Opening on January 13, 2023 the exhibition Narrative Threads: Fiber Art Today showcases an impressive list of working artists in the vanguard of fiber media. The show features a relatively young collective of twenty-one artists from across the globe–including Texans Diedrick Brackens and Sarah Zapata, as well as Austin-based Orly Genger – who each approach issues of identity, gender, race, sexuality, and power through media that echo longstanding traditions. With more than forty compelling works, Narrative Threads focuses on the thought-provoking juxtaposition of a historically rich medium and the timely political issues it is able to convey. 

The vivid and narrative quality of many works in the exhibition, such as those by Malawian artist Billie Zangewa, often strive to highlight the unseen or underrecognized. In Zangewa's work, she focuses on the lives of women in domestic settings. For artists like American Qualeasha Wood and Ghanaian Patrick Quarm, the visibility of their own communities is central to their practice. Orly Genger also engages with an overlooked history by elevating the domestic craft of weaving and its community-building qualities through large-scale, outdoor installations.

The artists included in this survey employ a variety of fiber-based media to draw connections between the autobiographical and socially critical. Ana María Hernando’s installations are assembled from tulle and through striking hues and volume, the works redefine what power looks like through a feminine lens. South Korean artist Woomin Kim assembles fragments of colorful fabric, vinyl, beads, and more in a quilt-like fashion to express urban landscapes and immigrant life from a personal perspective. On a more intimate scale, a selection of thread drawings by Felipe Baeza, Chiharu Shiota, Do Ho Suh, and Ardeshir Tabrizi, stresses the fiber-based character of both paper and thread, blurring the line between applied string and the drawn or painted image on the surface. 

The exhibition will be on view through May 13 and will be activated through a season of performances in the galleries and in the Moody’s Lois Chiles Theater. The schedule kicks off on January 27 with a one-night-only performance of Honor, an artist lecture written by Houston-born artist Suzanne Bocanegra and starring actor Lili Taylor. The season also includes an original performative response to the exhibition orchestrated by artist and theater director Doug Fitch, on April 21, as a part of the Moody’s signature Dimensions Variable series. Admission to the exhibition and the programs is free of charge. 

Narrative Threads is curated by Alison Weaver, Executive Director, Frauke V. Josenhans, Curator, and Molly Everett, Assistant Curator, of the Moody Center for the Arts. It is made possible by the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle and the Elizabeth Lee Moody Excellence Fund for the Arts.