BOSTON, June 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ShowUp is pleased to announce
its upcoming exhibition, Material Progress, featuring the
work of artists Dina Nazmi Khorchid, Marla
L. McLeod, and Diana Weymar
(Tiny Pricks Project). Material Progress will run from
September 6 to December 1, 2024. An
opening reception will be held on Friday,
September 6th from 5 to 8
pm.
ShowUp presents this timely exhibition with the intention of
encouraging visitors to consider the state of our society and
inspire civic engagement.
Through fiber, text, sculpture and paintings, Material
Progress invites us to explore themes of the condition of our
democracy, the (in)stability of our metaphorical home: the United States, issues that polarize and
themes that unite. Opportunities for artmaking, exchange and
engagement with the artists intend to reinforce the importance of
participation in society's search for a path forward.
Material Progress features selections from Diana Weymar's noteworthy 5,000+ piece public
art Tiny Pricks Project, as well as Weymar's own collectible
work. Both present text-based vintage fabrics grappling with
universal themes and ongoing history-making events and issues,
while reflecting and memorializing the ephemeral, digital society
in which we live. Visual artist Dina Nazmi Khorchid's textile
installation invites visitors to consider domesticity, land and
memory. Mixed media artist Marla L.
McLeod's sculptural work, installations and paintings
highlight challenging historical truths and re-envision complex
cultural dilemmas.
Beyond the mere visual experience, visitors are invited to
participate and engage with Material Progress and current
artistic and civic opportunities. A fabric and craft project
exchange will take place in the gallery to offer a chance for
connection and empowerment through the arts. Voter registration
cards will also be available, encouraging and reinforcing the
importance of civic action. Live events inside and beyond the
gallery walls are planned with themes regarding how language shapes
political discourse, constructs identities and inspires
action.
Material Progress is opening concurrently with the
publication of Diana Weymar's
Crafting a Better World: Inspiration and DIY Projects for
Craftivists (HarperCollins). This curated collection of
"essays, exclusive profiles of well-known creatives, and projects''
reflects the artist's deep interest in connection and resistance
through creativity.
For more information about the exhibition or its events please
visit showupinc.org or reach out to the gallery via
contact@showupinc.org.
About the Artists
Dina Nazmi
Khorchid
Dina Nazmi Khorchid (b. 1987, Kuwait) is a visual artist who works primarily
with printed and woven textiles. Her work constructs narratives of
place and connections to lost bodies, through mark-making,
photography and material studies, that manifest as textiles and
works on paper. She explores themes of identity and geo-politics,
grief, land and memory access; in relation to being a
third-generation Palestinian refugee, an artist and daughter of a
disappeared casualty of the Gulf War.
Dina's work is in private collections and was featured in group
shows in the UAE, USA,
Lebanon and Tunisia, including exhibitions at Art
Dubai, B7L9 Art
Centre, Institute for Palestine Studies, Field Projects, Tashkeel
and 421. She completed a Master of Fine Arts in Textiles at the
Rhode Island School of Design (2023),
where she was a recipient of the Society of Presidential Fellows
Award and a Bachelors in Visual Communication from the American University of Sharjah (2009). Dina was awarded
Artist-in-Residence at Texere (Mexico, Feb
2024), Vermont Studio Center (USA, Sept 2023),
Fellow at Ashkal Alwan's Home Workspace Program (Lebanon, 2018-2019) and is an alumnus of the
Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship (UAE,
2016-2017).
Marla L. McLeod
McLeod
explores identity and social constructs within Black communities
through her portrait paintings, textiles, and sculptures. In
2022 she held a solo exhibition at Essex Arts Center in
Lowell, MA and is an artist in the
New England Triennial at the deCordova Sculpture Park and
Fruitlands Museum.
In 2021 she received a Walter Feldman Fellowship, awarded by the
Arts & Business Council of Greater
Boston and was a spotlighted artist interviewed by
Cristela Guerra at WBUR/NPR Boston.
2021 has seen her work in several Boston based art galleries, as well as at
Tufts University Art Galleries.
Her MFA thesis made her a featured artist on the MFA, Boston 2020 Takeover Fridays social media
project, the 2020 Area Code Art Fair StoreFronts Projects, and one
of the Boston Globes "5 Outstanding Art School Grads". She has
received the Will and Elena Barnet
Painting Award, a Tisch Library Graduate Research
Fellowship, and presented at Black Portraitures, NYU.
She was awarded a Post Graduate Teaching Fellowship at the SMFA
and has taught courses at Southern Connecticut State
University. McLeod is currently an Adjunct Professor at
Maine College of Art (MECA),
Boston College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Diana Weymar
Diana Weymar grew up in the
wilderness of British Columbia,
studied Creative Writing at Princeton
University, and worked in film in New York City. For the past decade, she has
been threading the needle to create a material record of our times.
Both on social media and in person, she has encouraged thousands of
people to find their own creative path through personal and
political challenges.
She is the creator and curator of the public art projects
Interwoven Stories and Tiny Pricks Project. Her collaborations and
exhibits bring people together around textile and embroidery to
share personal stories and discuss political issues. She has worked
or collaborated with Build Peace (Nicosia, Bogotá, Zurich, Belfast, San
Diego), Arts Council of Princeton, Nantucket Atheneum, W.E.B. Du Bois
Center at UMass Amherst, University of Puget Sound, Zen Hospice Project,
Open Arts Space (Damascus Syria),
Trans Tipping Point Project, New York Textile Month, Alison Cornyn's Incorrigibles project, Syrian
journalist and activist Mansour
Omari, Princeton University
Concerts Healing With Music program, Project Threadways, Alabama
Chanin, Open Society Foundations, The Isolation Journals,
Kate Bowler, Economic Hardship
Reporting Project, Culture House, the Fetterman campaign, Speedwell
Projects, ShowUp Gallery, Planthouse Gallery, Molly Jong-Fast, Lingua Franca, and Abortion
Access Front, #notalonechallenge, and many others. Her work
is also in private collections.
You can follow her daily doily on Instagram @tinypricksproject and
her website is www.tinypricksproject.com.
About Crafting a Better World
From the climate crisis, to racism, to gun violence, to attacks
on LGBTQ+ rights, the list of issues facing this country goes on
and on, and it's only natural to feel anxious about the state of
our union. Even if you vote, march, volunteer, and donate, feelings
of hopelessness (and helplessness) still creep in.
Crafting a Better World is a new kind of call to action: a
guidebook for combatting fatigue and frustration with the handmade.
Whether that's sewing a welcome blanket for new immigrants, or
making a batch of "vulva chocolates" to raise money at a bake sale
for abortion access, this book will teach you how to transform your
anxiety into action.
Curated by Diana Weymar, the
creator of the Tiny Pricks Project, who knows what it means to meld
craft and activism. On Jan. 8, 2018,
she stitched "I am a very stable genius" (a Donald Trump quote) into a piece of her
grandmother's abandoned needlework from the 1960s and posted it to
Instagram. Since then, she's turned her embroidery practice into a
material record of the trials facing this country and become a
leading voice in the movement to save our democracy.
Featuring essays, exclusive profiles of well-known creatives,
and projects that readers can create by themselves or with their
communities, this book is a means to stay engaged, make stuff, and
hold ourselves together as we navigate this uncertain personal and
political landscape. With contributions from artists and activists,
including:
Jamie Lee Curtis
Roz Chast
Gisele Fetterman
PEN America
Nadya Tolokonnikova (founding member, Pussy Riot)
Guerilla Girls
Crafting a Better World is a response to this unique moment in
time when so many feel, in equal measure, deep anxiety and deep
hope. So pick up a needle, a pen, a spatula—anything—and craft the
change you want to see in the world.
About ShowUp
ShowUp is a nonprofit art
activism-focused exhibition, education, and community-building
space, creating an innovative environment for underrepresented
artists' voices and visions. It exhibits art activists and
engages in its own art activism. ShowUp promotes its mission via
its "Three Es": Exhibitions, Education, and Engagement.
Its mission is to
CONNECT artists to local communities and beyond
AMPLIFY artists and their voices
PROVIDE artists tools for self-sufficiency
EMPOWER artists and curators to experiment, learn, and have
meaningful exchanges
Learn more on its website and Instagram.
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SOURCE ShowUp