Christy Matson: Crossings

Christy Matson is a Los Angeles-based artist known for her painterly approach to textiles. Matson employs a hand-operated, computer-programmable Jacquard loom to create intricate weavings to which she often applies paint and other fiber techniques. The artist mines her deep interests in approaches such as collage and abstraction, which can be found in both historical as well as modernist textile traditions. Matson’s work reflects on the gendered histories of weaving in conjunction with art historical approaches such as geometric abstraction and collage.

Christy Matson: Crossings features 16 weavings configured into 2 monumentally scaled tapestries that were originally conceived for a special commission for the US Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Matson was struck by the affinities between the country’s textile traditions and the approach to color and composition in the functional textiles of the region more generally and her own work, including the use of both muted natural and saturated synthetic dyes and the collaging of different fabrics in the signature patchworked garments of the region. Additionally, Matson will present a selection of smaller recent works that continue her reflections on historic weave structures in conjunction with her unique approach to pastiche and collage.

Recent exhibitions by the artist have been held at the Long Beach Museum of Art, Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Arts Houston, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Knoxville Museum of Art, the Asheville Museum of Art, and The San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Matson’s work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC; and numerous corporate and private collections.

Virtual Tour of Christy Matson: Crossings

 
Christy Matson: Crossings was organized by Cranbrook Art Museum with the assistance of Volume Gallery, Chicago, and supported by the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, members of the Museum Committee, and ArtMembers of Cranbrook Art Museum.