Adam-Parker Smith & Thread Baring: A Portrayal of Masculinity One Stitch at a Time at UW Milwaukee Union Art Gallery

(Adam Parker-Smith)

I just found out (by peeking at their blog) that there is a show called "Thread Baring" opening November 19th at the Milwaukee Union Art gallery, with a specific focus on works by men:

This group exhibition looks at masculinity as represented by male artists working in forms and mediums often considered to be the domain of women. Using materials like thread, yarn and felt in practices like weaving, knitting and embroidery , these visually compelling two and three-dimensional works aim to challenge preconceptions about the subject and forms of men’s art. With a literal construction of masculinity, these fiber artists present contrasts meant to perplex and intrigue.

Artists include : Youn Woo Chaa, Robert Conger, Angelo Filomeno, Craig Fisher, Kent Henrickson, Mark Newport, Chris Niver, Adam Parker Smith, Paul Villinski, Michael Brennand- Wood, and Rob Wynn.

Link

Mr. Jalopy Embroiders Lacoste

Over on Dinosaurs and Robots, Mr. Jalopy has a new, micro-embroidery piece. He embroidered (with great difficulty I'm sure) over the iconic Lacoste logo on his shirt in bright red thread.

...why would I embroider over the iconic crocodile? Because it is one of the few brands I still care about.

Link

Whip Up: Man-broidery

I wrote a brief article for Whip Up about men working in embroidery. Hardly an exhaustive representation of dudes who do the stitching around the house, it's just a little post I wrote that starts like this:

Man-broidery. Boy-broidery. Guy-stitching. Bro-broidery. Whatever you call it, guys are (and always have been) doing it. You know, embroidering! Wielding the needle! Marking the muslin! Poking the pillowcase! Splitting the stitch! Which is fantastically awesome. I say: there needs to be more men embroidering. And it seems that there are.

Read the rest of my wee article on Whip Up:
Man-broidery by Jenny Hart

Related: Mark Frauenfelder and Mr. Jalopy embroider too!

Marc Dombrosky

Stitching on paper is such a delicate task. Marc Dombrosky reproduces found drawings in embroidery on paper.

Link

Richard Saja

I first saw Richard Saja's work at The Future Perfect in Brooklyn several years ago. Richard re-upholsters furniture in toile, and then further embellishes the pastoral scenes with not-so-pastoral touches in embroidery: setting fire to a woman's skirt, adding a clown nose to a nobleman. This work is one of my favorites. It's the marriage of King Arthur to Guinevere as superheroes re-worked over toile in glow-in-the-dark thread.

Richard and I became friends a few years back when he came to see my show at Art Star in 2006 and we since then have somehow managed to read one another's minds, like the time we both eerily did pillows of braille embroidered in french knots in the same month:


Link to Richard's pillow


Link to my pillow

Is it just me, or is it even stranger that his is black, mine is white and they're photographed in identical positions?


Link to Historically Innacurate

Link to Glow-in-the-Dark Thread

Christopher Niver

I love the specific, natural spaces Christopher Niver's needleworks take on as subjects. My favorites are like this one: natural crevices with water and stylized clouds passing by. Christopher's and I both have work in the Devotion to Thread show now hanging in Milwaukee.

Link

Michael Aaron McAllister

Check out these miniature quilts with densely hand-stitched portaits on them. The amount of work is completely mind-blowing.

Link (thanks Julie!)