Intertwined: A Panel Discussion

Event will take place in the Lecture Hall at The Institute of Fine Arts, at New York University, 1 East 78th Street. Reception to follow. 

Intertwined brings together four fabric-based works by Julia Bland, Josh Faught, Channing Hansen, and Sergej Jensen, that are inspired by, but move beyond, the strictures of painting. The exhibition investigates how the role of fabric in painting has reinvented this medium as one that does not necessarily require paint. From traditional canvas to wool, hemp, linen, and lamé, the fabrics that historically supported art and craft are, for these artists, generative fine-art materials themselves.

The panel discussion will offer various perspectives on these works and will generate a dialogue that attempts to better understand their roles within the canons of contemporary art, textile and design, and fiber art itself. 

Panelists:
Josh Blackwell will be the moderator of the panel. He is an artist who makes androgynous objects that are neither useful nor redundant, though both are implied. These things, called Neveruses (never-uses), are comprised of found plastic bags and yarn. He has taught painting and drawing at Bennington since 2009. His exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design, “Josh Blackwell Neveruses Report Progress” is on view until February 19, 2017. As both a working artist and a professor of art, he can offer a perspective that places the current trends in fiber art within a scholarly context.

Julia Bland is one of the fiber artists featured in Intertwined. Her experience as a practicing fiber artist and with creating a work specifically for the show will be invaluable when discussing Intertwined.
 
Susan Brown is an Associate Curator of textiles at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Her current exhibition Fashioning Felt and Scraps: Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse is on view through April 2017. Her experience as a textile curator will add another layer of analysis to these works by examining their materials in relation to the history of textiles and design, and can place these artworks within that canon as it stands today.
 
Samantha De Tillio is an Assistant Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design. Her current exhibition Crochet Coral Reef: TOXIC SEAS is on view until January 22, 2017. Her specialty in post-war and contemporary creative practice as viewed through a craft lens will offer a perspective that examines the materiality of these works and their place within modern trends of contemporary art.

Following the panel discussion there will be a reception and an opportunity to view the entire exhibition. For more information about our panelists and Intertwined please visit the Institute's website.