Artists
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STITCHING MEMORY AND BELONGING: IN CONVERSATION WITH SHAMILLA AASHA
Shamilla Aasha (Hwange, 1977) is a Zimbabwean artist and educator based in Bulawayo, whose practice unfolds at the intersection of painting, textile art, and mixed-media experimentation. Her work is distinguished by a richly layered and deeply symbolic visual language through which she explores themes of cultural identity, spirituality, memory, and the condition of women in contemporary Zimbabwe. Trained at the Bulawayo School of Art & Design, where she earned a Diploma in Textile Design in 2000, Aasha has developed an artistic practice that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, moving fluidly between painting, embroidery, assemblage, textile installation, and soft sculpture. Central to her research is the reclaiming of textile as a space…
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CARTOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY: TIME, SPACE, AND IDENTITY IN THE ART OF NAOMI MIDDELMANN
| by Barbara Pavan | Born in Switzerland, Naomi Middelmann moved to New York at the age of sixteen, where she completed her education with a degree in Creative Writing and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. After working in the publishing sector, she returned to Europe to pursue visual arts, earning a postgraduate diploma from the Visual Art School in Basel in 2009. Her work has been presented in over seventy solo and group exhibitions in museums, galleries, and art fairs across Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Middelmann’s artistic research is grounded in a critical reflection on the unstable and processual nature of time and space: just…
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CONSTRUCTING DWELLING: IN CONVERSATION WITH MARO FASOULI
| by Barbara Pavan | The notion of habitat – understood not simply as a physical structure, but as a space of energies, relationships and collective gestures – lies at the core of Maro Fasouli’s artistic research. Her work approaches dwelling not merely as the architectural boundary separating interior and exterior spaces, but as a broader cultural and social condition shaped by the frameworks through which societies organise private and public life. Rather than focusing on the protective function of walls and thresholds, Fasouli is interested in opening up the very idea of dwelling: the relationship between space and its inhabitant, and the ways in which this relationship is constructed…
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BETWEEN NEEDLE AND LENS: THE ART OF MELISSA ZEXTER
| by Barbara Pavan | Melissa Zexter hand-embroideres photographs that she has taken herself. Her work combines a modern, mechanically reproducible medium with a traditional handcraft practice. Her research explores the three-dimensional dimension of photography while investigating themes such as memory and identity. Through the act of embroidery, Zexter transforms each photograph into a unique object that can no longer be reproduced, in contrast to the overwhelming proliferation of images in the contemporary era. Born in Rhode Island, Zexter lives in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from New York University. She has exhibited internationally in both…
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VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE THREADS IN THE ART OF CLAUDIA CASARINO
| by Barbara Pavan | Claudia Casarino, born in Paraguay in 1974, trained in visual arts at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción and later extended her studies and research in New York and London. Her artistic practice is grounded in an acute awareness of the body, the dynamics of gendered discrimination, and a broader inquiry into the condition of women, often constrained between systemic violence and the pervasive weight of deeply rooted cultural stereotypes. Recognized as one of the most significant South American artists of her generation, Casarino has exhibited consistently since 1998 in leading international venues, including the Bienal do Mercosul, the Biennale dell’Avana, the Biennale di Tijuana, the…
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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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ON RELATIONSHIP: INTERTWININGS AND BONDS IN THE ART OF GIULIA NELLI
| by Barbara Pavan | Giulia Nelli’s artistic path began concretely and definitively with her encounter with pantyhose, a ductile and elastic material that facilitates the amplification of gesture and obeys a precise, meticulous manual skill aimed at surpassing already experimented canons. It also constitutes, symbolically, a medium deeply and intimately anchored to the feminine universe and to the social and cultural evolutions that have affected it over the decades. Above all, pantyhose adhere perfectly to the function of Nelli’s artistic practice, as she unravels and re-knots them, frays them, intertwines them – and this articulation and disarticulation perfectly evokes the complexity of human relationships, which are the origin and…
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TEXTILES IN ENCOUNTER: JAIME POBLETE 2024–2025
| by Elena Redaelli | Jaime Poblete’s recent work is poised to engage with encounters: with materials and processes, with other people, and with larger landscapes. That openness has deep roots in his trajectory. Trained in Scenography and Art History at the Universidad de Chile, he worked as a set designer, learning to consider light, spatial relations, and the audience. At Artefacto, Francisco Gonzalez’s studio, he assisted and taught, refining a practice where making remains visible in form. From 2002 to 2007, as a restorer at MAC in Santiago, he learned patience with material change and the quiet memory held in artefacts. Migration to Europe, first to Valencia for further…
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ANN VOLLUM: THREADS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS AND RE-STITCHED NARRATIVES
Ann Vollum is a textile artist whose practice primarily involves hand-stitching techniques and the use of repurposed materials. Her work is characterized by an organic, slow, and meditative approach, grounded in the valorization of craftsmanship and sustainability. In her practice, the act of handwork becomes simultaneously a contemplative gesture and a vehicle of memory. Vollum’s pieces present ambiguous and often dark narratives, emerging from the unconscious and constructed around the emotional burdens that accompany human experience. These inner threads, suspended between awareness and the repressed, are expressed through a highly personal iconography rooted in her childhood in Africa and her subsequent travels in Pakistan and India. From these experiences arises…
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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…
