CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago is now showing Threaded Visions: Contemporary Weaving from the Collection, on view starting today through August 26, 2024. The exhibition, comprising textiles from the Art Institute’s permanent collection, features works by 13 contemporary artists spanning from the 1980s through 2023. With artists from the United States, South America, and Asia, their global influences play a significant role in the stories told through their work.

Hand weaving, often considered in the category of obsolete traditions, is a vibrant contemporary artistic practice allowing weavers to use culturally significant materials to create expressions of identity. This show highlights a contrast of methodologies for a broad view of weaving practices, including complex multi-layered structures, translucent and opaque works, designs crafted by coloring threads prior to weaving, and mechanically controlled figurative weaving. It provides a unique opportunity for visitors to understand the possibilities of combining raw materials and techniques to translate ideas and experiences to cloth.

“Our permanent collection of contemporary weaving is a celebration of the practice. We have the depth and breadth in the museum’s holdings to demonstrate many of the ways that artists share their lived experiences, through careful and deliberate choices of materials and techniques,” said Melinda Watt, Chair and Christa C. Mayer Thurman Curator of Textiles. “The artists in this exhibition offer so much more than their skills as technicians. They provide an opportunity for visitors to see them as poets and storytellers."

Some of the artists—like Olga de Amaral of Colombia—have been internationally admired for decades, and others—like Qualeasha Wood from the United States—have come to prominence in recent years. Yet each of these contemporary creators has been a diligent student of the history of textiles, and this is reflected in this masterful work.

Threaded Visions: Contemporary Weaving from the Collection is curated by Melinda Watt, Chair and Christa C. Mayer Thurman Curator of Textiles.