Strings of Desire
January 29, 2023 — May 7, 2023
United by themes of human desire and longing, this group of thirteen artists have chosen to work with embroidery either as a singular medium or as a part of a multimedia art practice. The assembled artists have embraced needle and embroidery floss to connect with and integrate their non-Western cultural heritages, their queer identities, and their fantasies. Strings of Desire sets forth artists who have created a hybrid aesthetic that conflates embroidery, painting, sculpture, and architecture to explore personal identities that, like their art forms, are not solitary. Often either self-taught or gained through matrilineal knowledge, embroidery is a practice that is personal at its core, allowing the artists to explore different aspects of themselves in relation to larger aesthetic concepts, such as the hand and technology, childhood memories and adulthood, and lived and projected visions of their hearts’ desires.
Exhibition artists: Diem Chau, Jenny Hart, Kang Seung Lee, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Carmen Mardónez, Erick Medel, Ken Gun Min, Sophia Narrett, Jordan Nassar, Miguel Osuna, Ardeshir Tabrizi, Chiffon Thomas, 25 Million Stitches/Jennifer Kim Sohn.
This exhibition is supported in part by the Antonia and Vladimer Kulaev Cultural Heritage Foundation, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and the Bernard Kester Trust in Memory of Edith Wyle.
Photo credit: Ken Gun Min, Night Lake, 2016-2022. Korean pigment, collected bead/crystal, silk thread, embroidery wax, oil paint on canvas, 74 x 50 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Exhibition Installation Images: Ian Byers-Gamber