Artists
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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…
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IN CONVERSATION WITH GUDRUN BARTENBERGER-GEYER
| By Barbara Pavan | Gudrun Bartenberger-Geyer (Linz, Austria, 1969) has always intertwined her life with the languages of textiles, fashion, and the visual arts. After an initial education in Textile and Decorative Design in her hometown, she moved to Vienna, where she pursued a path that alternated between the academic study of art history and Italian at the University of Vienna and a more concrete and experimental practice in the field of Fashion and Clothing Technology, culminating in a Master Class for Dressmaking. This constant dialogue between theoretical research and artisanal know-how became the guiding thread of her poetics. In 2005 she further enriched her background with a specialization…
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ILARIA MARGUTTI: ART AS A PRACTICE OF LISTENING, RESISTANCE, AND AWARENESS
| by Barbara Pavan | Crossing the threshold of an artist’s studio is always an act charged with anticipation, like the beginning of a silent ritual. Every time, I wonder how much of the spirit, of the soul that manifests in the works, also inhabits the space in which they take shape. In the case of Ilaria Margutti, this question becomes even more intense. Her research, in fact, moves within inner geographies with the same intensity with which it explores the complex immensity of the Universe. In her hands, the infinitely large is translated into an alphabet of dots within the minimal perimeter of an embroidery frame traversed by a…
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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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WEAVES OF MEANING: THE ART OF ANNEKE KLEIN BETWEEN MINIMALISM AND SOCIAL AWARENESS
| by Barbara Pavan | Anneke Klein is a Dutch fiber artist who, through essential weaves and a visual language of refined sobriety, explores the social dynamics of our time in depth. Her background as a goldsmith, her passion for weaving, and her interest in the interaction between the artwork and the viewer — and, not least, with the space itself — have led her to develop a personal and distinctive style, recognized and acclaimed in international contexts. In this interview, Klein shares her creative journey, the connection between minimal gestures and social reflection, and the most recent evolution of her work, which addresses the human need for hope, love,…
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LAYERS OF MEANING: THE ARTISTIC UNIVERSE OF NICOLE HAVEKOST
| by Barbara Pavan | Nicole Havekost (1970) develops an artistic practice that traverses multiple media and expressive languages, maintaining as a common thread a rigorous investigation into the potential of materials and the processual dimension of creation. Her work has been presented in numerous exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, and she is currently represented by Dreamsong Gallery in Minneapolis. At the same time, she is engaged in research and teaching activities: she is a national alumni member of A.I.R. Gallery and serves as a Teaching Artist Fellow at the Center for Craft, where she deepens the relationship between artistic practice and the transmission of knowledge. Her academic training includes…
