June 9 – August 19, 2022
By a Thread, on view at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center from June 9 – Aug 19, is a group exhibition that features contemporary artists working in unique ways with thread, fiber, textiles, and sewing and weaving techniques. Each has developed a compelling approach, both conceptually and materially, resulting in a group of striking works that expand notions of textile-based works, while engaging with wide-ranging issues, including aspects of identity and gender, science fiction and propaganda, and formal aesthetic relationships.
In recent years, a notable number of contemporary artists have been creating works with or incorporating aspects of textile techniques in their work. The history of textiles, which is the most fundamental human technology, can be understood as the story of civilization itself, and the varied preoccupations of the participating artists demonstrate the breadth of current social and cultural concerns.
Works on view include Jacquard tapestries by George Bolster that reflect ways in which aspects of science fiction and reality merge, particularly in ongoing scientific investigations of extra-terrestrial life. Barrow Parke (Sarah Parke and Mark Barrow) have created a site-specific installation for this exhibition through a collaborative process that brings together their expertise in weaving, textile production, painting, and design. Kate Shepherd works in a range of disciplines, including drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Her woven and needlepoint works reflect her larger approach to issues of process and to relationships between figure and ground, and line and color. Rachel Mica Weiss, whose practice is informed by both weaving and architecture, explores aspects of density and weight, and ethereality and tension, in the site-specific, thread-based work on view. Multi-disciplinary artist Zoë Buckman, who embraces an explicitly feminist approach, has sewn and embroidered works that delve into issues of identity, gender, and violence. Latrelle Rostant creates unique woven sculptural works using an unconventional modular loom of her own invention. Her works tease out issues of process, as well as aspects of identity. Tamika Rivera has created a large-scale hanging sculptural work for this exhibition; her fiber-based sculptures draw on her ancestry and advocacy of Taíno culture. Manuela Gonzalez connects the history of abstraction to quilting and to issues of identity, through formal and familial references to craft and pattern.
Barrow Parke
George Bolster
Zoë Buckman
Manuela Gonzalez
Tamika Rivera
Latrelle Rostant
Kate Shepherd
Rachel Mica Weiss
Gallery Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 12-5PM and By Appointment.
To make an appointment please contact the gallery at shirleyfitermanartcenter@bmcc.cuny.edu or 212-776-5630.
Please note that all visitors to the Shirley Fiterman Art Center MUST provide proof of Covid-19 vaccination, using either Excelsior Pass or their CDC card.
