Museum of Arts & Design

Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting

For those of you interested in anything textile or fashion related I highly suggest stopping by the MAD (Museum of Arts and Design) before June 17, 2007 to check out this exhibit that spans the 3 floors of this relatively small (in museum terms) space. I stumbled upon this exhibit by chance as I went to the MOMA (across the street) on Thursday to see the Jeff Wall Photographs and the Comic Abstraction Exhibit. (Both were great, but this "lace" exhibit struck a cord with me...) It was great to see something other than a slick painting or a lit photo. Too bad I had to be in a "design" museum- but frankly, it doesn't matter- it's just great that this exhibit exists. And, it's only $9 for admission ($7/students) as opposed to the daunting $20 you'll pay at the MOMA. Anyway, you weren't allowed photographs- and they only had a few on their site for me to post here. So, if you can't make it in person- there is a catalog. I looked for it on Amazon- but to no avail. Now I'm mad I didn't buy it at the museum. Ugh. I'll have to return there! If you can't make it there is a note that you can order it via phone at 212-956-3535 ext 157. I looked through it- it's worth it. I think it was in the $40 range.

The work ranged from traditional lace work, to intense installation. Sheila Pepe has a pretty interesting "lace" made from a lot of man-made, non-delicate materials. And Edward Mayer's installation that spanned all 3 floors was a beautiful testament to the color white- a color most often associated with all things lace and subtle. He used furniture, string, wood anything he could get his hands on to weave an intricate, beautiful work of art. The pic I have included for him is of Drawing In, 2006 at the Schick Art Gallery at Skidmore College. His installation at MAD was along this line of work.

above:

Ed Mayer
Piper Shepard
Hildur Bjarnadóttir
Althea Merback