The practice of weaving is one of the oldest forms of craft, dating back over 12,000 years. Recently, textile and craft-based art has undergone a renaissance and gained new appreciation. The artists whose works are highlighted in this presentation accomplish this transformation in innovative ways and explore traditional distinctions between art, craft and design. Often taking a collaborative approach while embracing specific communities and heritages, they incorporate layers of meaning through the selection of materials and by referencing relevant social issues.
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Maja Bajević takes a critical and witty approach to her art to pinpoint dualities in human behavior, particularly those involving power: the power of history as opposed to the power of choice and interpretation, collective memory to collective amnesia, objective accounts to subjective storytelling and imagination. Her work, which spans video, installation, performance, sound, text, crafts, drawing, painting, printmaking, machinery and photography, is about opening questions rather than giving answers. Bajević has been incorporating craft elements in her work from the very beginning of her career to tell a story, pose a question, or ask for understanding, as well as to address the value associated with art. The time that it takes to make a craft-based work is in direct opposition to the fast-paced tempo of the modern world.
‘Difference in wages between man and women’ (2022) stems from an earlier embroidered work, ‘Arts, Crafts and Facts,’ first produced for the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. While ‘Arts, Crafts and Facts’ was a comment on the stock market and the way it influences our lives, ‘Difference in wages between man and women’ refers to statistical data regarding gender imbalances. This data reveals wage inequalities between men and women in different countries. Embroidery, a time-consuming craft, has historically been considered women’s work, and Bajević’s embroideries are made by female artisans in Bosnia, part of the former Yugoslavia where she was born.
Franziska Furter’s multimedia art practice spans drawing, sculpture and installation. Her systematic process involves carefully considered decisions about techniques and materials. To expand her approach and further her interest in creating visualizations of invisible phenomena, she mastered tufting, a process of making rugs and other textiles that involves looping yarn or fabric through a backing material. In ‘Liquid Skies’ (2022), a tufted wool work, the artist creates a composite of various infrared images of hurricanes, translating these fleeting satellite pictures into a pixelated landscape. The vibrancy of the swirling imagery contrasts with the destructive force of these weather events that often result in natural disasters.
Kyungah Ham works across installation, video, performance, and traditional media. She is most recognized for the embroidery paintings she began making in 2008, of which ‘Needling Whisper, Needle Country / SMS Series in Camouflage / Greedy is good K01-01-01’ (2020) is a vibrant example. The series documents a dialogue across geographical boundaries and ideologies between South and North Korea.
Ham collects images and text, designs the coded imagery, and smuggles the details to artisans in North Korea through a middleman. The information, which is not accessible in North Korea, is then translated into embroidered patterns. In some instances, the blueprints or textiles were confiscated, and Ham had to pay a bribe to regain the work. The serial number in the title is a secret code to communicate with the middleman; “Greedy is good” could be a reference to a famous line spoken in the film 'Wall Street' (1987) by the protagonist Gordon Gekko, and thus a symbol of Western culture.
Spanning a career of more than 60 years, Sheila Hicks is one of the most important textile artists of her generation. Hicks’s work is influenced by pre-Columbian craft, in particular pre-Incaic weaving and dyeing techniques from Peru and the textile traditions of cultures around the world. Her unique approach results in a balanced association of ancient craft modes with revolutionary twentieth-century theories on form and color. While the physical implications of its creation are at the forefront of the work—from hand-dyeing to hand-weaving, tying and knotting—it also reveals Hicks’s truly painterly approach.
In ‘Mining Red Slate from the Depths’ (2017), a dense curtain of threads in vibrant colors covers the canvas entirely. The threads are reminiscent of drips of pure paint slowly trickling down the surface. Hicks’s mastery of fiber creates highly tactile works that blur the boundaries between sculpture, painting and textile craft.
Suki Seokyeong Kang’s practice consists of painting, sculpture, installation and performance inspired by a range of classical and contemporary influences such as Korean dance, poetry and music. Her works consistently reference and subvert traditions.
‘Mat 120 x 165 #23-67’ (2023) features a grid-like frame embedded with varying shapes set against a pastel colored ‘Hwamunseok’—a handmade reed mat made by artisans in Ganghwa Island with whom Kang has collaborated as a way of honoring traditional crafts. The gridded boxes are at the core of Kang’s practice and stem from ‘Jeongganbo’ (Jeong, 井 meaning “a well”), the first musical notation system from East Asia invented in the Joseon Dynasty to record pitch, rhythm and time. Jeong insignias inform how the artist conceives the work as a space for individual actions and expression within the frame that forms an organized and balanced composition. Kang also draws from traditional Korean choreography, in particular the Joseon Dynasty court dance ‘Chunaengmu’, which was often accompanied by music scored by ‘Jeongganbo.’ As a form of highly restrained classical dance, performers were confined to their ‘Hwamunseok’ mats which were used as stages. The mats were the only spaces where interaction with royal court members was allowed. By setting the ‘Hwamunseok’ inside the frame, in the broader context of her ‘Mat’ series, Kang questions an individual’s physical presence and restrictions in a choreographed space or societal context.
Bonolo Kavula explores the language of printmaking beyond its traditional confines through her use of thread and punched Shweshwe fabric. This material is deeply rooted in Kavula’s memory of her own family, as well as in South Africa’s wider history. Combining print, design, painting and sculpture, the artist’s work resembles a language that expresses her strategic and symbolic approach to materiality.
Kavula’s work is minimalistic yet complex—known for its formalism as well as its ability to encourage conversations and ideas surrounding ancestry and identity. In ‘Landscape Study I’ and ‘Landscape Study II’ (2024), she layers punched Shweshwe fabric over a splash of gradient colors, adding an extra dimension to the compositions. Through the use of repetition and abstraction, each dot establishes its own landscape of minutiae, telling the meditative action of labor, and the creation of new meaning through deconstruction and transformation.
In photo weavings from the series ‘Tapestry,’ Dinh Q Lê uses floral iconography to allude to the effects of trauma and war. These works pay homage to the Vietnamese tradition of floral wreaths. The wreaths, made for both celebrations and funerals, are indistinguishable except for the flower selection. In Vietnam, certain kinds of flowers are displayed during New Year celebrations, while others are only used for memorials. Lê's floral abstractions memorialize Vietnamese lives lost by war and violence, while also representing a peaceful future for the country.
Liza Lou is known for paintings, sculptures and installations created from glass beads including ‘Kitchen’ (1991-1996), a detailed room-sized environment encrusted in rainbow-colored beads. In this pioneering work as well as in her overall practice, she challenges the conventional distinction between fine and decorative arts and explores the relationship between gender and the labor associated with crafts, traditionally a female domain. Further engaging with the nature of “women’s work,” she moved her studio from Los Angeles to Durban, South Africa in 2005 and founded a collective of Zulu women known for their expertise in beadwork, a skill that goes back generations. She was able to offer meaningful opportunities, including an advocacy program, to these women who reside in townships known for a high unemployment rate. Although she has since returned to Los Angeles, this collaborative relationship continues.
In ‘Get Off My Cloud’ (2024), Lou alludes to a subject that has occupied her for the past several years. She began photographing clouds in South Africa, their fleeting beauty in contrast to the urban distress she witnessed. The notion of the ephemeral adds a conceptual layer to her practice that is grounded in the communal and repetitive labor of women. In this work, rather than use typical grid patterns, she applies clusters of beads directly onto the canvas. These clusters resemble natural accretions and replicate gestural paint strokes, a tribute to Abstract Expressionism. The placement and color of each bead leads to the next, an intuitive process that emerged from a period of working alone, rather than her typical communal approach, in the Mojave Desert in Southern California.
Suchitra Mattai’s family history and Indo-Caribbean heritage informs her art practice, which encompasses tapestries, mixed media paintings, sculptures and installations. Her great-grandparents were brought from Uttar Pradesh, India, to Guyana, South America, both former British colonies, as indentured servants. She recontextualizes existing images and uses vintage textiles that she often inherits from family members to tell new narratives, a process she describes as “brown reclamation.” These materials include saris, garments worn by women in the Indian subcontinent, and dupatta, long shawl-like scarves also worn by women in this region. Mattai uses traditional craft techniques, including sewing, embroidery and crocheting, that are often associated with women’s handiwork and the domestic sphere, to reflect and celebrate her maternal lineage as well as her cultural history.
In ‘an ordinary day, an extraordinary view’ (2024), the artist combines braided saris in an array of sumptuous hues with golden tassels and ghungroo bells, which are traditionally worn on the ankles of performers during Indian classical dances. Mattai transforms these ordinary garments into an extraordinary work of art evoking an enticing landscape.
Malgorzata Mirga-Tas’s cultural identity is an integral aspect of her practice, which includes sculpture, painting, installation and textiles. She lives and works in Czarna Góra, a small village in southern Poland near the border with Slovakia and is a member of the Bergitka Roma, which like other Romani groups has a unique dialect and set of laws.
In textile creations such as ‘Andro Drom (On the Way)’ (2016), Mirga-Tas explores the daily lives and experiences of her community, creating patchwork scenes depicting members participating in everyday activities, conversing or just relaxing. The artist starts with photographs of her subjects and then sketches them on paper, before “dressing” them in clothing and fabrics donated by friends and family. Along with a team of seamstress-assistants including family members, Mirga-Tas sews the parts together, finally painting in the faces and other details. She eschews pure documentation, incorporating ornamental details like animals and flowers to introduce an element of fantasy. As in her commission for the Polish Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, her compositions are sometimes intended to be parts of cycles revealing more extensive narratives with large casts of historical and contemporary characters. In this way, Mirga-Tas offers unique insights into her world, offsetting stereotypical views and misconceptions regarding the Romani.
Jordan Nassar experiments with craft techniques to explore concepts of memory, tradition and place. In his hand-embroidered works, he replicates geometric patterns characteristic of Palestinian ‘tatreez’, a centuries-old artistic practice and the resulting product of decorating domestic textiles. ‘A Sleepwalker Stricken with Sleep’ (2020) is from a series of “split screen” images in varying color combinations. The repeated motifs are interrupted by tonal changes that form an imaginary, abstracted landscape in the center of the work. The double composition reflects the artist’s own experience navigating his dual cultural identity as a Palestinian American.
To create this work, Nassar collaborated with craftswomen living in Ramallah, Palestine, whose cross-stitching formed the foundation. He then embroidered the imagery within their complex grids, creating a visual dialogue. The title is drawn from Lebanese American poet and artist Etel Adnan’s poem “The Arab Apocalypse,” which Adnan wrote in response to the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon. The dreamlike quality of the embroidered landscape echoes the surreal language of the poem.
Eko Nugroho’s practice is heavily influenced by the tumultuous socio-political environment in Indonesia during the 1990s. He has developed a unique visual language with a sense of humor, playfully intertwining political messages with appropriated aesthetics of street art, graffiti and comics. Inspired by local traditions and crafts like batik and Wayang Kulit, urban environments and a commitment to community-based artworks, his expansive body of work includes various mediums such as painting, installation, animation, sculpture, murals, wall hangings and Indonesian embroidery.
‘Love #2’ (2019) was first exhibited in Nugroho’s solo exhibition, ‘Lost in Parody’ (2020), which explored universal values of peace, democracy, borders and imagined futures. In the embroidered painting, two characters are dressed in insect-like costumes, holding hands in the moonlight. In lieu of mouths or other facial features, each figure has multiple sets of eyes, suggesting the ability to communicate without speaking. Though vivid colors, hopeful glances and bodily gestures, the work evokes optimism and the ubiquitous feeling of love. ‘Love #2’ was made in collaboration with embroiderers from a small village in Indonesia. Nugroho has been collaborating with this group since 2007, aiming to revive the disappearing traditional embroidery industry by providing them with new opportunities. The work was initiated by the artist’s questions regarding the societal role of art, and now represents his belief in a renewed communal society.
Yinka Shonibare was born in London and grew up in Nigeria. He returned to London where he studied art at Goldsmiths College. The artist, whose work includes paintings, sculpture, photographs, film and textiles, often makes use of brightly colored batik fabric, also known as Dutch Wax fabric or West African Ankara fabric. Batik fabric is synonymous with the region and has a strong place in African heritage. It originated in Indonesia, was mass produced in the Netherlands and was later introduced to Africa as an imported product. Its history underscores the complexities of African culture, its intertwining with other cultures and the interconnected nature of ethnic identities.
‘African Bird Magic (Bald Ibis)’ (2023) is part of a body of work created sustainably using deadstock or second-hand fabrics that Shonibare sourced locally in London to alleviate the negative impact on the environment. These works depict critically endangered African bird species. African masks hover near the birds, symbolizing ancestors who were once the custodians of the creatures’ habitats before they were affected by colonialization and industrialization. The masks also reference African artifacts collected by European modernist artists, like Pablo Picasso, and represent the conflicted relationship between European and African aesthetics. The diamond-shape pattern, symbolizing the harlequin, alludes to Picasso as well. The trickster character features in both Picasso’s and Shonibare’s practice and functions as a means of signifying disruption of established order.
Sagarika Sundaram creates her otherworldly monumental installations, which challenge perceptions of space and material, from handmade textiles. Her works focus on movement, depth and scale, transforming textiles into powerful architectural forms. Sundaram works with hand-dyed, raw natural fibers to create textile works, including wall-based, hanging and free-standing sculpture. Her work merges organic and constructed forms, emphasizing the deep connection between the human and natural worlds. Concentric rings, spirals, membranes and petaled forms evoke hybrid biomorphic forms, as seen in ‘Is Still a Rose’ (2024). Deeply rooted in the landscapes that sheepherders call home, wools and dyes from as far as the Himalayas and as near as the Hudson Valley form the raw materials for the ancient felt-making techniques that drive the construction of this work.
This collision of worlds—between the local and global, the ancient and modern and the human and natural—speaks to Sundaram’s own heritage, growing up between India and Dubai, and to the harmonious marriage of labor, materials and form that underlie thousands of years of textile tradition.
Eduardo Terrazas has made an impact across the fields of architecture, design, urban planning and art. His creative process involves a continued investigation of form and color. ‘Nine Circles: 1.2.47’ (2017) is from the series ‘Possibilities of a Structure,’ in which the artist transforms a geometric pattern through endless variations of structures and color. Terrazas uses a technique derived from the Huichol people of Mexico who are known for their intricate yarn paintings and beadwork. He adopts their process of using Campeche wax to affix wool yarn on wooden structures. The inspiration for this series can also be traced to his early years as an architect and his contributions to the logo and design elements for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
Joana Vasconcelos uses materials and techniques associated with domesticity, craft and female activities to create works that are often monumental in scale. She explores themes such as the status of women and consumerism in contemporary society.
‘Psychedelic Furs’ (2015) is part of the artist’s ‘Boxes’ series, sculptural creations that reflect the influence of Portuguese culture on her practice and her female perspective. The work is created with azulejos, the traditional Portuguese hand-painted ceramic tiles manufactured by the Viúva Lamego factory and sourced from a historical collection designed by artist Maria Keil in 1958 for a wall panel in Lisbon. The tiles typically decorate houses, including kitchens, and like the attached abstract shapes made from beading, crochet, fringe and faux fur, allude to the female sphere. These forms burst from the surface, representing the desire to break free from gender stereotypes. The title was inspired by the British rock group of the same name which was founded in London and popular in the 1980s. The band’s “new wave” style of music parallels Vasconcelos’ experimental and unique approach.