR, Emma Ferrer states that, “from illustrations, sketches, and scribbled notes, to a mannequin draped with cloth, fabric sewn onto a canvas, and unique miniature human-like dolls, this exhibition calls for a new understanding and appreciation of ‘design’ – the ‘intention that exists, or is thought to exist’ behind clothing and fashion.” More importantly, a part of proceeds of exhibition sales will go to USA for UNHCR, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Handmade: Women Reshaping Contemporary Art
Through June 2
The Westport Arts Center
Hand Made Curator’s Talk & Panel Discussion
April 21, 11am to 1pm
“Do Not Touch,” Courtesy of Terri Friedman and The Westport Arts Center
Curated by Elizabeth Gorayeb, the Executive Director of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc., a non-profit art historical research foundation based in New York, the exhibition presents diverse range of over 15 female artists with a focus on fiber and textile arts including Lesley Dill, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Judith Scott, Orly Cogan and Beverly Semmes. The exhibiting is showcasing this “assemblage” of artists for the first time in Connecticut. Amanda Innes, Executive Director of the Westport Arts Center, aptly describes the exhibition as “There is an unexpected timeliness to this exhibition that resonates within the community at large. These established artists, working in non-traditional media, are clearly making an impact within the conversation of Contemporary Art. Their work unapologetically embraces the sensory aspects of fiber, and defies any attempt to diminish the work as craft.”
Talking Textiles: 2018 Dorothy Waxman Textile Design Prize
Submission deadline: July 14th
“2017 Prize Winner Wendy Andreu,” Courtesy of trendtablet.com
Edelkoort Inc. announces the fourth annual Dorothy Waxman Textile Design Prize awarded to a “fashion or a textile design student who exhibits innovative thinking and inspires creativity in textiles.” The award [prize, $5000] is part of Talking Textiles initiative which promotes “textile education, creativity and awareness.” The prizes will be announced as a part of New York Textile Month in September 2018. To access the application, please click here.
The Secret Life of Textiles: The Milton Sonday Archive
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gallery 591
“Milton Sonday . Isometric drawing of a 17th-century Mughal silk sash, 1970,” Courtesy of Milton Sonday Papers, Antonio Ratti Textile Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Textile curator and scholar, Milton Sonday (American, born 1938) donated his research to the Ratti Textile Center in 2012. As one of the pioneering expert of textiles particularly those which are woven, Sonday has worked in the Textile Museum, D.C, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, and is one of the of founding members of Textile Society of America. The Met Museum presents a “selection of his studies of lace structures and couched embroidery, loom models for patterned weaves, and diagrams made from classic handwoven textiles.” His drawings (above image) helped simplify hand woven structures for his students.
The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro
The Museum of Art and Design
Through September 9, 2018
“Gates of Paradise, 1980,” © Miriam Schapiro/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Courtesy Eric Firestone Gallery, Museum of Art and Design.
The exhibition, The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro, features 29 works by pioneering feminist, Miriam Schapiro, and 28 works by contemporary artists including Sanford Biggers, Josh Blackwell, Edie Fake, Jeffrey Gibson, Judy Ledgerwood, Jodie Mack, Sara Rahbar, Ruth Root, and Jasmin Sian. As noted by MAD museum, the “exhibition seeks to redress this gap in the history of American art through an exploration of Schapiro’s signature femmages, the term she coined to describe her distinctive hybrid of painting and collage inspired by women’s domestic arts and crafts and the feminist critique of the hierarchy of art and craft.” As a part of their Surface/Depth series, the MAD museum is also exhibiting the Samantha Bittman: Interlace at 1ST SITE, the “new project space at the reception” of the MAD museum. The juxtaposition of the digital and the hand crafted in Bittman’s work presents an interesting contrast to Schapiro’s hybrid paintings.
