On view: February 16 – March 24, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, February 16, 6-8PM

Panel Discussion, Moderated by Trevor Smith: Saturday, March 3, 2-4 PM

(A full list of artist demonstrations, performances, and other events related to this exhibition can be found here)

A Curatorial Opportunity Program (COP) exhibition curated by Jessica Burko and Samantha Fields

Featuring: Samantha Bates, Sarah Meyers Brent, Merill Comeau, Angela U. Drakeford, Samantha Fields, Erica Jaquith, Judith Leemann, Michelle Lougee, Victoria Marsh, Maria Molteni, Andrew Mowbray, NCAA, Bob Oppenheim, Destiny Palmer, and Noél Puéllo

FEATURED IN THE BOSTON GLOBE!

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

From birth until death we’re surrounded by cloth used for swaddling, shrouding, warmth, sheathing, shelter, and ritual. Cloth is embedded with practices and customs traversing centuries of humanity. It has played a role in the shaping of history, the marking of those in power, enforcement of class structures, and as a means of establishing identity. Cloth acts as a barrier between the world and our bodies. It is used to help construct narratives about ourselves and to infer narratives upon others. Despite this vast integration into every aspect of life, we have little conscious connection to it; we are not taught the history of cloth along with the history of war.

Binding cloth together, allowing for its pliability of function and meaning, is thread. Thread is the basis for the language of cloth. It functionally and conceptually creates a continuous line reaching back to our origins and drawing us forward, bringing us in and out, over, under, and through, loop into loop. Using the thread, making the cloth, constructing form and meaning, is the stitch. To stitch something is to piece it together, to create closure, to establish connections between one and another. To stitch is to puncture a surface. To stitch is to create a line. To stitch is to move in and out. The stitch is action and remnant of action, a motion and a process of the hand, an epistemology of making.       

The artists included in STITCH create work that relies on the powerful language of technique and material to convey meaning, interrupting our ideas of normalcy and offering up new paradigms, paradigms that are based in the ever-fluid language of cloth. Through the work of these artists we can viscerally feel that a stitch is never only about surface.

Join us throughout the exhibition for artist demonstrations and participatory performances by the artists of STITCH. A full list of events and programming can be found HERE.

 

ABOUT THE CURATORS

Jessica Burko is a mixed-media artist combining traditional photography with encaustic medium. She has been exhibiting her work since 1985 in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States including on the set of Ben Affleck’s 2010 film, The Town. In addition to being a practicing artist Burko is the Director of Marketing with Kingston Gallery in Boston, MA and an independent curator with more than thirty exhibitions produced since 2000. Burko’s work in the arts community allows her to foster and strengthen connections between working artrepreneurs. She supports artists in achieving their creative and professional goals through lectures, workshops, and partnerships with organizations such as Mass MoCA’s Assets for Artists Program, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Studio Arts Program, and the Danforth Museum’s Professional Artists Workshops. Burko holds a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Imaging Arts and Science from Rochester Institute of Technology. Jessica Burko is originally from Philadelphia, she works from her studio in Boston’s South End and lives in Roslindale with her family. 

Samantha Fields grew up in Brockton, MA, and her work has been impacted by these roots. As a multimedia artist, she engages with weaving, needlework, and sewing as a survival mechanism, aesthetic, and conceptual strategy. Working with her hands is an intimate exploration of insistence in the absence of language. She studied at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she received her MFA in 2005, as well as Massachusetts College of Art, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1996. She is now adjunct faculty at both institutions. Her work has been supported through numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies and has exhibited extensively throughout New England, as well as nationally and abroad. She continues to live and work in the Boston area.

 

Learn more about the Curatorial Opportunity Program (COP) HERE >