Discover the Top 3 must-see art exhibitions of 2024
By AMC Newton for QHQ
Following on from our post about World Art Day on April 15th, 2024 and to quote from the UNESCO article we shared then:
“Art nurtures creativity, innovation and cultural diversity…”
Creativity has the power to help us navigate these turbulent times more confidently, and one way to nurture our creativity is through art and exhibitions. So here are three must-see exhibitions, which will be of particular appeal to textiles, home, and fashion professionals.
First stop is New York, USA for :
Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies 4 April – 9 September 2024 MoMA PS1
Fig.1: Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies exhibition
at MoMA PS1. Photo: Kris Graves.
Melissa Cody is a 4th generation Navajo weaver. Melissa uses historic and novel weaving techniques including the Germantown Revival Movement. Blankets supplied by the US Government to displaced Navajo people came from Germantown, Pennsylvania; in the forced migration from their homes Navajo weavers devised ways to continue working which included disassembling the Germantown blankets and using the yarns to weave new products. This reclamation is a powerful form of resistance which is referenced in Melissa’s work
Fig. 2 Deep Brain Stimulation 2011 Photo: MELISSA CODY (Navajo, born 1983)
Wool warp, weft, selvedge cords, and aniline dyes 40 × 30 3/4" (101.6 × 78.1 cm)
Minneapolis Institute of Art. The Patricia and Peter Frechette Endowment for Art Acquisition
Additionally, Melissa integrates traditional Navajo symbols with digital technologies and references from Arizona landscapes to video games. MoMA describe Melissa’s work indicating the power of the pieces:
“Honoring the medium’s histories, Cody’s works underscore critical conversations around placemaking
through resilience and ingenuity.”
Fig 3. White Out 2012 Photo: MELISSA CODY (Navajo, born 1983)
Three-ply aniline dyed wool 21 1/4 × 17" (54 × 43.2 cm)
Collection Steven and Eileen Yazzie
Fig 4 & 5. Photo: GRAHAM NYSTROM
Melissa Cody Working in Her Studio
This exhibition shows over 30 works from the last 10 years of her practice, some of which are featured here in Figs 1-7.
Fig. 6 Into the Depths, She Rappels 2023 Photo: MELISSA CODY (Navajo, born 1983)
Wool warp, weft, selvedge cords, and aniline dyes 87 × 51 9/16" (221 × 131 cm)
Gochman Family Collection
Fig. 7 Path of the Snake 2013 Photo: MELISSA CODY (Navajo, born 1983)
Three-ply aniline dyed wool 36 × 24" (91.4 × 61 cm)
Collection Suzanne and Walter G. Riedel III
Next stop is a hop across the pond to Paris, France for:
The Birth of the Department Store, Fashion, design, toys, advertising 1852-1925,
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 10 April -13 October 2024
Cite de architecture 16 October 2024 - 16 March 2025
Fig 8. Les Grands Magasins Dufayel 1895-1900.
Poster, lithograph © Les Arts Décoratifs.
This exhibition claims to: “…sheds light on the development and golden age of Parisian department stores such as Le Bon Marché, La Samaritaine, Le Printemps, Les Galleries Lafayette, and Les Magasins du Louvre.”
“…provides insight into how these department stores reflect the industrial revolution, urban transformations under Baron Haussmann, the rise of the bourgeoisie, and the construction of the image of the Parisian woman.”
Department stores like the ones mentioned played a significant role in the evolution of retail and how we shop today. Through 700+ objects on display including poster advertisements, fashion pieces, toys and decorations, this exhibition tells the story of retail transformation. This includes the pivotal era of the industrial revolution, a time of growth, innovation and extraction. It also includes the origins of the marketplace and the consumer society we operate in today.
Figs 8 -9 show some of the items on display.
Fig. 9 Anonymous (France) — Horse tricycle 1880-1900
Iron, wood, and leather © Les Arts Décoratifs / Christophe Dellière
Last stop starts in London, UK and ends in Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
Unravel, The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
Barbican Centre, 13 Feb - 26 May 2024
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 14 September - 5 January 2025
“We are wrapped in cloth when we’re born and
enshrouded in it when we die.”
Honouring the elemental role textiles play in our world, it is exciting to see Textiles as an artistic medium being honoured in Unravel.
Fig. 10 Teresa Margolles, 'american Juju for the Tapestry of Truth', 2015.
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann Zurich/Paris.
This exhibition showcases textile artists who question the systems and structures we operate in, giving us pause for reflection. Done in a way that paint or sculpture could not, the medium is unique in our existence as showcased in the quote: “We are wrapped in cloth when we’re born and enshrouded in it when we die.”
Unravel is a major group exhibition of multi-generational artists who use textiles to convey critical conversations about power, resistance and survival. This from the Barbican:
“From intimate hand-crafted works to large-scale sculptural installations: all works are radical in their form and politics, revealing how textiles have been forces of resistance and repair. Unravel brings together over 100 artworks of international practitioners, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mounira Al Sohl, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Louise Bourgeois, Feliciano Centurión, Cian Dayrit, Tracey Emin, Quiltmakers of the Gee's Bend (Loretta Pettway), Jeffrey Gibson, Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic, Sheila Hicks, Teresa Margolles, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Faith Ringgold, Lenore Tawney, and Billie Zangewa.”
Fig.11 Tschabalala Self, Koco at the Bodega, 2017
Courtesy the artist, Pilar Corrias, London, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich/Vienna
Fig. 12 Louise Bourgeois with her sculpture, THREE HORIZONTALS,
in her home on 20th Street in New York City in 1999
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023,
courtesy The Easton Foundation Photo: Elfie Semotan
Co-curator Lottie Johnson hopes that Unravel inspires visitors to pick up a needle and thread, or other textile medium to express their own lived experience. You can watch an interview with her, by Dezeen, on You Tube.
It is wonderful to see so these major exhibitions highlighting, celebrating, and sharing the wonder that is textiles and fashion, both as art and an agent of society. For too long textiles and fashion have been seen as secondary to other mediums. Would you agree? How else would you like to see textiles and fashion showcased?