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CRYSTAL GREGORY: THE WEAVE OF MOVEMENT
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | The research of Crystal Gregory, artist born in 1983 and currently an Associate Professor at the School of Art and Visual Studies at the University of Kentucky, is based on the act of weaving as a gesture of construction and spatial thinking. From the very beginning, her practice has developed at the intersection of textile and architecture, between the fragile and the solid, exploring how materials and structures can redefine the ideas of space, movement, and relationship. Gregory approaches her art through her hands and body. The act of weaving becomes a means for her to understand and engage with the material world: a…
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RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS: LIBERATED FRAGMENTS
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Ramekon O’Arwisters, born in Kernersville, North Carolina, and currently based in San Francisco, brings to his artistic practice a rich tapestry of experiences that intertwine autobiography, political reflection, and spirituality. Trained with a Master of Divinity at Duke University in Durham, the American artist has chosen art as a vehicle for an intimate yet universal narrative, capable of addressing pain, frustration, acceptance, and liberation. His works are accounts of courage and critical thinking, deliberately distanced from collective indoctrination, rooted in the understanding that matter, while retaining its phenomenological characteristics, can shift in meaning through the transformative action of the artist. Broken ceramic fragments and…
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CHIACHIO & GIANNONE: TEXTILE GENEALOGIES, DOMESTIC IRONY AND THREADS OF RESISTANCE
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | For Leo Chiachio and Daniel Giannone, art has never been just a matter of form or technique, but a deeply embodied way of inhabiting time, material, and memory. When, in 2003, they decided to unite their artistic and biographical paths, it was not simply a collaboration: their shared practice became a territory to explore, stitch, traverse, point by point, in the spirit of complicity, slowness, and fertile dialogue. Both came from a solid background in painting, but when they met, they resolutely chose to abandon the brush to take up needle and thread. This transition was anything but a renunciation; rather, it was an…
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ANNE VON FREYBURG: IRONY AND SOCIAL CRITIQUE BETWEEN ORNAMENT AND IDENTITY
|by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Anne von Freyburg, a Dutch artist born in 1979, initially trained as a fashion designer at ArtEZ in Arnhem, then completed a master’s degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University in London, where she currently lives and works. Her artistic practice is intentionally situated between applied arts and fine arts, aiming to dissolve their hierarchies. Textile art, often relegated to a minor expression, becomes for her a critical tool to investigate aesthetics, gender, and visual culture. Through a practice she herself defines as “textile painting,” she reinterprets Rococo works with fabrics, embroidery, and decorative materials, creating a visual language where Baroque beauty merges with pop…
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JACQUELINE SURDELL
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois (USA), where she currently lives and works, Jacqueline Surdell is a young woman of many talents—first a professional athlete and later an artist, with a background from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts in Fiber and Material Studies in 2017. Family heritage plays a significant role in Jacqueline Surdell’s work. Her love for art and conceptual practice was passed down to her by her grandmother, a landscape painter. Her passion and interest in materials, their history and origin, and various processing techniques, on the other hand, were inherited…
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INTERWEAVINGS OF ART AND SCIENCE: THE ARTISTIC JOURNEY OF A CONTEMPORARY WEAVER
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Rachel (Meyers) Hefferan, an artist from suburban Midwest, USA, graduated from the University of Michigan and earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives and works in rural western Michigan. A weaver, farmer, environmentalist, and fermentation enthusiast, Hefferan uses the loom as a metaphorical tool, balancing between science and magic, to create tapestries—woven abstractions that represent and celebrate the beauty and complexity of microbial life and its process of decomposition and renewal of matter. Mosses, lichens, fungi, and molds, with their metabolic activities of transformation and deconstruction, are the primary sources of inspiration for the artist. Through…
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WEAVES THE FUTURE: THE ARTISTIC RESEARCH OF KATSURA TAKASUKA
|by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Katsura Takasuka was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1986 and studied textile design, earning his degree from Tokyo Zokei University, where he also completed a master’s program in 2011. Katsura Takasuka’s works focus on the relationship between humans and nature. He explores this complex connection through textiles—their origins and production—deeply rooted in human history. Through meticulous research on materials such as silk, cotton, hemp, and wool, as well as various weaving techniques, Takasuka distances himself from an anthropocentric perspective. His work expresses the need to restore an impartial and balanced vision of the human-nature relationship and their undeniable interdependence. His works have been featured in…
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ISABELLA DUCROT: THE ART OF FABRIC BETWEEN RESEARCH AND POETIC MEDITATION
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Isabella Ducrot, born in Naples and residing in Rome for many years, has developed a unique artistic path based on her passion for ancient fabrics. Through numerous journeys from Russia to the Far East, she has collected fine textiles that have become the core of her research and artistic production. Ducrot’s works have been exhibited in major institutions, including the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Venice Biennale, and prestigious international venues such as Berlin, Paris, and New York. A central element of her work is the concept of repetition, often represented by the round shape —…
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AI KIJIMA: THE ART OF TEXTILE COLLAGE BETWEEN CULTURES AND NARRATIVES
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Ai Kijima, a Japanese artist from Tokyo, has transformed her passion for textiles into unique and captivating works of art. Trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kijima currently lives and works between Istanbul and Brooklyn, where she continues to explore and merge her multicultural experiences into textile collages that tell stories of cultures and identities. A Passion for Fabric and Visual Storytelling Ai Kijima’s works are the result of a creative process involving a wide range of heterogeneous materials, from vintage kimonos to children’s bed linens, second-hand clothes, and traditional fabrics. Her work is a collage of stories and meanings,…
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JULIA COUZENS: FROM PAINTING TO SCULPTURE, THE EVOLUTION OF A VISIONARY ARTIST
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Art is an ever-evolving journey, a boundless quest through forms, materials and meanings. This is the case of a visionary artist whose career began in the world of painting and then unexpectedly and fascinatingly landed in sculpture, using textiles as her main medium. Julia Couzens, born and raised in Auburn, California, received her MFA in 1990 from UC Davis. She currently lives and works between Merritt Island on the Sacramento River and Los Angeles. http://www.juliacouzens.com/ ART AS A FLUID AND INDEFINABLE PROCESS This artist’s practice is distinguished by a plastic, “contaminated” and fluid approach that defies convention. “I don’t need to call something ‘painting’…
