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ALLISON HUDSON: THE ALCHEMY OF TRANSFORMATION
|by Barbara Pavan| For Allison Hudson, art is a vocation, an innate talent, a conscious choice — and, above all, a calling. A calling she tried to elude for many years, seeking more “practical” paths, but which ultimately proved inescapable. The creative avenues she had pursued up to that point had felt like compromises, partial attempts to satisfy a deeper need. It was only after a long and unintended hiatus from artistic practice that Hudson recognized her true path: to create art, and to fully embrace that part of herself. Her research manifests itself through the relentless exploration of materials. Each work is born as an act of experimentation, an…
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OLGA TEKSHEVA AND THE REBELLIOUS GRAMMAR OF MATERIALS
Olga Teksheva (Moscow, 1973) is an artist who has long been developing an artistic inquiry articulated through a visual and conceptual vocabulary intrinsically tied to a multifaceted biographical identity, marked by deep cultural layering and a transnational sensitivity. Her practice, centered on the use of textile media, materializes in complex narrative works. Through techniques such as textile collage, embroidery, crochet, and manual weaving, she creates works of high material and symbolic density, conceived to activate an immersive and multisensory interaction with the viewer. Her work explores the endless potential of textiles as an expressive language, rooted in a deeply articulated biographical and cultural vision. Since childhood, fabric has represented for…
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SERENA GAMBA
| by Barbara Pavan | The practice of Serena Gamba (Moncalieri, 1982) is rooted in a deep reflection on painting as a space of tension between permanence and erasure, between iconic memory and semantic oblivion. Her work develops through a process of emptying and re-signifying images from the History of Art, where each reference is stripped of its original function to reveal an essential grammar, purified of superstructures and codified rhetorics. Gamba works with words, marks, and forms—not as expressive elements, but as archetypal units to be dismantled and recomposed. Painting, drawing, and verbal language converge in a hybrid system that takes the form of a constantly mutating visual alphabet:…
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INTERVIEW WITH ALVARO DIEGO GOMEZ CAMPUZANO
| by Barbara Pavan | Alvaro Diego Gomez Campuzano was born in Bogotá in 1956 and graduated in Architecture and Landscape from Javeriana University in the same city in 1978. Since then, he has embarked on a continuous artistic journey that has led him to exhibit in international exhibitions and institutional venues in various countries. In this interview, he generously shared insights into his relationship with fibers and techniques, his sources of inspiration, and the genesis and evolution of his works. Alvaro, thread and fabric have been materials for your work since the 1970s. What led you to this choice? I have ever considered textile as an artistic expression. Fabric…
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MICHAEL SYLVAN ROBINSON
Michael Sylvan Robinson’s art and queer activism are expressed through the innovative use of textile collage and text-based art techniques. Their process begins with the selection of textiles characterized by intricate patterns, which are then reassembled into complex textile collages, densely worked with machine and hand stitching, as well as bead applications. Originally a costume designer and performance artist, Robinson’s practice later evolved into a deep exploration of wearable art, two-dimensional works, sculptures, and installations. In these works, the dimensional aspect is heightened by meticulous surface details that invite the viewer to engage with a broader conceptual structure. The sculptural garments and wearable art from their #urbanfey series serve as…
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THE MEOC ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM OLIVA CARTA CANNAS AND THE AAAPERTO OF AGGIUS
| by Barbara Pavan |Images ph.credit Chiara Marci The MEOC Oliva Carta Cannas Ethnographic Museum, the largest in Sardinia, preserves a rich heritage of testimonies of textile activity deeply rooted in the culture of this town in Gallura. So much so, in fact, that the reconstruction of the stazzo—the typical ancient Gallurese house—presented within the museum, is hosted inside the restored and renovated building that once housed the first textile school. The recognitions and certificates of merit awarded to the school are on display inside the museum itself. The exhibition path showcases testimonies of domestic life and local productions, traditional and historical costumes, and above all, the art of weaving—especially…
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IN SYMBIOSIS WITH MOTHER NATURE: THE ART OF TRACEY DEEP
| by Barbara Pavan | Tracey Deep is one of the most refined and original voices in contemporary Australian art, whose artistic journey is intrinsically tied to a profound and spiritual connection with nature. Over more than twenty-five years, Deep has woven her artistic path with a personal and deep vision of the natural world, recognizing it not only as a material but as a true muse and mentor. Her artistic practice unfolds through a continuous exploration of the potential offered by native Australian plants and other organic materials, which she employs to create floral sculptures and environmental installations capable of evoking a strong sense of harmony and balance. From…
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THE LIVING AND ACTIVE ART OF PATRIZIA BENEDETTA FRATUS
| by Barbara Pavan | With Indre and the Medee project—her two most recent interventions—Patrizia Benedetta Fratus (Palosco, 1960) reaffirms her commitment to participatory art, exploring and seeking new individual, social, and political relational dynamics as alternatives to those experimented with so far. An artivist active for years on both the national and international scene, Fratus has always been convinced that art represents a tool for transformation and evolution, both on an individual and collective level, with significant social and political implications. She favors the use of discarded materials to create works and interventions that actively engage those who contribute to their realization, making them an integral and living part…
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GISELLA CHAUDRY
| by Barbara Pavan | Gisella Chaudry was born in Palermo in 1989 and has been living in Turin for several years. Growing up in a family shaped by the fusion of two cultures—her Pakistani father’s and her Sicilian mother’s—nurtured in her a profound sensitivity toward themes of identity and social disparity, which are central to her artistic research. Her practice is an inquiry into the human condition, an attempt to reconnect with the primordial roots of existence through a visual language that explores the relationship between the individual and the cosmos. The artist employs diverse techniques, including combustion, embroidery, and installation—tools through which she constructs narratives suspended between reality…
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MIRIAM MEDREZ
| by Barbara Pavan | Miriam Medrez was born in Ciudad de México in 1958. After studying Art and Graphic Design at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, she graduated in 1979 in Fine Arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (ENAP-UNAM). Fundamental to her development as a sculptor were the courses taught by Gerda Gruber, who imparted not only technical skills in clay manipulation but, more importantly, encouraged her students to regard material as a sculptural artistic language — liberating ceramics from its dependence on two-dimensional imagery and traditional painting. It was through ceramics, on the other hand, that Medrez learned the…
