Work

Request Information

Request Information

RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS | Flowered Thorns #7 | 2020/21 | fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins | 22 x 18.5 x 15 inches

Request Information

RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS | Flowered Thorns #7 | 2020/21 | fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins | 22 x 18.5 x 15 inches

Request Information

RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS | Flowered Thorns #9 | 2020/21 | fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins | 18 x 18 x 13 inches

Request Information

RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS | Flowered Thorns #9 | 2020/21 | fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins | 18 x 18 x 13 inches

Request Information

RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS | Flowered Thorns #4 | 2020/21 | fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins | 24 x 18 x 17 inches

Request Information

RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS | Flowered Thorns #4 | 2020/21 | fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins | 24 x 18 x 17 inches

Request Information

Ramekon O’Arwisters / Cheesecake #10 / 2019 / textiles, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program / 12 x 12 x 13 inches

Request Information

Ramekon O’Arwisters / Cheesecake #1 / 2019 / textiles, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program / 14 x 14 x 17 inches

Request Information

Ramekon O’Arwisters / Cheesecake #8 / 2019 / textiles, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program / 15 x 17 x 15 inches

Request Information

Ramekon O’Arwisters / Cheesecake #6 / 2019 / textiles, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program / 19 x 18 x 12 inches

Request Information

Videos

Thursday, September 23rd, 2021 at 4:30 pm PDT/ 7:30 EST

In Conversation with Curator Glenn Adamson & Artist Ramekon O’Arwisters on occasion of his exhibition “Flowered Thorns” at Patricia Sweetow Gallery.

Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer and historian based in New York. Co-host of the online interview series Design in Dialogue, he has previously been Director of the Museum of Arts and Design; Head of Research at the V&A; and Curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. Adamson’s publications include Thinking Through Craft (2007); The Craft Reader (2010); Postmodernism: Style and Subversion (2011, co-edited with Jane Pavitt); The Invention of Craft (2013); Art in the Making (2016, co-authored with Julia Bryan-Wilson; and Fewer Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects (2018). His newest book is Craft: An American History, published by Bloomsbury.

Request Information

This program is in support of the exhibition Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love, honoring the life and legacy of fashion designer Patrick Kelly.

About the Speakers

Delila Hailechristos is the founder of ReLove, a sustainable fashion resale boutique which opened in 2014. Since its inception, ReLove is a space that celebrates art, community, diversity, and inclusion in fashion. Delila, an immigrant raised in Ethiopia, founded the business to share her passion of curated resale as an alternative to the destructive industry of mass fashion. Sustainability is at the heart of her work at ReLove. Delila is a leading voice in the sustainability conversation and has led talks and panels on the topic. As one of only a handful of Black-owned fashion businesses in San Francisco, ReLove has emerged as a poignant advocate that champions visibility for black creatives. Under Delila’s direction ReLove has worked and collaborated with countless Black artists, photographers, stylists, models, musicians and business owners from across the US.

Mattie Loyce is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and community advocate originally from and currently based in San Francisco, CA. Critically engaging socio-political content, and encouraging empowerment through decolonial transformative justice are key to her community work and socially engaged artist practice. Throughout her career she has made a commitment to amplifying the voices and supporting the lives of people with marginalized identities, specifically people and artists of the African diaspora, queer people and people of color.

Ramekon O’Arwisters is the founder of Crochet Jam, a community arts project infused with folk art traditions that foster a creative culture in cooperative relationships. He was born in Kernersville, North Carolina and earned a MDiv from Duke University Divinity School in 1986. He was an artist-in-residence at the de Young museum, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Vermont Studio Center. He received the 2014 Eureka Fellowship, awarded by the Fleishhacker Foundation in San Francisco, and a Pollock-Krasner foundation grant in 2021. His work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, 7×7 Magazine, Artnet, San Francisco Examiner, and Brian Boucher’s Daily Dispatch.

George McCalman was raised in Brooklyn and received his BFA in philosophy at St. John’s in Queens, NY, which inform his design principles to this day. He credits his Caribbean background for his unique ability to both embrace and rebel against traditional modes of design, enabling a brand to simultaneously integrate and stand out in its industry. After fourteen years as a leading art director in the magazine industry, George McCalman opened the doors to MCCALMAN.CO in 2011. Working at highly respected national magazines like ReadyMade, Mother Jones, and Entertainment Weekly, McCalman amassed numerous design awards throughout his career. His editorial background gives him a unique perspective on commercial branding.

About the Exhibition

This exhibition celebrates the career and legacy of Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly (1954–1990). First presented by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2014, the exhibition presents seventy-nine fully accessorized ensembles, dating from 1984 to 1990, from the Philadelphia Museum’s archive of Kelly’s work, to new acquisitions from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s costume collection. Kelly drew upon his childhood in the United States South, his African American heritage, his experiences in the club and gay cultural scenes in New York and Paris, and muses from fashion, art, and Black history to create light-hearted yet sophisticated designs that pushed racial and cultural boundaries. The exhibition situates Kelly and his work in the broader context of art and fashion history by exploring the inspirations behind his designs, his significant collection of racist memorabilia (whose images he wrested to tell his own story), and footage from his exuberant and groundbreaking fashion shows.

Request Information

In the Artist’s Studio: Ramekon O’Arwisters

Mark Sabb | April 25, 2020

Interview conducted by Demetri Broxton, Director of Education

Request Information

(un)making

Episode 4: Ramekon O’Arwisters

By Weston TeruyaMarch 3, 2017

Request Information

Saturday, February 3rd at 3pm: In Conversation: Demetri Broxton & Ramekon O’Arwisters.

Request Information

BIO

Growing up in Jim Crow South during the Civil Rights Movement, Ramekon O’Arwisters had a safe haven, quilting with his Grandmother where he was “embraced, important and special.” These early memories prompted his nascent series of unique crocheted/ceramic sculptures titled, Mending. Employing ordinary household, or decorative pottery, broken and discarded, O’Arwisters combined traditional crafts into a dimensional woven tapestry, stripping both cloth and ceramic of their intended function.

In his new series of sculptures titled Cheesecake, the works have transformed from something broken, needing mending, to fully determined and self-aware. Being Black and Queer, the full complexity of the moniker Cheesecake, used to objectify an attractive, sexualized man or woman is not lost to O’Arwisters. Instead he embraces it, subverting the demeaning implication in describing his said, “objects”. Combining lacy, embellished fabrics with ceramics contributed by students and faculty from California State University at Long Beach, O’Arwisters sculptural hybrids embody both danger and seduction in his bold ‘coming of age’ works.

Ramekon O’Arwisters is the founder of Crochet Jam, a community arts project infused with folk-art traditions that foster a creative culture in cooperative relationships. Born in Kernersville, North Carolina, O’Arwisters earned a M.Div. from Duke University Divinity School in 1986. He was an artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Vermont Studio Center. Grants and Awards include Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue, NY, the San Francisco Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Program. He received the 2014 Eureka Fellow, awarded by the Fleishhacker Foundation in San Francisco. His work has been featured in the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, 7×7 Magazine, Artnet, and the San Francisco Examiner.