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    Jacquard Weavings by Malaika Temba Explore Material, Community, and Global Trade

    “Etched in Soil” (2025), part of ‘She Weaves White Gold’ at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. All images courtesy of Malaika Temba, shared with permission

    Jacquard Weavings by Malaika Temba Explore Material, Community, and Global Trade

    November 4, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    “My practice exists in the tension between rest and labor, between the intimacy of touch and the vast systems that shape our world,” says artist Malaika Temba. “Whether I am working on a small weaving or a large-scale installation, I am always asking what materials remember and who gets remembered through them.”

    Merging digital and analog processes, Temba creates layered textile pieces in an exploration of migration, labor, gender, global trade, and daily life. Using a Jacquard loom, she renders tender portraits of people and quotidian urban scenes, from friends seated together to deliveries being made to the hustle and bustle of daily life in the city.

    “Carry Home” (2024), Jacquard woven fabric, acrylic paint, and fabric dye, 49 x 64 inches

    Growing up, Temba lived in Saudi Arabia, Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, and the United States. In moving between countries, the Tanzanian-American artist tells Colossal, “I was always struck by how fabric marks culture, and how pattern, texture, and material can tell you where you are by what people wear, how they use cloth, and what materials are available to them—whether found in nature, brought through trade, or produced by industry.”

    In art school, Temba learned to use a Jacquard loom, which enables weavers to create intricate patterns using an automated method. Invented in the early 19th century by Joseph Marie Jacquard, the machines originally used a punch card system. By the 1980s, electronic versions reflected advances in computing, and today, these intricate mechanisms can be programmed to create virtually any design.

    “I learned to use a Jacquard loom and became fascinated by its duality: the loom as one of the oldest forms of human-coded technology and the Jacquard as a machine capable of extraordinary innovation,” Temba says. The method itself parallels the artist’s interest in material and systems. Recently, she has been interested specifically in sisal, a cultivated plant and fiber deeply entwined with labor and trade in Tanzania. Sisal is often used to make durable products like rugs, rope, bags, and more.

    The artist currently has an installation titled She Weaves White Gold on view at the North Carolina Museum of Art, comprising three pieces set against ornate wallpaper. In this work, Temba employs sisal as both the primary material and the concept, as she portrays individuals and communities “carrying stories of work, migration, and endurance across geographies and through systems of production and exchange.”

    “(Aunties Patterned Dresses)” (2025), Jacquard woven fabric, 60.5 x 51.5 inches.

    After creating the main textile element, Temba often hand-manipulates the fabric by unravelling areas, adding paint, and silkscreening. These layered elements add to a sense that the work is always in a state of flux—simultaneously constructed and undone. “Over time, these pieces have grown larger, more collaged, and richer in texture, capturing multiple moments within a single woven scene,” she says.

    Temba’s work honors the lives and labor of especially people in East Africa. “With tense elections in Tanzania and the ongoing war in Sudan, I am thinking a lot about visibility, dignity, and what it means to represent ordinary people at a time when their stories are often reduced to headlines or statistics,” she says. “Creating these works is a way of slowing down that narrative, of insisting that daily life—the gestures of care, the rhythm of work, and the persistence of women—has value and deserves to be seen.”

    She Weaves White Gold remains on view through autumn 2026 in Raleigh. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Beauty Salon” (2023), Jacquard woven fabric, silkscreen ink, painting, and sewing machine embroidery, 50 x 70 inches

    “Blue Diana (I don’t know what lighter feels like)” (2025), Jacquard woven fabric and paint, 69 x 51 3/4 inches

    Detail of “Blue Diana (I don’t know what lighter feels like)”

    “Preparing Dinner” (2025), Jacquard woven fabric and paint, 61 x 52 inches

    “Veggie Market” (2025), Jacquard woven fabric and paint, 57.5 x 51.75 inches

    “Bismillah Auto Repair” (2024), Jacquard woven fabric, chalk, and sewing thread, 60 x 46 inches

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    World War II Journal Entries Float in a Web of Blood-Red Yarn in Chiharu Shiota’s ‘Diary’

    Installation view of ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025. Photos by Go Sugimoto. All images courtesy of the artist and Japan Society Gallery, shared with permission

    World War II Journal Entries Float in a Web of Blood-Red Yarn in Chiharu Shiota’s ‘Diary’

    October 2, 2025

    ArtHistory

    Kate Mothes

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    Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota presents a poignant suite of large-scale works in Two Home Countries at Japan Society Gallery. That artist is known for her immersive string installations, inviting us into emotive, atmospheric experiences that tap into both universal and deeply personal narratives.

    In Two Home Countries, viewers enter a vivid world shaped by red thread, redolent of intertwined veins and blood vessels that attach to the floor, take on the shapes of houses, and spread through an entire room with a cloud-like aura of red—filled with written pages. Themes of memory, mortality, connection, identity, and belonging weave through Shiota’s pieces, exploring “how pain, displacement, boundaries, and existential uncertainty shape the human condition and our understanding of self,” the gallery says.

    Detail of “Diary” (2025) in ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025

    An expansive, room-sized work titled “Diary,” which is based on an earlier installation and commissioned anew for Two Home Countries, incorporates a dense web of yarn in which float pages of journals that once belonged to Japanese soldiers. Some were also penned by German civilians in the post-war era. “The accumulated pages reveal an expansive record of shared human existence across national boundaries,” the gallery says.

    “When the body is gone, the objects which surrounded them remain behind,” Shiota says in a statement. “As I wander the stalls of the markets in Berlin, I find especially personal items like photographs, old passports, and personal diaries. Once, I found a diary from 1946, which was an intimate insight into the person’s life and experiences.” For Shiota, the power of these objects are revealed in how she feels the presence of writer’s “inner self.”

    Two Home Countries is on view through January 11 in New York City. Plan your visit on the Japan Society’s website, and find more on Shiota’s site and Instagram.

    Installation view of ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025

    Installation view of ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025

    Installation view of ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025

    Installation view of ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025

    Detail of “Two Home Countries” (2025) in ‘Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries’ at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025

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    In ‘Crewel Intentions,’ Danielle Clough Delves into the Nostalgic World of 1970s Magazines

    “Crewel Intentions” (2025), wool, cotton, rayon, and silk on linen, 9.5 x 18 x 2.25 inches framed. All images courtesy of the artist and Paradigm Gallery + Studio, shared with permission

    In ‘Crewel Intentions,’ Danielle Clough Delves into the Nostalgic World of 1970s Magazines

    August 11, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    Several years ago, Danielle Clough ran across a vintage copy of Playboy at an antique shop. Unbeknownst to her at the time, the 1970s-era film photography, feathered hairstyles, and iconic—if stereotypical—advertising would influence a wide array of large-scale embroidery portraits.

    The Cape Town-based artist (previously) scoured the popular magazine’s pages in search of faces and settings she could translate into embroidery. Because of the source, Clough is sensitive to the fact that one might expect the imagery to be hyper-sexualized, but “when they are stripped from context, they can be beautiful and illicit wholesome reactions in their newly recalibrated, woolly world,” she says.

    “Dyed in the Wool” (2025), wool, cotton, rayon, and silk on linen, 14.5 x 14.5 x 2.25 inches framed

    In her solo exhibition, Crewel Intentions, now on view at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Clough’s characteristically vibrant fiber compositions tap into a bygone era that, in terms of time, does not seem too distant, but when measured against the technological and socio-political leaps of the past few decades, it can feel like ancient history. Through the historic technique of crewel embroidery, a form of freehand fiber work in which wool yarn is sewn onto cloth, the artist creates a raised and textured surface that can strike virtually any shape or size.

    Nostalgia can have a comforting effect when the contemporary world feels overwhelming. In the 1970s, the world was still largely analog—correspondence primarily went through the mail; magazines and newspapers were printed en masse; and the internet as we know it didn’t yet exist, but there were hints (the “modern” internet would emerge in the mid-1980s).

    The artist merges new materials and saturated hues with imagery and styles we often associate with an earlier age, both romanticizing and acknowledging outmoded attitudes, styles, and technologies. “Clough’s appreciation of her material and her subject allows her to start a conversation on graceful aging,” the gallery says, “celebrating outdated processes of making and the aesthetics that stand the test of time.”

    The 1970s represent a way to explore generational transitions, beauty standards, societal norms, photography, and representation. Through careful cropping and lighting, Clough incorporates a cinematic effect that is most provocative in pieces like “Crewel Intentions” and “The Extra Mile,” in which her characters make eye contact with the viewer, as if they know what’s in store for the future.

    Crewel Intentions continues through August 24 in Philadelphia. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    Detail of “Crewel Intentions”

    Installation view of ‘Crewel Intentions’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio

    “The Extra Mile” (2025), wool, cotton, rayon, and silk on linen, 8.25 x 16.25 x 1.5 inches framed

    “The Yarn We Spin” (2025), wool, cotton, rayon, and silk on linen, 25 inches diameter

    Detail of “What’s a Girl to Do?” (2025), wool, cotton, rayon and silk on linen, 32 inches diameter

    Installation view of ‘Crewel Intentions’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio

    “Boy Lollipop” (2025), wool, cotton, and silk on linen, 17 inches diamater

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    Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread

    “Let’s Get Demonized (Instructional Polyhedron).” Photos by Jason Chen. All images courtesy of Caitlin McCormack, shared with permission

    Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread

    July 10, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    Caitlin McCormack is known for her crocheted, skeletal animals and otherworldly plants that nod to a speculative future in which the earth has endured environmental catastrophe. Motifs of skeletal baby birds and mammals read as cautionary tales about the human relationship with nature today and how much more disconnected—and disastrous—it could become.

    Through crochet, with which we often associate domestic comfort and even quaintness, the artist channels a nostalgic medium to peer more closely at what we ignore in the present. Bundles of stones and knick-knacks encased in lacy fibers are complemented by skeletal specimens and strange botanical sculptures.

    “Never Let the Party Die”

    A new body of work that goes on view this weekend in There You Will Find the Stone at Harman Projects. The show includes a nebulous, blue wall sculpture titled “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed,” containing niches for tiny bundles of found objects. Pairing a slightly unnerving hue and a collection of tenderly crocheted packets, McCormack illuminates a reverence for tiny overlooked or discarded items.

    Many of the titles of the artist’s pieces express a sense of dread, tension, or excess. A series of bundles titled They Come Back But They’re Never the Same and sculptures like “Don’t Let the Party Die” hint at a human crisis of control. “You Picked the Wrong One,” with a nest of unsettling, skeletal baby birds, brims with foreboding.

    McCormack’s recent work emerges also from her attempts to process loss and illness in her family, including her own medical diagnoses. “These experiences have catalyzed a reevaluation of deep-rooted existential positions, specifically those grounded in skepticism, atheism, and a lifetime of anxiety,” she says in a statement. These pieces “serve as manifestations of an evolving worldview shaped by grief, loss, and an obsessive search for meaning.”

    There You Will Find the Stone runs from July 12 to August 2 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed”

    Detail of “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed”

    “Milkvetch, How Much More Can They Hold”

    Detail of “Milkvetch, How Much More Can They Hold”

    “They Come Back But They’re Never the Same V”

    “You Picked the Wrong One”

    Detail of “You Picked the Wrong One”

    Detail of “Never Let the Party Die”

    “I Came Here to Try to Have a Good Time”

    Detail of “I Came Here to Try to Have a Good Time”

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    Isabelle D’s Lush Crocheted Landscapes Intertwine Pain and Pleasure

    From the ‘Bruise’ series. All images courtesy of Gallery Nosco, shared with permission

    Isabelle D’s Lush Crocheted Landscapes Intertwine Pain and Pleasure

    May 6, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Grace Ebert

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    At seven years old, Isabelle D learned to crochet as a means of supporting her family. Taking lessons from her grandmother, the young artist crafted various items to sell at local markets and set herself on a path she continues to follow today.

    From silk, cotton, viscose, and other fibers, Isabelle D crochets innumerable forms evocative of coral, sea sponges, anemones, flowers, molds, spores, and more. Each work comprises a diverse array of sculptural pieces, which nest together in broad landscapes brimming with myriad colors and textures.

    “A Officinalis”

    The artist’s childhood ingenuity has instilled a commitment to care and resilience that appears both materially and metaphorically in her practice. In her new A Officinalis series, the medicinal, anti-inflammatory properties of the marshmallow plant become a symbol for healing and regeneration. Soft, supple forms in pale pinks and blues are met by fuzzy structures in creamy white yarn, creating a quiet, meditative garden for recovery.

    Composed of vibrant reds and purples, the Bruise series takes a converse approach. Color is always critical to Isabelle D’s practice, and these works rely on vibrant, saturated reds, purples, and blues to mimic a damaged body. While the pieces evoke injury, they’re markedly beautiful and a sort of homage to the strength that emerges from trauma.

    In the way that crochet requires an even tension to achieve stitches that aren’t too loose or too tight, Isabelle D strives for a similar balance in her practice and rejects the fast pace at which today’s world moves. Instead, she crafts each piece by hand without the help of assistants, immersing herself in the slow, methodical process of inserting the hook and looping it through the yarn.

    If you’re in Brussels, stop by Gallery Nosco to see the artist’s solo exhibition, Hanging by a Thread, which runs through May 24.

    From the ‘Bruise’ series

    From the ‘Bruise’ series

    Detail of “A Officinalis”

    Detail of “A Officinalis”

    Detail of “Mensonge et Vérité”

    Detail of “Mensonge et Vérité”

    “Mould”

    From the ‘Bruise’ series

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    Architectural Textiles by Sarah Zapata Explore Material Culture and Intersecting Identities

    “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) II” (2024), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, and hand coiled rope, 50 x 14 x 14 inches. All images © Sarah Zapata, courtesy of the artist, Kasmin, and Sargent’s Daughters, shared with permission

    Architectural Textiles by Sarah Zapata Explore Material Culture and Intersecting Identities

    May 1, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    In vibrant patchworks of woven patterns and fuzzy fiber ends, Sarah Zapata’s sculptures (previously) emerge as wall-hung tapestries, standalone pieces, and forest-like installations. Through the convergence of architectural structures, soft textiles, and myriad patterns and textures, her site-specific works examine the nature of layered identities shaped by her Peruvian heritage, queerness, her Evangelical upbringing in South Texas, and her current home in New York.

    Zapata balances time-honored craft practices with contemporary applications, highlighting the significance of Indigenous Peruvian weaving, for example, as a means of communication. Symbols and patterns composed into cloth traditionally provided a means of sharing knowledge and cosmological beliefs.

    Installation view of ‘Beneath the Breath of the Sun’ (2024) at ASU Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona. Commissioned by CALA Alliance

    In abstract sculptures that often merge with their surroundings, Zapata incorporates unexpected and vibrant color combinations with woven fabrics and tufted textures. Resisting easy categorization, her pieces are neither functional nor purely decorative, although they play with facets of both.

    Zapata consciously holds back from creating work that is too “beautiful,” inviting a remarkable, tactile exploration of relationships between craft, lineage, community, and memory.

    Some of the works shown here are included in Support Structures at Sargent’s Daughters, which continues through through May 3. Find more on Zapata’s website and Instagram.

    “How often they move between the planets” (2022), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, 144 x 60 inches

    Detail of “How often they move between the planets”

    “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) I” (2024), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, and hand coiled rope, 49 x 14 x 14 inches

    Installation view of ‘To strange ground and high places,’ Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Photo by Michele Alberto Sereni

    “Towards and ominous time III” (2022), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, 144 x 60 inches

    Installation view of ‘To strange ground and high places,’ Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Photo by Michele Alberto Sereni

    Detail of “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) II”

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    ‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters

    Hystercine Rankin (1929–
    2010), “Memory Quilt” (ca. 1994), fabric; appliquéd, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted, 88 x 82 inches. All images courtesy of Mississippi Museum of Art, shared with permission

    ‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters

    April 23, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    You may have heard of the remarkable quilters of Gee’s Bend, but do you know about the Crossroads Quilters, like Gustina Atlas? Or Hystercine Rankin? Mary Mayfair Matthews? You’re in luck if you have a chance to visit Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South at the Mississippi Museum of Art, which shines a light on dozens of incredible Black Southern quilters and takes a celebratory approach to showcasing their myriad styles and techniques.

    MMA is home to one of the South’s largest collections of quilts, from which more than 50 handmade and machine-stitched examples were drawn for this expansive exhibition. Merging research, interpretation, and community engagement, curator Dr. Sharbreon Plummer aimed for “a cohesive, experiential study of American art through a Black feminist lens.” The show parses cultural narratives around the art form, spotlighting the impact of the craft across generations and geography.

    Emma Russell, “Star Quilt” (1978), cotton blend; hand-pieced, appliquéd, and hand-quilted, 81 x 77 inches

    A wide range of contemporary and historic pieces converge in Of Salt and Spirit, including figurative and narrative works alongside vibrant geometric compositions. Many of the works were acquired by the museum from Roland L. Freeman (1936-2023), a photographer who documented African-American craftspeople and guilds in his work as a stringer for Time magazine and Magnum Photos.

    Freeman collected more than 100 quilts, made several of his own, and published a couple of books on the subject. “Quilts have the power to create a virtual web of connections—individual, generational, professional, physical, spiritual, cultural, and historical,” he says in his second book, A Communion of the Spirits (1996).

    In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum also highlights the large-scale, ongoing AIDS Memorial Quilt project, which was initiated in 1985 at the height of the epidemic. Paralleling Of Salt and Spirit’s focus on creative expression, identity, and strength, the AIDS quilt—which will be on display at MMA for a two-week period beginning May 5—honors quilting for its role in resistance and remembrance.

    Of Salt and Spirit continues through May 18 in Jackson. Plan your visit on the museum’s website. You may also enjoy a look back at Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers, a monumental survey recognizing the artistic traditions of Black artists.

    Mary Mayfair Matthews, “Folk Scenes Quilt” (1992), rayon, cotton polyester blend, lace, lamé, and buttons; hand-pieced and appliquéd, 86 1/4 x 74 inches

    Annie Dennis (designed by Roland L. Freeman), “Voodoo Quilt” (1987), fabric; hand-pieced, appliquéd, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted, 83 1/2 x 64 inches

    Detail of “Voodoo Quilt”

    Gustina Atlas, “Variation on Dresden Plate Quilt” (1998), cotton; machine- pieced and hand-quilted, 81 1/2 x 80 inches

    Clancy McGrew, quilted and appliquéd by Jeraline Nicholas, “Storytime at the Library” (2004), fabric; machine-pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and hand-quilted, 41 3/4 x 83 1/8 inches

    Mabel Williams, “Improvisational Strip Quilt” (1968), cotton, polyester, wool, twill; hand-pieced and hand- quilted with appliquéd and embroidered backing, 85 x 65 inches

    Clancy McGrew, quilted by Tammy McGrew, “Clancy’s Beauty Salon” (2004), fabric; machine-pieced, appliquéd, and hand-quilted, 67 5/8 x 49 1/2 inches

    Roland Freeman, “Maya Angelou, Author, Educator, and Quilter (top left and bottom right); Dolly McPherson, Maya Angelou, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall (top right and bottom left), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 1992” (1992), Chromogenic print with quilted mat (1996) by Anita Knox, 36 x 36 inches

    Roland Freeman, “Catherine Gill with Sunburst Quilt (left) Made by Her Mother, Classy Blaylock, fromDecatur, Mississippi, Flagstaff, Arizona, April 1993″ (1993), Chromogenic print, 27 x 38 inches

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    With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art

    Ana María Hernando, “El intento del agua/The Intent of Water” (2025), tulle, wood, metal lattice, felt, velvet. All images courtesy of BravinLee, shared with permission

    With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art

    April 17, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Grace Ebert

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    The monumental textile exhibition that took over an 18th-century warehouse last spring is back for a second iteration.

    In the South Street Seaport area of Manhattan, The Golden Thread 2: A Fiber Art Show returns with more than 100 artworks made by 60 artists from around the globe. As with the first iteration, this reprisal includes eight site-specific installations that respond to the former mercantile space.

    Tomo Mori, “(we) keep going” (2025), donated fabrics, used clothes and linens, acrylic and cotton fillings, and anodized aluminum wires

    Organized by BravinLee, The Golden Thread is a sweeping survey of contemporary fiber art encompassing a vast array of materials, aesthetics, and subject matter. Several artists connect textiles’ historical association with femininity and domesticity, including Ana María Hernando’s pair of cascading tulle works. Frequently working with the gossamer fabric, Hernando sees her sculptures as an act of rebellion in which “softness becomes less a discreet quality and more a function of power, both formally and symbolically.”

    Similarly, Diana Weymar presents “American Sampler,” a collection of embroidered, typographic works made during a five-year period. Created to showcase a woman’s skill and literacy throughout the 18th century, samplers have a long history as sites of feminine expression. Weymar draws on this legacy for this patchwork tapestry, which is part of her ongoing Tiny Pricks Project created in 2018 in response to Donald Trump’s tumultuous first term.

    Colossal readers will recognize several artists in this second exhibition, including Caitlin McCormack, Rima Day, Willie Cole, and Ulla-Stina Wikander. The Golden Thread is on view through May 16.

    Tiny Pricks Project (Diana Weymar), “American Sampler” (2020-2025), vintage textiles and cotton floss

    Detail of Tiny Pricks Project (Diana Weymar), “American Sampler” (2020-2025), vintage textiles and cotton floss

    Caitlin McCormack, “Babylon Rec Room,” vintage wallpaper on salvaged drywall with crochet cotton string and glue embellishment

    Ali Dipp, “Concession No 3 (Trumbull, Capitol)” (2024), manually stitched threads on denim jeans, 79 x 117 inches

    Left: Fran Siegel, “Medicine Wheel” (2020), cyanotype, scrim, embroidery, sewing, string, and mounted on bar, 90 x 60 x 10 inches. Right: Manju Shandler, “The Elephant in the Room” (2024), mixed media soft sculpture, 6 x 6 x 9 feet

    Traci Johnson. Left: “Lil Femme,” yarn on cloth, 12.5 x 22 inches. Right: “Love Me in a Place Where There’s no Space or Time” (2023), yarn on cloth, 7.5 x 7.2 feet

    Sam Dienst, “Clutter Conundrum” (2024), hand-woven tapestry with yarn, beads, paint, and felt, 56 x 57 x .25 inches

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