Tag: textile art

Tuli Mekondjo at Hales Gallery

Displaced as a child from her native Namibia, Windhoek-based artist Tuli Mekondjo considers her country’s past in textile and photo-based work now on view at Hales Gallery in Chelsea. This piece’s title, ‘Khaxatsus (Gibeon), 1863,’ refers to the original and the colonial names for the hometown of IKhowesin chief Hendrik Witbooi, who is recognized for his military action against German colonizers in the late 19th – early 20thcentury.  Posing in a photograph with his family and surrounded in a frame of lace at the center of this textile piece, Witbooi is pictured as family man as much as national hero.  (On view through March 9th).

Tuli Mekondjo, ‘Khaxatsus (Gibeon), 1863,’ image transfer, silk, linen, sheer fabric, cotton yarn, lace, tracing paper, soil, plants, and rusted enamel cup, 67 ½ x 50 x 2 inches, 2024.

Eric N. Mack at Paula Cooper Gallery

Eric N. Mack calls himself a painter whose medium is fabric – new work at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea is mostly hung on stretchers that support not canvas but collaged fabric fragments.  Like painting, Mack’s work foregrounds color and pattern, but the artist doesn’t add these elements to the canvas, rather he encounters them as found materials.  Instead of creating transparency and texture from paint, these are qualities of the surface itself.  Sourced from divergent origins – Mack might use fabric from couture clothing or neighborhood markets – the artist collapses quality distinctions in his dynamic abstractions.  (On view through Dec 22nd in Chelsea).

Eric N. Mack, Strewn Sitbon, fabric on aluminum stretcher, overall: 41 x 34 ½ x 6 inches, 2023.

Ghada Amer at Marianne Boesky Gallery

Inspired by Egyptian traditions of decoration on tents used for weddings or feasts, Egyptian-American artist Ghada Amer substitutes contemporary text for Islamic or calligraphic imagery in new work at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea.  Using applique, in which fabric is sewn onto other fabric, Amer incorporates feminist phrases and text into designs resembling QR codes.  Those these designs don’t scan, they open up histories of struggle for women’s rights via texts by late Egyptian feminist and activist Nawal El Saadawi or late Australian women’s liberation activist Joyce Stevens.  Here, the writing reads, ‘A woman’s voice is revolution.” (On view in Chelsea at Marianne Boesky Gallery through Dec 22nd.  Ghada Amer’s bronze series ‘Paravent Girls’ is on view at Tina Kim Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 9th).

Ghada Amer, A WOMAN’S VOICE,’ “A woman’s voice is revolution,” cotton applique on canvas, 82 ½ x 83 ½ inches, 2023.

Bisa Butler at Deitch Projects

A fabulously patterned rendition of Harriet Tubman’s portrait at the entrance to Bisa Butler’s show at Deitch Projects announces Butler’s supremely enjoyable textile practice and celebration of the achievements of Black Americans.  Basing her artworks on photographs by creatives including Gordon Parks and Jamel Shabazz, Butler lovingly embellishes her subjects using an array of rich materials, including cotton, silk, wool, velvet, and lace.  This portrait of Ahmir Questlove Thompson (original photo by Daniel Dorsa) incorporates glass beads, adding dimension and reflecting light to suggest the musical artist’s visionary quality.  (On view through June 30th).

Bisa Butler, The Passion of Questlove, from a photograph of Ahmir Questlove Thompson by Daniel Dorsa, cotton, silk, wool, velvet, lace, jet glass beads and vinyl quilted and appliqued, 36 x 23 inches, 2023.
Bisa Butler, (detail) The Passion of Questlove, from a photograph of Ahmir Questlove Thompson by Daniel Dorsa, cotton, silk, wool, velvet, lace, jet glass beads and vinyl quilted and appliqued, 36 x 23 inches, 2023.

Renata Bonfanti at Kaufman Repetto

Experimentation and a quest for the new has been at the heart of Italian textile designer Renata Bonfanti’s work since she traveled from her native Italy to complete her studies in Olso in the early 50s.  A selection of woven work from 1968 – 1990, now on view at Kaufmann Repetto in Tribeca, foregrounds Bonfanti’s inventive techniques and varied geometries, which she explains are always inspired by the built environment.  (On view through Feb 18th).

Renata Bonfanti, Kilim 3 (from the Bengala series), linen, wool, and meraklon, 89 x 71.5 inches, 1982.