A new exhibit, "Woven Together" at Kinfolk House in Fort Worth, puts a twist on traditional women's crafts that play off nostalgia and also offer a fresh perspective, said Jessica Fuentes, the executive director of Kinfolk House.
It feels right at home in the 100-year-old historic house in the Polytechnic neighborhood of Fort Worth. It had belonged to artist Sedrick Huckaby's grandmother Hallie B. Carpenter, who was known as Big Momma, until her death in 2008.
Huckaby bought the house from a family member in 2010 and said he wanted to honor his matriarch's memory. He and his wife Letitia opened Kinfolk House in 2022 as a nonprofit arts space "for artists who have been historically underserved," Fuentes said.
"This was a house that had been home to many people before his family, and it had its own history," she said. "It just kind of felt like the space was imbued with that sense of being a welcoming space for all."
The front door of Kinfolk House is like a portal to the past, transporting visitors as they step through to a seemingly simpler time of generations ages ago.
Here's a look at the three artists in "Woven Together" and their work.
Deyjah Stewart
Deyjah Stewart's colorful fabric and yarn sculptures stand out against the aged patina of the original wooden floors and walls. Her work conveys sentimental memories with simple wooden rocking chairs and patchwork quilts.
“I think about how loss has strengthened my familial relationships,” the Fort Worth artist said, adding that reflecting on the past and the death of her grandmother, her best friend, brings solitude and strength.
Stewart said she wanted to use crochet in her work because her mother started to crochet again. “It's personal to me because of my mother ... it has carried on. It's like a bond for me and my mom and what we love.”
Kandy G. Lopez
Kandy G. Lopez, based in Miami, hand sews yarn onto hook rug mesh for larger-than-life-sized portraits that exude confidence and strength.
Lopez's grandmother was a seamstress in the Dominican Republic and taught her pattern-making as a teenager. In college, Lopez said she taught herself how to crochet by watching YouTube videos.
Her fiber arts work evolved from a "happy accident" in the studio when a string fell onto a print, she said. She then began using string with her oil paintings.
Her yarn pieces are the result of trial and error, Lopez said. She finds fibers more difficult to create with than paint.
Isabel Wilson
Isabel Wilson, a Houston fashion designer from an "artist family," collaborated with Stewart to create part of her exhibit—a digital fabric print made from high-resolution photographs of Stewart's mixed-media sculpture. The yarn image has a 3D effect on two-dimensional fabric.
Wilson uses leftover material from past projects.
"Using fabrics from specific times in my life that hold meaning and then sewing them together, it can make for a very beautiful, poetic narrative," she said.
This exhibit "presents art in a new light for people who feel uncomfortable thinking about traditional art or don't see that as a reflection of themselves...they have a much more direct connection to works like this," Fuentes said.
"Woven Together" runs through April 22 at Kinfolk House. Each artist will participate in a special event during the exhibit:
- March 25 - Isabel Wilson speaks after a University of North Texas student fashion show
- March 28 - Kandy G. Lopez talks about her artwork with Maria Elena Ortiz, curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
- April 8 - Deyjah Stewart discusses her creative process during a Show & Share
Kinfolk House, 1913 Wallace St., Fort Worth, is open Tuesday-Sunday. www.kinfolkhouse.org/
