Search results for ""Author Abraham Thomas""

Disrupting Craft presents the work of Tanya Aguiñiga, Sharif Bey, Dustin Farnsworth, and Stephanie Styjuco, four artists who take innovative approaches to their selected mediums. They share a fascination with themes of identity, and the practise of their art as a means of engaging socially with communities in collective activity. The featured artists work in a remarkable variety of media including earthenware pottery, textiles and weaving, sculptural materials and woven plastic fabrics, and wood, metal and mixed media. Their visual sensibilities range from traditional African beaded culture, to digital media, the products of modern-day capitalist economies in the developing world, to post-industrial rust-belt of the American Midwest. Each is actively engaged in an artistic dialogue within their local and wider community, presenting mementos of bygone cultural eras and making sense of it for the present moment. Disrupting Craft is the second publication, and exhibition, devoted to the work of contemporary American craft practitioners and artists since the Renwick Gallery re-opened in fall 2015, following a major restoration and renovation.

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A primer on contemporary artist Lauren Halsey’s latest site-specific installation, outlining her process, past work, and influences drawn from Afrofuturism, ancient Egyptian iconography, and Los Angeles Lauren Halsey is known for her sculptures, mixed media works, and site-specific installations that remix (or, as Halsey says, “funkify”) history by combining signs, symbols, and architecture from the past, present, and future. In her new installation for The Met’s Roof Garden Commission series, she brings together ancient Egyptian–inspired iconography and sculpture with signage and texts drawn from the artist’s local community in South Central Los Angeles. Accompanied by new photography and unpublished sketches from Halsey’s studio, this compact volume contains an insightful essay by curator Abraham Thomas that examines Halsey’s artistic process and considers this installation in the context of her past work. In a revealing interview with poet Douglas Kearney, the artist discusses her diverse influences—which include ancient Egyptian relief carving, funk music, Afrofuturism, and the architecture of L.A.— and elaborates on the importance of community building and engagement in the spaces she creates. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (April 18–October 22, 2023)

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