STUFFED

Filling. Batting. Liner. Wadding. Padding. Bushing. Swaddle.

There are many ways to name the material that brings life to a blanket or fills a comfortable seat. Typically internal but suggesting presence via thickness, its practical function belies its generative nature. 

In the hands of this group of artists, the thing inside expands outward and into the aesthetic and political concerns characterizing contemporary visual art production. A quilt reflects the collision of painting and technology. Portraits of people and charismatic objects emerge from padded surfaces. Wool gives shape to imaginative reflections on identity. The curve of an unstructured edge conjures architecture. 

This exhibition examines the volumes that swell and the possibilities presented within those distensions. Though reflecting movements associated with soft sculpture, craft, quilting, and other pliable materials similarly historicized, the artists presented here make in ways that defy category. Encouraging new ways for art to exist in space, STUFFED makes room for softness to stretch beyond neutral material.