Exhibiting Artists
Louise Bourgeois, Adrian Esparza, Eliza Kentridge, Larissa Mellor, Timothy Paul Myers, Sheila Pepe, Robb Putnam, Alicia Scardetta, Susan Beallor-Snyder, Nathan Vincent
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Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA) presents Sew What? on view in the Cynthia C. Wainwright Gallery. This exhibition takes textile arts as its starting point and includes contemporary artists whose work transforms the material of fiber. Sew What? revels in the diversity of textiles, and how these materials are transformed through various techniques by contemporary artists.
The word textile, from Latin texere, means to weave, to braid, to construct. Most textile arts begin with twisting or spinning and plying fiber to make yarn (called thread when it is very fine and rope when it is very heavy). The yarn is then knotted, looped, braided or woven to make flexible fabric or cloth, and cloth can be used to make clothing and soft objects. Techniques of dyeing, printing, embroidery, needlework, knitting, quilting and sewing all are a part of textile arts.
Often connecting significant personal and cultural narratives, the artists in Sew What? move across temporal and spatial boundaries, connecting old and new ideas, just as they provide important links between people, places and ways of life. Bringing together a diverse range of contemporary works, Sew What? celebrates the ways in which contemporary artists explore and extend the textile and fiber medium.
How-To Videos Inspired by the Exhibition
Created by CMA Teaching Artists in conjunction with arts education professionals, CMA curriculum guides draw connections between interdisciplinary themes in contemporary art exhibits and classroom learning by using contextual information and reflective practices.
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Programs at Children’s Museum of the Arts are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
