The Embedded Stitch | Wen-Jen Deng

Wen-JengDeng’s work will be on view at Manhattan’s Tenri Cultural Institute in the exhibition The Embedded Stitch – Contemporary Fiber Art from Taiwan, which opened last Friday. The title of the show draws inspiration from The Subversive Stitch(1984) by British art historian Rozsika Parker, whose influential study explored the historical relationship between women and embroidery, often perceived as domestic, feminine, and passive.  Above: Wen-Jen Deng, “Globalization at table” (2023), embroidery, indigo dyeing, burlap fabric, mixed media, 59 × 118.1 inches

In contrast, Deng utilizes embroidery and textiles in her practice to create a vivid, dynamic expression of contemporary Taiwanese identity. For over 20 years, she has developed a distinct body of work that visualizes the diversity and hybridity of Taiwan’s cultural landscape. While her art does not directly engage with traditional feminist discourse, it reflects her deep engagement with indigenous Taiwanese cultures and the country’s layered colonial history. Her works explore questions of identity, belonging, and cultural memory through the lens of material and craft. In 2024, Deng held a residency on Governors Island in New York, where she began with a topographic concept and layered it with indigo dye, soft objects, and stitches that depict the island’s history and culture.

Save the date: Friday, June 13, 3-5pm: Panel discussion

Tenri Cultural Institute of New York, 43A West 13^th Street,New York, NY Info

Continuing: Woven Histories | Textiles and Modern Abstraction at MoMA

Spanning early-20th-century works by Sonia Delaunay, Hannah Hoch, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, whose textile practices parallel their painting and drawing, mid-century works by Albers and Ed Rossbach, and contemporary works by Rosemarie Trockel, Andrea Zittel, and Igshaan Adams, this exhibition brings together more than 150 diverse, interdisciplinary objects. Highlighting issues of labor and identity that are intertwined with modern textile production, Woven Histories argues that weaving and textiles are the quintessential link between lived experience and art.

From Brooklyn Rail: “Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction is the rare kind of exhibition that comes to feel irrevocable. Its claim is simple: textiles and modern abstraction need to be thought together. But the “and” of the title—a coordinating conjunction—acknowledges a holding relation not an equivalence between its terms. If anything, questions of connection between textile materials and technologies and abstract art structure curator Lynne Cooke’s revisionist account of the long twentieth century. 

“From the implications of the industrial loom to the economics of cottage industries, the aspirations of the creative workshop to the exploitative conditions of factories belching fast fashion, her reorientation forces a consideration of process engaged with the gendered labor of production without suggesting something reducible to techno-determinism. Perhaps this is because she likewise emphasizes consumption, which is to say use, from the first gallery. There, the prospective social dimension of functionalism is given the unambiguous rubric “Materialist Abstraction, Design, and Utopian Social Visions.” Anchored by a troupe of mannequins sporting clothing made by Sonia Delaunay and Andrea Zittel [top], it further establishes the show’s chronological and geographic span, from Europe of the 1920s to North America of the 2020s. The six episodic sections that follow move chronologically, yet also prove recursive in modeling a kind of reception history in the making.”

Through September 13 at Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53^rd Street, FL3, New York, NY Info

Continuing: Dana Barnes | Untamed Gestures at MAD

The first major museum exhibition spotlighting the artist’s singular vision, Dana Barnes: Untamed Gestures features monumental hand-formed fiber works alongside a fully immersive recreation of Barnes’s Lower East Side studio in New York City. Barnes’s sculptural landscapes composed of fibers such as merino, yak, alpaca, and silk create a compelling tactile environment in which motion and stillness, as well as strength and fragility, coexist in dynamic tension. Inspired by the slow, persistent forces of nature, Barnes twists, knots, and fuses her materials into sprawling, living forms that sag, climb, and unfurl across the gallery space. Her works pulse with a quiet vitality, inviting viewers into a dialogue between materiality and metamorphosis.

The exhibition’s immersive studio experience meticulously replicates Barnes’s original workspace, a former 19th-century synagogue once home to Abstract Expressionist painter Pat Passlof. Within the space, visitors will encounter a laboratory of creativity: overflowing sacks of colorful fibers, experimental maquettes, geological fragments, and handmade tools bearing the patina of daily use. A self-directed drawing exercise will invite visitors to participate in the same spirit of wonder and material exploration that animates Barnes’s practice. 

Through October 11 at Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY Info

Continuing: Hellen Ascoli | The World Upside Down at ISCP

Spanning a range of mediums from textiles to collage, drawing and video, The World Upside Down brings together works by Ascoli that explore how weaving serves as a form of translation, a way to retell collective histories, and reveal the power of language in its spoken, written, and woven forms. Ascoli, who is known for her intricate weavings made with a backstrap loom—a tool that wraps around the waist, often reflects on the ways textiles connect to the body and to place. She finds inspiration in an array of sources including weaving histories and material culture from her home country of Guatemala, as well as the decolonial writings of Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui.

Ascoli’s thinking around translation is informed by her work as an interpreter for immigrant youth from Central and South America who are navigating the U.S. incarceration system. During her interpretation sessions, she creates points of connection by teaching random weaving, an intuitive technique that produces a loose, structureless pattern. In her own words, Ascoli says “I watch it become a support for these border crossers, who have become untethered to their country and language of origin.”  While weaving, Ascoli considers how experiences of migration and displacement stir up feelings of uncertainty and loss. Her practice makes space for sharing these stories and healing from personal and collective trauma.

International Studio & Curatorial Program, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Info

Continuing: All the Light and Shadow at Manitoga

The current installation, curated by Alyson Baker, Founder and Executive Director of River Valley Arts Collective features fine and functional objects by artists Stephanie Seal Brown, Zach Hadlock, Jonathan Kline, Alexandra Kohl, Re Jin Lee, Erin Rouse, Katie Strano and Natalia Woodward. 

The works are made of fiber, wood and clay - materials that are local and sustainable. By limiting the palette to black and white, the works will be visually distinguished and connected while completely integrated into Dragon Rock House and Studio. The installation opens on June 7 and culminates on August 31 with performances of Trisha Brown's Accumulation (1971) and Locus (1975) by former company dancers and Bard college faculty, Tara Lorenzen and Brandi Norton. Tickets

Save the Dates: Curator Alyson Baker along with resident artists will offer insights into this year's installation and the creative process, providing a unique and enriching layer to the Manitoga Design • Art • Nature Tour on the following date [click ondate for tickets]s:

Friday, June 27 @ 3pm
Saturday, July 19 @ 2pm
Saturday, August 30 @ 4pm
Friday, September 5 @ 3pm

Manitoga/The Russell Wright Design Center, 584 NY-9D, Garrison, NY Visitor Information