Currents 38: Christy Matson

Volume Gallery is delighted to share that Christy Matson’s solo exhibition, Currents 38: Christy Matson, will be on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum from February 25 to July 17, 2022.

Currents 38: Christy Matson presents woven works of art that pair new technologies with centuries-old craft knowledge to create distinctive, painterly compositions. On view in the Museum’s Bradley Family Gallery, the exhibition features more than 40 woven objects by the Los Angeles-based artist who has helped reshape the traditional medium of weaving into a contemporary art form.

Though Matson (b. 1979) works with textiles, the artist views herself as a painter. Using a digital jacquard loom and her knowledge of historic weaving techniques, Matson creates woven pictures that are rooted in minimalism, abstraction, and decoration and are intended to hang on the wall. She also utilizes these weaving structures and techniques to explore memory; the gendered history of textile production, long considered a feminized form of labor; and issues around sustainability. Her work honors the traditional medium while reflecting the strong, recent embrace of fiber by contemporary artists.

The Museum’s Currents series, which highlights new trends in contemporary art, began in 1982 and has featured artists such as Gunther Forg, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rachel Harrison, and Julian Schnabel. Currents 38 brings together several of Matson’s most recent works, including never-before-seen textiles made for this exhibition.

The Milwaukee Art Museum recently acquired Matson’s Magical Thinking (2020) for its collection, and the work will be installed as part of the Currents 38 exhibition.

An accompanying catalogue produced by the Milwaukee Art Museum is the first publication dedicated to Matson’s woven work. Fully illustrated, the book includes an in-depth interview with the artist and original curatorial essays.

Currents 38: Christy Matson is curated by Monica Obniski, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, High Museum of Art, and coordinated at the Milwaukee Art Museum by Margaret Andera, Interim Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art. 

Tickets to the exhibition are available here.