The Museum of Art and Design
May 8, 2018 to October 2, 2018
Event: In Conversation: Tanya Aguiñiga and Art Made Between Opposite Sides ,The Theater at MAD, May 12, 2018, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Event: Resistance, Power, and Transformation: Tanya Aguiñiga and Sheila Pepe in Conversation, 38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall, Bard Graduate Center, May 10, 6:30 pm
“Tanya Aguiñiga, Re-indigenizing the Self, 2017.” Photo Courtesy of Volume Gallery, Chicago and the Museum of Art and Design
The Museum of Art and Design introduces the exhibition, “Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft & Care” in their second-floor gallery to enhance the interaction between the artist and the audience. The LA based artist who was raised in Tijuana, Mexico explores community creation and documents inter-border connections through craft. This exhibition not only highlights Aguiñiga’s craft practice, but also sheds light on her Creative Capital-funded initiative called Art Made Between Opposite Sides (AMBOS). Some of the features of “Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft & Care” includes “photographic documentation, radio broadcasts, ephemera, data, and an installation generated by AMBOS.”
DIY@BGC: Creativity, Choreography, and Embodied Knowledge
Biocentric Interconnectedness: We All Contribute to the Web
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall, Bard Graduate Center
May 12, 2–4 pm
“Neil Goss’s work.” Photo Courtesy of the Bard Graduate Center
A participatory performance in with artist-in-residence, Neil Goss, taps into the potential of “interconnected webs.” Using elemental techniques like backstrap weaving and natural dyeing, Goss aims to engage on a deeper level with the audience by using his participatory performance.
Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Your Place or Mine…
The Jewish Museum, New York
Through August 5, 2018
Event: Dialogue and Discourse: Decoration and Domesticity, May 17, 2018
Photo Courtesy of Jason Mandella
The New York Times states that Marc Camille Chaimowicz’s art often embodies interior spaces. Taking this further in an exhibition space, The Jewish Museum explores Chaimowicz’s first solo exhibition in the United States. According to the museum catalog, the duality in his exhibition reflects “both the fine and applied arts and challenges the categorical divisions between masculine and feminine, public and private, past and present.”
Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund
The Museum of Modern Art
Through July 22
“Nick Cave. Soundsuit. 2011. Found objects, knit head and bodysuit, and mannequin.” Photo Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Collector and patron of the arts, Agnes Gund’s experiences are translated in this exhibition which pays tribute to both the collector and the artists. A selection of 55 gifts to the MoMA including artist Nick Cave’s “soundsuits” are celebrated. Gund explains “my friendships with artists as well as a sensitivity to the challenges facing women artists and artists of color, have been formative in shaping my collection, which is deeply personal and deeply autobiographical.”
Through May 14,2018
The Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum is exhibiting multidisciplinary artist, Nick Mauss’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Paintings, drawings and videos are placed next to each other “within a layered exhibition design.” This exhibition also collaborates with contemporary ballet for a daily performance to depict the expressions of pre-queer histories, and to provide a new dimension to the practice and theory of art and dance.
“Nick Mauss, Re-creation of the costume Paul Cadmus designed for Filling Station, 2018.” Photo Courtesy of The Whitney Museum
Through May 20, 2018
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
Co-curated by Noam Parness, Risa Puleo, and Daniel Sander at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, the exhibition sheds light on the artistic practice of queer artists. “Sensuous qualities of materials” are explored by re-defining what it means to be a contemporary artist. Take for instance, “dirty sun” by Anna Betbeze grapples with the abstraction of natural processes.
“Anna Betbeze, Dirty Sun, 2017, Acid dyes, ash on wool, 96 x 79 in.” Photo Courtesy of (c) Riya Lerner
Spirited Creatures: Animal Representations in Chinese Silk and Lacquer
The Met Fifth Avenue
Through July 2018
“Door valance and side panels with dragons, 17th-18th century.” Photo Courtesy of The Met Museum
“Spirited Creatures: Animal Representations in Chinese Silk and Lacquer” presents “textiles and fifty lacquers spanning several hundred years—from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century.” Some of the “exclusive objects” from late Imperial China include “dragon robes, rank badges, and tapestry panels for interior decoration, as well as many different types of lacquer vessels from imperial workshops.”
Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn
Through May 13, 2018
“Bloated Flags by artist, Natalie Baxter.” Photo Courtesy of Ground Floor Gallery
“Women at Work” challenges the mainstream gendered labor roles by presenting the work of contemporary artists — Natalie Baxter, Paola Citterio, and Leslie Tucker. The Ground Floor Gallery which started as a collaboration between curators Krista Saunders Scenna and Jill Benson introduces underrepresentation of “local talent.” By questioning pre-existing material and social norms, Baxter, Citterio and Tucker employ a compendium of techniques like sewing, knitting and digital collages to “reinterpret family histories, consumer culture and politics.
Fiber Book Picks
Exploring literature provides a new perspective to everyday experiences of fiber and cloth. Exhibitions like Women at Work, Nick Mauss: Transmissions and Haptic Tactics engage with themes like inclusivity, queer identity and performativity in craft-work. In addition, events like Dialogue and Discourse: Decoration and Domesticity, Biocentric Interconnectedness: We All Contribute to the Web and In Conversation: Tanya Aguiñiga and Art Made Between Opposite Sides focus on the dual dimensions of art, craft and textile practice. Therefore, in “Fiber Book Picks,” we contribute to the textile-craft discourse by suggesting five books which resonate with events and exhibitions in May’s fiber art picks:
- Radical decadence : excess in contemporary feminist textiles and craft (2017): available at the New York Public Library
- Hand + made : the performative impulse in art and craft (2010): available at Blue: The Tatter Textile Library
- Women’s work : textile art from the Bauhaus (1993): available at The Brooklyn Public Library
- String, felt, thread : the hierarchy of art and craft in American art (2010): available at Thomas J Watson Library
- Textiles: open letter (2015): available at the Museum of Modern Art Library
