'Everything is a Little Fuzzy' exhibit to open at ASU Art Museum

Judy Chicago, American, b. 1939. “Captured by the Species Burden (from the BIRTH PROJECT),” 1985. Embroidery by Susan Fisher. Embroidery over line drawing on silk, DMC embroidery floss. Gift of Through the Flower Fund. Photo by Craig Smith

By Nayeli Lopez |
June 19, 2023

"Everything is a Little Fuzzy," an exhibition that draws on the ASU Art Museum's permanent collection and explores the challenges experienced in a post-pandemic world, will open in July and run through December. The exhibition highlights aspects of care, emphasizes memory, communicates resilience and explores softness through difficult circumstances.

This exhibition is curated by Ninabah Winton, ASU Art Museum Windgate assistant curator of contemporary craft and design. The display will feature 22 artworks focusing on textile objects and the usage of fibrous materials and techniques.

Winton asks: “How are care and memory explored in textile work? How do fiber or textile works hold or contain memories, and how are they shaped by the cultural politics of softness or the concept of care?”

Featured artists include Judy Chicago, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Steve DeGroodt, Dominic DiMare, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Keiko Hara, Katherine Josten, Heidi Kumao, Jarbas Lopes, Norma Minkowitz, Jyung Mee Park, Malcolm Poynter, Jane Sauer, Sarah Sense, Jose Luis Serrano, Polly Adams Sutton, Jaqueline Tarry, Bradley McCallum, Jose Angel Toirac, Rip Woods and three anonymous artists.

The exhibit's intention is to serve a generational shift of ceramic and textile artists who are interested in neurosensory explorations, experiential design, the body and its horrors, and responding to trauma. Centering fibers as a means of processing or contributing to ideas of slow work, rest and relaxation, and responding to grief also differs from previous exhibitions.

“Memory work in fiber and textiles is often linked to family work — traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, mothers to daughters: stories or patterns, designs or techniques," Winton said. "How does time pass and how are memory, softness and care woven together or foregrounded within fiber practices?”

The ASU Art Museum will host an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 19 for three new exhibitions, including “Everything is a Little Fuzzy.”

“Everything is a Little Fuzzy” is organized in collaboration with a Community of Practice composed of artists and scholars: Kieren Alvord, Sam Grabowska, Erika Lynne Hanson, Regan Henley, Ana Maria Hernando, Matthew Villar Miranda, Roshii Montaño and Tyrrell Tapaha.