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Social Fabric: Textiles and Contemporary Issues

December 3, 2022 - June 11, 2023

Cushing & Morris Galleries

From the cradle to the grave, human beings are wrapped in, and surrounded by textiles. What people make to clothe, protect, and decorate themselves and their spaces, tells us about their cultures, eras, identities, families, and lives. This exhibition brings together a diverse array of contemporary textile artists who are weavers, sculptors, quiltmakers, and visionaries to examine the complex issues of our time. Together, their practices demonstrate and reimagine the expressive and social functions of textiles. Some of the themes include: climate change and sustainability, adaptation and reuse, war and survival, human rights and social justice, the reclamation of history, the reaffirmation and celebration of communities, and gender, ethnic, and racial identities.

The artists in this exhibition take on the challenges of a variety of materials, pushing textiles in new directions and seeing how far they can go. Through textiles, they inspire new conversations about contemporary issues.

Featured artists and organizations include: AIDS Quilt RI, Jim Arendt, Judy Chicago and International Honor Quilt artists, Elizabeth Duffy, Brooke Erin Goldstein, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Letitia Huckaby, Tamara Kostianovsky, Jesse Krimes, Dinh Q. Lê, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Veronica Mays, the National AIDS Memorial, L. J. Roberts, Alison Saar, Marie Watt, Emma Welty, and Nafis M. White.

Aubrey Longley-Cook and Workshop Participants, RuPaul Cross Stitch Animation Workshop, 2013, digital animation, Combination view, Courtesy of the Artist.

Elizabeth Duffy, detail of Napkin Apparition 1, 2018, digital and hand embroidery on paper napkin, 16 x 15 inches, Newport Art Museum, Gift of the Artist, 2022.002.001.

Nafis M. White, Oculus - Purple/Black/Gray/Crimson/Blonde, 2019, Hair, Emobided Knowledge, Ancestral Recall, Audacity of Survival, Bobby Pins, Newport Art Museum, Purchase with funds provided by Karl and Teryn Weintz and the Museum Purchase Fund 2021.001.001. © Nafis M. White.

Aubrey Longley-Cook, frame 01 from Runaway, 2010, thread on cotton, 7 inch diameter, Courtesy of the Artist.

Brooke Erin Goldstein, From Black to Blue Skys and Everything in Between, 2018. Vintage bedsheets/fabrics, acrylic, ink, and permanent marker, 118 x 88 inches, Newport Art Museum, Museum Purchase, 2018.002.001. © Brooke Erin Goldstein.

Nafis M. White, Detail of Oculus - Purple/Black/Gray/Crimson/Blonde Hair, 2020, hair, embodied knowledge, ancestral recall, bobby pins, 2 feet x 6 inches, Purchase with funds provided by Karl and Teryn Weintz and the Museum Purchase Fund, 2021.001.001 © Nafis M. White.

Elizabeth Duffy, Visibility is a Trap, 2019, screen printed toile wallpaper and textile with images of RI ACI, bird cage, lamp with 19th century print of dueling birds and braided rug, 8 x 6 x 5 feet, Courtesy of the Artist. © Elizabeth Duffy.

Letitia Huckaby, Stephanie & Gloria, 2020, pigment print on fabric with embroidery, 70 x 82 x 2 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Talley Dunn Gallery. © Letitia Huckaby.