How are traditional textile techniques such as weaving, sewing, and lace making reimagined in contemporary art? How can artists incorporate these time honored methods to express personal narratives, political ideas, and experimental forms?
This panel brings together a diverse group of textile artists who incorporate traditional fiber techniques in innovative and unexpected ways. Through presentations of their studio practices, each artist will offer insight into how they fuse technique with concept, transforming methods into contemporary expressions. From handwoven structures to hybrid works that merge fiber with other materials, the panel will highlight how textile can be a powerful medium for pushing boundaries and storytelling.
Artists Clare Hu, Nick D' Ornellas, Katherine Earle, Glorimar Garcia, & Katie Coughlin will share both the conceptual frameworks behind their work and the technical processes that bring their pieces to life. The panel will conclude with a Q&A moderated by Elizabeth Tolson, inviting dialogue on the evolving role of textiles in contemporary art.
This panel discussion is part of New York Textile Month
Presented by Parsons First Year at Parsons School of Design
Elizabeth Tolson is an artist and educator whose work merges textiles and ceramics to explore themes of fertility, motherhood, time, and space. By integrating sewing, weaving, and clay, she unites the meditative rhythm of stitching with the grounded, tactile presence of ceramics. Tolson holds an MFA from Parsons School of Design and a BFA from Alfred University, and has been awarded residencies at the Textile Arts Center, Trestle Projects, Chashama’s ChaNorth, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and ProjectArt at the Bushwick Brooklyn Library.
Her work has been presented in a solo exhibition at 934 Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, and in a two-person exhibition at the Appalachian Center for Craft, as well as in group shows at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, Local Projects in Queens, Target Gallery in Alexandria, and Cuchifritos Gallery in Manhattan. In addition to her studio practice, she has served as a guest juror for the Textile Arts Center’s Work in Progress Residency. Tolson is based in Brooklyn, NY, where she is a Part-time Assistant Professor in the First Year Program at Parsons School of Design.
Clare Hu (b. 1996, Norcross GA) is a weaver and artist piecing together maps, trying to find something that’s missing. Hu is currently based in Brooklyn NY.
Hu has recently exhibited at Tempest Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Stove Works (Chattanooga, TN), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Greenville SC), Artists Space (New York NY), and the Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston SC). Hu completed her BFA with a focus in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and is a current MFA candidate at Hunter College.
Nicholas D’Ornellas (b. 1997) is a Guyanese-born artist and educator based in Jersey City, NJ. He holds a BFA (2021) from The Cooper Union. His work uses printmaking as a vehicle for life-size handwoven screen-printed textiles that explore domestic immigrant narratives. It pays homage to his ongoing interest in the functionality of craft and his family’s flight from racial and classist violence in Guyana. His hand weaving can be understood as both rehearsal and transformation of memory. D’Ornellas has recently exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum and Kathryn Markel Fine Art. He has been an artist in residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. He is a recipient of the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Kahn|Mason SIP Fellowship and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship. D’Ornellas teaches printmaking at 92NY Art Center and is the Printmaking Area Manager at Hunter College in the Department of Art & Art History in New York, NY.
A fiber artist and multimedia sculptor, Katherine is based in New York. Her work has been shown in two-person and group exhibitions internationally including Copeland Gallery, Sculptors Alliance, Art Aqua Miami, Site:Brooklyn, The KUBE studios and Diagonale. She has participated in residencies in Canada and the United States, including 77Art, the ChaShaMa North Residency, and the Concordia FARR Residency. Katherine has a BFA in Fibres from Concordia University in Montreal, and is a recipient of grants from the Joseph Robert Foundation and FST Studio Projects Fund.
Glorimar Garcia is a Brooklyn visual artist, curator, and arts administrator. Born and raised in Ohio, she studied Painting and Art History at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Rooted in personal experience and research, her work explores aspects of identity, memory, culture and gender. Garcia merges materials and found objects, salvaging discarded items like baseball cards to explore and manipulate their meaning. Significant projects include Cards for Puerto Rico, a benefit exhibition following the devastating hurricanes in 2017, and working with the Kurt Kocherscheidt Estate to create the first digital database of the artist's work.
Katie Coughlin received her MFA from The Ohio State University(2018) and her BFA from Alfred University(2010). Katie has been an Artist in Residence at Red Lodge Clay Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and Walkaway House. She has received multiple awards including the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center, The Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award from Northern Clay Center, and a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. A native New Yorker, Katie returned to the city in 2018 and lives and works in Brooklyn. She recently opened a neighborhood teaching studio - Ovington Pottery, in Southern Brooklyn.
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