MAD | Museum of Arts and Design

Happy Art Week! MAD is thrilled to be a cultural partner of COLLECTIBLE, the art fair dedicated to 21st-century design. The fair is open now through this Sunday, September 8th. Tap the link below for tickets: https://collectible.design/collectible-nyc/

In 2016, Sonya Clark worked with the graphic designer Bo Peng to create a digital font based on her hair’s curl pattern. This new typeface, entitled “Twist,” named by poet Rita Dove, is a reconfiguration of the Roman alphabet that pushes back at cultural erasures. As a system of colonial domination, thousands of Indigenous scripts around the world have been replaced by the Roman alphabet. Clark once said, “I am calling attention to the Eurocentric origins of our alphabet. There are thousands of languages on the continent of Africa alone, and people will say, “Oh, but there are only a few of them that were written.” There were thousands of them, and you think only a few of them had writing systems? That can’t be true. That cannot be true.” To highlight these lost scripts, Clark collaborated with seven Black femme poets to create a transliteration of their work called 1-877-OUR-CURL. Just as the first image in the series of a hairball brings together all twists of the alphabet, the eighth poem, Palimpsest of Poems—referring to the practice of writing over preexisting text—allows the viewer to hear the voices of poets together as a chorus. If you’d like to hear each poem, please call: 1-877-OUR-CURL (687-2875). Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other is on view through September 22. Learn more: https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/sonya-clark __________________ Sonya Clark 1-877-OUR-CURL Letterpress prints on archival paper

Sona Clark: Monumental Cloth

“So, if someone looks at Monumental Cloth—that is to say, the series of works that are based around the Confederate truce flag—and they just look at them, then they can say, "Oh, I didn't know that. And now I know it. I've seen it. But if you sit at a loom for the first time, and maybe the hundred and first time, and you weave the structure of the truce flag, that is a whole different way of making your body dance the knowledge of that history and that cloth.”- Sonya Clark. Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know features two interactive, tactile experiences for viewers. Reconstruction Exercise invites viewers to weave a replica of the truce flag on a loom, while Lesson Plan invites viewers to make a chalk rubbing of the flags’ waffle weave surface pattern, which has been etched into the surface of school desks. Both interactions provide viewers with an expanded understanding of US history through a tactile experience that is a signature of Clark’s community based creative ethos. In the acts of weaving and rubbing, participants become actors in Clark’s reparative narrative to give agency to all who choose to collectively counter the propaganda of hate with an act that celebrates a new way forward. During this final month of the exhibition, we invite you to participate in the activations of Clark’s interactive and tactile communal art projects Thursday – Sunday from 2 – 6 pm. These projects challenge us to examine the country’s historical imbalances and racial injustices through material transformation. Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other is on view through September 22.

MAD Artist-in-Residence Katharine Ryals (explores the intricate interplay between ornamentation and myth, revealing how these elements together communicate themes of hierarchy, power, and value. Her work navigates the dichotomies of natural versus artificial, trash versus treasure, sacred versus profane, and luxury versus kitsch. By emulating artifacts of material culture, she produces a captivating array of mixed media sculptures, lens-based works, wearable art, and site-specific installations. Through her artistic practice, Ryals delves into how the cultural currencies of authenticity, taste, and illusion shape our perceptions, generating an economy around value and hierarchical constructs in contemporary society. Each piece invites viewers to question their own understandings of worth and the societal norms that influence them. Join us this Thursday, August 22, as we celebrate the culmination of Katharine’s and our other artist in residence Bang Geul Han, and Artist Fellow Michelle Im’s residency here at MAD. You’ll have the chance to hear from each artist about their respective practice and visit their studios to see the work they have created here at MAD.

Sonya Clark’s piece “Madame C. J. Walker” is a poignant tribute to America’s first female self-made millionaire, a celebrated figure who came from the cotton fields of the South to build an empire of Black hair-care products. To create Madam C. J. Walker’s portrait, Clark used over three thousand fine-toothed black pocket combs, which she contends are gendered and point to Walker negotiating a man’s world. Through a meticulous process, Clark removed tines from the combs to achieve the light and dark values of the familiar photographic portrait of Walker by the well-known Black photographer Addison N. Scurlock on which it was based. The piece highlights several of Clark’s signature themes, such as the history of the Black experience, hair as a creative medium connected to Black identity, and the use of everyday materials and handcraft. As a celebration of Walker’s legacy, the work underscores her commitment to activism, particularly her efforts in antilynching campaigns, as she wielded her economic influence to empower other women in their entrepreneurial endeavors, despite societal barriers to voting and representation. Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other is on view through September 22. https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/sonya-clark

Immerse yourself in the world of pom-pom crafting with multimedia artist and internet sensation Karyn Lao this Sunday, August 4, during our latest Family Studio workshop. Experience the joy of community making while transforming colorful threads and textiles into vibrant, pomp-adorable floofs! Family Studio is a collaborative workshop for children ages five and up and their caregivers to learn, explore, and create together. Admission for children 12 and under is free, and children must be attended by a caregiver. Space is limited. Reserve your spot today!

Book Sale! Select art books and catalogs for some of your favorite MAD exhibitions are now on sale at @thestoreatmad! Give your coffee table a glow-up by selecting from richly illustrated monographs, exhibition catalogs, other publications, and more priced as low as $10. Tap the link below to shop the store online! https://thestore.madmuseum.org/collections/sale-1

“We continue to be surprised that artists create works that seem to address our specific political and societal concerns. It is if they know us and are helping us to express things that we consider close to our hearts.” - Ron Porter and Joe Price Collectors Ron Porter and Joe Price have ongoing conversations about religion and violence, violence against women, the obsession with power and money, and the place for war and aggression. Works in the couple’s collection, now on view in OUT of the Jewelry Box, from artists including Nicholas Estrada, Joyce Scott, Kathleen Browne, and Lauren Tickle, reflect these issues head on with brutal honesty. A couple for forty-one years (nine of those married) and members of the LGBTQ+ community, Porter and Price, understand what it is like to be labeled as “Other.” This understanding has influenced their work to advocate for and support groups that are often overlooked. Through their collection, they hope to educate others about the cruelty faced by the voiceless while also honoring the victims of that cruelty. “Jewelry which may not conform to society’s definition of beauty is still beautiful in its content, construction, and interpretation. There is beauty if you open yourself to see it,” says Porter.

In search of a rainy day activity? Come visit the MAD Drawing Room! Created by artist Anne Wilson, The MAD Drawing Room is for visitors to engage in the beauty and complexity of the artist's personal archives of lace and openwork textiles through close looking, drawing, or writing. The Drawing Room is inspired by the Davis Street Drawing Room, Wilson's experimental and participatory art project in Evanston, Illinois. Within the space, you are invited to explore Wilson's library of art and fiber texts. Tap the link below to learn more. https://madmuseum.org

“Why is it that I know one of the many Confederate battle flags so well that I could draw it for you now, but I don't know the piece of cloth that was pressed into service to end the Civil War? Why don’t I know that? And what can I do about it?” - Sonya Clark While #Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers finally arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced that the Civil War was over and slavery was abolished, Sonya Clark’s Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know, shines a light on an obscure object that played an outsized role in ending the war. When Clark was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of American History, she came across a fragment of the Confederate flag of truce—a common dishtowel—displayed next to President Lincoln’s top hat. The dishtowel was used by Gen. Robert E. Lee to negotiate the Confederate Army’s terms of surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9th, 1865. Clark’s encounter with the humble cloth had a profound impact on the artist, and it inspired the Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know series. The project forces us to ask, “What if this were the symbol that endured?” It challenges us to rethink the hateful legacy of the Confederate battle flag: what if the lasting symbol was one of the full defeat of Confederate ideology and recognition of slavery as a key cause of the war? What if Black humanity were celebrated rather than denigrated? The series of works that resulted reproduce the truce flag at different scales with the goal of challenging the pervasive visibility and power of the Confederate battle flag. We invite you to the Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other galleries today from 2-6 p.m. for activations of Clark's interactive and tactile communal art projects, which challenge us to examine the country’s historical imbalances and racial injustices through material transformation.

Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know

Juneteenth at MAD

This Juneteenth, we invite you to pay a visit to Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other and dedicate the day to making, reflection, and conversation. Sonya Clark is renowned for creating mixed-media works that address race and the visibility of the Black experience in America. Often incorporating everyday objects from human hair and cotton cloth, to combs and bricks, Clark’s thought-provoking sculpture, video, photography, installation, and communal art projects serve as powerful mediums to discuss race, freedom, and the ongoing struggle for equality. Join our artist educators in the exhibition galleries this Wednesday, June 19, from 2 to 6 pm to participate in one or more of Clark’s five collective artworks. Come together in community as we explore how the power of art can help inspire change. Tap the link below for tickets: https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/sonya-clark

“My work is a response to lived experiences and how they materialize as the need to transform my surroundings into enchanting spaces. In this process, I develop a visual language that allows me to decode the complexities of the world around me, creating an enigmatic realm called $P4RKL3_FiLTH_CL0UD_NiN3. Here, I craft objects that align with queer bodies, while manifesting equilibrium—a sense of balance and belonging that enables me to navigate between a range of societal and material binaries.” - SULO BEE , Trans nonbinary metalsmith, maker, and founder of Queer Metalsmiths See Sulo Bee’s piece now on view in OUT of the Jewelry Box. Featuring over 50 works from the #MADCollection, the exhibition considers the importance of queer perspectives in the world of studio and contemporary art jewelry. And visit the MAD Mobile Guide on the Bloomberg Connects app to hear from more artists, collectors, and allies narrate personal stories that speak to the expansiveness of queer identity and its many forms of expression. __________________ B3TT3R_dayz[P4LM_TR33_angel], 2023 Brass, copper, fine silver, sterling silver, steel, epoxy, enamel paint, rubber, Caspar Beach sand, and found seashells #sulobee #artjewelry #craftfrontcenter #bloombergconnects #queerjewelry #metalsmith #contemporaryartjewelry #studioartjewelry See less

Sonya Clark has been exploring flag forms since her MFA thesis project at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she created the Gele Kente Flag. This unique piece combines a West African headwrap known as a gele with elements of the American flag and Ghanaian kente cloth patterns. It symbolizes the complex, hybridized identities of the African diaspora in the United States. Due to the forced migration of Africans, many Black Americans don't know their full heritage. By blending the gele (from Yoruba), kente (from Asante), and the American flag, Clark honors this shared yet fragmented history. During Clark's time at Cranbrook, painter and dear family friend Sam Gilliam emphasized the importance of textiles within the African diaspora, saying, "Others look to a monument, we look to a piece of cloth." Sonya Clark also used the Gele Kente Flag to create a performance piece. She invited Black women from Detroit's artist community to wear the gele and be photographed, infusing the cloth with their strength and wisdom. Clark explains, "Gele is a communal piece. I made it for African American women to share. The more documentation done on the piece being worn, the more people the piece belongs to. This type of ownership is not a tangible one. It is not a question of who exchanged money to possess the piece. It is an issue of who owns part of the collective experience of the piece." You can see this work and more of Clark's communal pieces in Sonya Clark: We Are Each, on view through September 22. https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/sonya-clark

Now on view, Craft Front & Center: Conversation Pieces brings pioneering twentieth-century craft artists into dialogue with contemporary artists who are rethinking craft techniques and materials. Showcasing MAD’s permanent collection, more than sixty historic, recently acquired, and commissioned works illustrate craft’s history of collaboration and point to intriguing new directions for the field’s traditions. Explore the visual and material connections among the works of artists past and present whose unique personal relationships, teacher and student, collaborators, and generational influencers, have been critical to craft’s advancement as an art form. The exhibition features work from the likes of University of California, Berkeley faculty Paul Voulkos and students Jun Kaneko and Mary Ann Unger. Bauhaus alumni and colleagues Marguerite Friedländer-Wildenhain and Anni Albers, founders of the artist collective AYDO Studio, A young Yu and Nicholas Oh, and studio craft legends Sheila Hicks and Claire Zeisler alongside those pushing the boundaries in craft including Vadis Turner and Kira Dominguez Hultgren. Tap the link below to purchase your tickets. https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/craft-front-center-1

"Hairdressers are my heroes. The poetry and politics of Black hair care specialists are central to my work as an artist and educator. Rooted in a rich legacy, their hands embody an ability to map a head with a comb and manipulate the fiber we grow into complex form. These artists have mastered a craft impossible for me to take for granted” - Sonya Clark . Sonya Clark’s "The Hair Craft Project" was a unique collaboration between the artist and Black hairstylists, who embody their own distinct form of artistry. Recognizing the stylists as fellow textile artists, Clark has noted that hairdressing was the first textile art form. Using her own head as a canvas, she partnered with the stylists to dismantle the barrier between hair salons and art institutions, revealing both as spaces of craft, skill, improvisation, aesthetics, and commerce. Each meticulously crafted hair design was documented through photography and paired with a complementary textile panel that the hairstylists intricately created on canvas. "The Hair Craft Project" builds upon Clark’s previous work with sculptural fiber wigs, a practice she began as a student at Cranbrook Academy of Art while delving into the broader cultural significance of braiding. These works showcase Clark’s deep appreciation for hairstyling as an art form and bring to light the remarkable creativity inherent in this ritualized practice, which has been passed down through generations. See “The Hair Craft Project” on view in Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other, through September 22. #sonyaclark #weareeachother #sonyaclarkmad #Blackhair #haircraftproject

OUT of the Jewelry Box

“Smith’s obvious lack of connection to the queer community in his work in fact shows a type of codeswitching he engaged in to survive persecutions and homophobia...” Jewelry curator and Parsons School of Design professor Sebastian Grant reflects on jewelry Art Smith and his complex relationship with his queer identity and his work. See these Art Smith’s pieces from the MAD Collection now on view in OUT of the Jewelry Box. And visit the MAD Mobile Guide on the Bloomberg Connects app to hear from more artists, collectors, and allies narrate personal stories that speak to the expansiveness of queer identity and its many forms of expression.

We’re also celebrating the #FirstMondayinMAD! MAD is open today for you to explore our latest works on view, including Michael Sylvan Robinson’s showstopping piece, Identity Is..., created for multifaceted creator, tastemaker, and theater impresario Jordan Roth to wear at @metmuseum’s #MetGala in 2021. A maximalist composition in which identity is a multifaceted creative act, the coat and its sweeping train are crafted from a textile collage of elaborately patterned fabric overworked with labor-intensive machine and handstitched beadwork. Layers of queer imagery and poetic text fragments are key elements in the work of the artist. Tap the link in bio for tickets. Source: Jordan Roth Videography: James Vernon _____________ #Slyvan #JordanRoth #metgalaredcarpet #metball

Craft Front & Center: Anthony Akinbola

Nigerian-American artist Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola creates “paintings” by stretching, stitching, and stapling durags on canvas. While the durag is both fetishized for its pop culture credibility and criminalized for its proximity to Blackness, Akinbola explores it as an art-making material and a vehicle to contemplate larger issues of identity, global consumption, and commodification of Black American culture. He says, “There is something really interesting about being able to bring that material into a fine art context and subvert power around it.” See Anikbola’s #MADCollection piece on view in Craft Front & Center through April 21. ______________ Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola CAMOUFLAGE (Count Basie at Carnegie Hall), 2021 Durags on canvas