Tag: textile

Ramekon O’Arwisters in ‘Pollen on a West Wind’ at Jason Jacques Gallery

The organizing principle for Jason Jacques Gallery’s group show of innovative ceramic sculpture is not a theme but a place – all participating artists connect in some way to the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University at Long Beach.  Ramekon O’Arwisters’ relationship to CSULB is less conventional and his work alluring for his creative appropriation of failed ceramic forms abandoned there into fabulously colorful and dynamic sculptures.  Inspired by an encounter with broken ceramics during a residency at the San Francisco dump, O’Arwisters added the material to his textile practice, creating exuberant yet compact compositions that energize the show.  (On view in Chelsea through March 25th).

Ramekon O’Arwisters, Cheesecake #9, fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins, 20h x 11w x 11d, 2019.

Rachel Eulena Williams in ‘My Way: A Gathering’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Strips of painted and dyed acrylic canvas are reassembled in this dynamic composition by Rachel Eulena Williams in ‘My Way: A Gathering’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in Tribeca.  Featuring work by Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers and younger Black female artists in touch with their artistic forebears’ legacy, this group exhibition is a visual feast of pattern and color.  (On view through Feb 18th.)

Rachel Eulena Williams, Fall Scrap Flag, acrylic on canvas, dye canvas and polyester, 68 x 73 inches, 2022.

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.

Christina Forrer at Luhring Augustine Gallery

LA-based Swiss artist Christina Forrer’s new tapestries at Luhring Augustine continue to explore complex and troubled relationships, specifically between mankind and nature in the show’s most dramatic work, ‘Sepulcher.’  Titled after the space in which a dead person would be laid, the piece features a blazing sun, burning fields, bolts of lightning and icy breath from a blue figure in the sky, all signs of nature wreaking havoc.  Yet lady bugs, a waterfall and a fertile orchard suggest continued benefit and abundance.  All crafted in bright and pleasing colors, Forrer’s apocalypse is tempered by love of and hope for the natural world.  (On view in Tribeca through Oct 29th).

Christina Forrer, Sepulcher, cotton, wool and linen, 97 x 162 inches, 2021.

‘Ghana boy’ tunic in ‘The Clamor of Ornament’ at the Drawing Center

Featuring multicolor embroidery and emblems from urban life, ‘Ghana boy’ tunics like this one currently on view at the Drawing Center were worn by Malian workers who’d migrated to Ghana’s coastal cities.  The garments might depict tools of a trade (e.g. a barber’s scissors), fashionable clothing or vehicles (motorbikes to airplanes) and speak to the experience of the wearer.  On view in the Drawing Center’s wide-ranging design exhibition ‘The Clamor of Ornament:  Exchange, Power and Joy from the 15th century to the present,’ this tunic demonstrates self-fashioning between cultures.  (On view in SoHo through Sept 18th).

“Ghana Boy” style tunic (back), unknown artist, Mali, cotton cloth with multicolor embroidery, c. 1960s-70s.
“Ghana Boy” style tunic, unknown artist, Mali, cotton cloth with multicolor embroidery, c. 1960s-70s.