MFA Textiles Program Debuts “Threads of our Time” Exhibit at Chelsea Market Gallery
All around the world, textiles are taking center stage as works of fine art, where it’s in a museum, gallery, or in the homes of prominent collectors. Textiles as fine art was the guiding theme for a recent exhibit on display at the Chelsea Market Gallery, which prominently featured the work of Parsons MFA Textiles graduates.
For the gallery show, the Italian textile art magazine Arte Morbida collaborated with the MFA Textiles program in the School of Fashion at Parsons to curate an exhibition of textiles. The show was curated, installed, and produced by Preeti Gopinath, MFA Textiles Director and faculty member Gabi Asfour, and featured the work of all four graduate cohorts of the program, as well as established textile artists in New York City, contemporary Italian fiber artists, and graduating students’ work from the Fine Arts Academy of Bologna, Italy.
“The exhibition at the Chelsea Market gallery space showcased a variety of artists from our program to show the range and scope of textiles that are made at The New School,” explains Gopinath. “The works were created on the bedrock values of sustainability, justice, wellbeing and beauty, where creativity and traditional craft techniques intersect with 21st century technology and materials to create magical new textiles.”
In addition to the exhibition, Gopinath also wrote an article for the inaugural U.S. edition of Arte Morbida, where she shared details about her teaching philosophy, pedagogy, and how the MFA Textiles program at Parsons is developing and nurturing the textile makers of the future. The exhibition showcased the work of 15 graduates, including the narrative felted works using recycled clothing from Eileen Fisher’s “Waste No More” program by Jason Greenberg, Textiles ‘22, Bobbin lace using thread made from garbage bags by Padina Bondar, Textiles ‘22, luminescent bobbin lace installation using EL wire by Layla Klinger, Textiles ‘21, and 3D textile sculptures woven on a handloom by Amirtha Arasu, Textiles ‘23.
The program also recently hosted an academic conference/symposium, When Creativity Means Sustainability: Research In Textiles, which featured presenters from different academic textile programs including Parsons (USA), FIT (USA), Cranbrook Academy (USA), University of Calabria (Italy), Fine Arts Academy of Bologna (Italy), University of Florence (Italy), Foundazione Gran Chaco (S. America) and WATF Muse (Italy/USA).
