Fiber Works the Stars of the Show

by Michel Ségard

        This year’s Expo Chicago had more than the usual number of fiber pieces. We are not talking about 1960s macramé or traditional weaving; this fair showed unorthodox and innovative works using fiber in unconventional ways that echoed past past fiber artists like Adela Akers, Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz, and Claire Zeisler The use of this medium continues to be dominated by women, but as seen in this year’s fair, Nathan Vincent breaks that monopoly.

         The star artwork of this category was Kandy Lopez’s City Girls at the ACA Galleries booth. This 102 by 168 inch piece stole the show not only by its size, but in how yarn is used as if it were paint. Lopez became allergic to the paints she used so she searched for a new medium and found colored yarn. Although fiber as a color medium has been done in a variety of ways in the past, Lopez uses fiber to capture the sense of impasto that one sees in heavily applied paint. This gives her work an energy not seen in other yarn techniques.

        The other fiber piece that created a “splash” was Locker Room by Nathan Vincent at the Walter Maciel Gallery booth. This highly amusing piece becomes even funnier when one realizes that it is made of yarn knit over supporting structures that suggest the contents of a typical locker room. The concept of life-size lockers, showers, and urinals knitted by a man is so ridiculous that it good naturedly forces us to question our assumptions about masculinity.

        John Paul Morabito’s I Need Someone to Love Tonight, shown by Patricia Sweetow Gallery that specializes in fiber work, is more serious. Morabito creates large hanging tapestries where the top strip of the work is traditionally woven, but the warp is left to hang free after about a foot. The fibers are then encrusted with beads and embellished with gold leaf thread. Their work also references Catholic liturgical tapestries. For me, Morabito’s piece also calls up memories of a beaded curtain in the entry to a secret cabaret in a 1940s movie. What is on the other side of that portal? In that some of his works are in memory of friends who died of AIDS, maybe the portal is to a more serene existence.

        A piece that had a similar form, but entirely different aesthetic, was Jacqueline Surrell’s Golden Fleece at the Secrist | Beach booth. Her large yellow and lavender wall hanging also had a fully crafted top with long “warp” pieces hanging to the floor. Hers, however, was assembled using knot work somewhat reminiscent of macramé, but much bolder, even aggressive. In her piece, there is a “window” in the center of the top portion that is framed with an arch shaped series of knots. Strangely, it has a gothic, ecclesiastical feel. Strangely, both Surrell’s and Morabito’s works have suggestions of gateways to otherworldly existence.

        Another piece that played with the warp of a weaving was Aiko Tezuka’s Closing and Opening (A Study of Bravery) –Friction. Tezuka designs and weaves her own fully executed Jacquard weavings, carefully controlling the colors of the warp fibers. Then she extends the warps from two weavings and braids them together into a kind of web. It makes for a very elegant, but unexpectedly surreal, work.

        There were a number of works woven with unusual materials that illustrated how far the concept of weaving has developed. Two of them are El Anatsui’s Profile, fashioned from aluminum and copper wire, and Kenny Nguyen’s Eruption Series No. 85, made with hand-cut silk fabric, acrylic paint, and canvas. Neither of these works are small; Anatsui’s is a whopping 120 x 104 inches while Nguyen’s is a mere 70 x 90 inches. When it comes to weaving, it seems that size matters.

Other Works that Caught my Eye

        Although weaving was the trend that captured my attention, there were a number of other works that deserve mention—pieces varying from plasma cut metal sculptures to traditional paintings. Cal Lane, a Canadian sculptor represented by C24 Gallery, takes old ammunition boxes and cuts them into lacy wall hangings that look like they could hold hanging plants.

        On a larger scale, Jaeha Lyu’s Mind Others, presented by 021 Gallery, showed a dramatic combination of mechanization and electronics. This ensemble consists of seven mechanized units that slowly open and close like apertures in a camera to reveal small video screens in back. The slow, almost unnoticeable, random modulation gives the piece the illusion of being alive.

        Nik Cho had a large painting at the Secrist | Beach booth called Big Bertha (Gathering) that really attracted notice. It depicts five young men standing around who look almost exactly alike yet are dressed in different clothes. On the right, a slightly larger older looking man stands staring at them. Surprisingly, the blue-orange-green color palette is not garish. Two men in the group appear to be holding hands, and another has his hand on the shoulder of his neighbor. Is the older man on the right showing disapproval of the latent intimacy of the pairs? And why do they all look alike? There is a definite air of melancholy or sadness to the whole scene.

        ONE AND J. Gallery from Seoul presented six small, abstract, geometric variations on a theme. Displayed in a row at eye level, the works made an engaging swath of color across one wall of the booth. They had the same deep rich colors of Hugh Byrne’s three large pieces that were shown at the Ebony Curated booth in 2023. It is refreshing to see that geometric abstraction is still being explored. The intimate scale of this ensemble makes them all the more enjoyable.

        The last two works that caught my attention resonated with each other, although they were nowhere near each other at the fair. This is one thing that fairs are good for—you sometimes get to consider and compare works that you would not normally see in the same setting. In this case, the story of twentieth-century Black America is unexpectedly encapsulated through these two artworks.

        Overall, Expo Chicago 2025 can be considered a “safe” fair. Fiber was the medium that stood out for me this year. And there were a few provocative exhibits that mostly had to do with challenging our cultures traditional sexual roless. A man should not be knitting, much less an entire locker room—why not? A woman should not be a welder using a plasma cutter—why not? Given the fair’s size, there are always a number of pieces which are just plain beautiful.

        So, should such fairs continue to be held? Yes, they show what is going on in the mainstream market and, occasionally, give us a glimpse into the future. Expo Chicago 2025 satisfied both of those criteria.

Michel Ségard is the Editor in Chief of the New Art Examiner and a former adjunct assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been a published art critic for more than 45 years and is also the author of numerous exhibition catalog essays.