Liz Collins Investigates The Intersection Between Painting And Fiber Art In New Installation At MAD

From September 20, 2018, through March 17, 2019, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) will present Liz Collins: Rays. Opening in conjunction with New York Textile Month and the exhibition, MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1, the installation in MAD's 1ST SITE project space, which features work that interacts with and interprets the interior architecture and ambiance of the Museum's entry. Liz Collins: Rays is drawn from the artist's "Rays" wallpaper series, the design of which she completed during her 2015 residency in the MAD Artist Studios program.

Originally composed as drawings on black craft paper, "Rays" was manufactured as the wallpaper panels Feria 1, 2, and 3 (2017) by the textile company 4Spaces. The original drawings and wallpaper were acquired by MAD for its permanent collection in 2017. This is Collins' second intervention in MAD's lobby, following the final iteration of her eleven-year performance and site-specific project KNITTING NATION 15: Weaving Walls in 2016.

Working across the spectrum of textile media, Collins plays with material and phenomenological dualities like dark vs. light or tight vs. loose, pushing the limits of her materials and process in unexpected ways. Her artworks, incorporating vivid colors and dynamic patterns and emphasizing textures and inventive structures, surround the viewer in vibrating color fields to investigate the boundaries between painting, fiber arts, and installation. Collins' background in fashion and textile design is evident in her treatment of black craft paper as fabric yardage to explore the layering of line and color, working to see how many lines can converge at a single point. The final drawings illuminate the dark background like a laser light show or the aurora borealis.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Liz Collins (United States, b. 1968) is an artist and designer living and working in Brooklyn. She received both a BFA and an MFA in Textiles at Rhode Island School of Design. She has taught at RISD, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Maryland Institute College of Art, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, and Moore College of Art and Design, and has been a visiting artist and critic at numerous art and design schools. Collins' awards include a United States Artists Fellowship, a MacColl Johnson Fellowship, and residencies at Alaska AIR, Haystack, the MacDowell Colony, the Siena Art Institute, Stoneleaf, Yaddo, and MAD. A Queer Art Mentor, she serves on the board of the Fire Island Artist Residency and the Exhibitions Committee at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, and she is one of the artists in the 2018-2020 Open Sessions program at the Drawing Center.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields and presents the work of artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill. Since the Museum's founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum's curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving twenty-first-century innovation, and fosters a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design.