Center for Craft 25th anniversary logo in red

Current Exhibition

UPcoming Exhibition

past Exhibition

On View 

Handwork and Hope

The Center for Craft is excited to present a solo exhibition of patchwork textiles and inflatable sculptures by the Ohio-based fiber artist. Adrian’s volumetric, pneumatic work transports viewers into artifice, desire, and worldbuilding. Drawing from rich legacies of queer fiber art & theory, the exhibition features monumentally scaled works that physically respond to viewers presence by filling with air.

You can still sponsor RIPSTOP by contributing before July 12, 2024. Donate today for your opportunity to be recognized during the opening reception on August 15, 2024, and on the exhibition's Title Wall. To underwrite this exhibition, please donate now.

Handwork and Hope

SPONSOR

On view

Nov

17

Jul

13

Through

Nov

17

Jul

13

When

Nov 17, 2023

Jul 13, 2024

Photo credit:

Courtesy of Dustin Chambers

Current Exhibition

UPcoming Exhibition

past Exhibition

On View 

Handwork and Hope

On view

Nov

17

Jul

13

Through

Nov

17

Jul

13

When

Nov 17, 2023

Jul 13, 2024

Photo credit:

Courtesy of Dustin Chambers

Current Exhibition

UPcoming Exhibition

past Exhibition

On View 

Handwork and Hope

On view

Nov

17

Jul

13

Through

Nov

17

Jul

13

When

Nov 17, 2023

Jul 13, 2024

Photo credit:

Courtesy of Dustin Chambers

FRONT & CENTER

Front & center

“Our hammer will smash myths and illusions. It will tear down the master’s house, as Audre Lorde would say. And our hope? It is not the false optimism of liberals or the fatalism of armchair revolutionaries or the pessimism of pundits waiting for the end of the world… Victory is never certain but if we don’t fight, we can only lose.” -Robin D.G. Kelley, Historian of African-American life, politics, and culture

Read more of Kelley's piece here.

Historians estimate that skilled Black artisans outnumbered their white counterparts in the antebellum South by a margin of five to one. However, despite their presence and prevalence in all corners of the pre-industrial trade and craft fields, the stories of these skilled workers go largely unacknowledged.

Handwork and Hope celebrates the life and labor of Black chairmakers in early America. Featuring the work of two contemporary furniture makers – Robell Awake and Charlie Ryland – the pieces in this exhibition are based on the artists’ research into ladderback chairs created by the Poynors, a multigenerational family of free and enslaved craftspeople working in central Tennessee between the early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Through the objects featured in Handwork and Hope, Awake and Ryland explore, reinterpret, and reimagine what the field of furniture-making today would look like had the history and legacy of the Poynors – and countless others that have been subject to a similar pattern of erasure – been celebrated rather than hidden. Handwork and Hope represents Awake and Ryland’s attempts, in their own words,  “at fighting erasure by making objects that engage with these long-suppressed stories.”

Robell Awake and Charlie Ryland are recipients of the Center for Craft’s 2022 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship. This substantial mid-career grant is awarded to two artists to support research projects that advance, expand, and support the creation of new research and knowledge through craft practice.

SUPPORT

No items found.
No items found.
No items found.

OPENING RECEPTION

,

,

Where

John Cram Gallery

67 Broadway St., Asheville, NC, 28801

ARTISTS

Robell Awake

Charlie Ryland

ARTISTS

EasterN Band Cherokee Exhibiting Artists

CURATed By

Jena Gilbert-Merrill

ORGANIZED BY

Center for Craft

Exhibition management BY

Jena Gilbert-Merrill, Lisette Gallaher, and Marilyn Zapf

Installation by

Robell Awake, Charlie Ryland, Jena Gilbert-Merrill, and Lauren Roquemore

Exhibition design

Edited by

Special Thanks to

Rick Warwick and Orlando Clark

Exhibition text co-authored by

Robell Awake, Charlie Ryland, and Jena Gilbert-Merrill

Graphic Design by

Erik Pedersen

Photography by

exhibition events

The events for this exhibition have passed. See our full calendar for upcoming events.

Meet the artists

ᏚᏍᏓᏯᎫᎾᏱ Gabriel Crow

Cherokee, NC

Faye Junaluska

Cherokee, NC

Lucille Lossiah

Ramon Lose

Cullowhee, NC

ᏯᏗ ᎺᏂ Betty Maney

Cherokee, NC

ᏗᎳᏂ Dylan Morgan

Cherokee, NC

ᎺᎵ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Mary W. Thompson

ᏎᎳᏂ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Sarah Thompson

Patricia Welch

Field Building

CRAFT RESEARCH TALK

View the catalog

View the catalog

View the catalog

About RIPSTOP

The Center for Craft is excited to present a solo exhibition of patchwork textiles and inflatable sculptures by the Ohio-based fiber artist. Adrian’s volumetric, pneumatic work transports viewers into artifice, desire, and worldbuilding. Drawing from rich legacies of queer fiber art & theory, the exhibition features monumentally scaled works that physically respond to viewers presence by filling with air.

You can still sponsor RIPSTOP by contributing before July 12, 2024. Donate today for your opportunity to be recognized during the opening reception on July 26, 2024, and on the exhibition's Title Wall. To underwrite this exhibition, please donate now.

about the artists

Photo credit: Jamie Hopper

Photo credit: Jamie Hopper

about the curator

No items found.

exhibition Images

exhibition Images

Curatorial

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

Thank

you to the

Virginia A. Groot Foundation

and

Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation

for

makng these residencies possible.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

RIPSTOP is supported, in part, by Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft.

The

Center

for

Craft

is

supported

in

part

by

the

,

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

2023

Curatorial

Fellow

This exhibition was supported, in part, by the John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation,

and Buncombe County Government.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

The

Center

for

Craft

is

supported

in

part

by

the

,

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

2023

Curatorial

Fellow

A special thanks to

and the

for sponsoring Handwork and Hope.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

The

Center

for

Craft

is

supported

in

part

by

the

,

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

Preservers, Innovators, and Rescuers of Culture in Chiapas is supported, in part by,

The Center for Craft is supported, in part, by the

Aram Han Sifuentes is a recipient of the Center for Craft’s 2022 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship. This substantial mid-career grant is awarded to two artists to support research projects that advance, expand, and support the creation of new research and knowledge through craft practice.

This

exhibition

is

supported

in

part

by

the

the

and

For a full listing of the generous funders supporting the Center for Craft and our programming visit centerforcraft.org/support

This

exhibition

is

supported

in

part

by

the

the

and

the

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

For a full listing of the generous funders supporting the Center for Craft and our programming visit centerforcraft.org/support

The

Center

for

Craft’s

John

Cram

Partner

Gallery

presented

in

collaboration

with

UNC Asheville transforms lives through leadership and education. The designated liberal arts and sciences institution for the UNC System and one of the nation’s top 10 public liberal arts universities, UNC Asheville enrolls 3,600 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate majors and a Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences degree. UNC Asheville also encourages students to take part in a nationally acclaimed undergraduate research program and participate in interdisciplinary learning. From internships and hands-on projects, to study abroad and community engagement, students experience an education that extends beyond campus into the vibrant City of Asheville, the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and the world.

and

Warren Wilson College logo

A liberal arts college grounded in social responsibility, where hard work and community are more than just words.

.

This

exhibition

is

supported

in

part

by

the

the

and

For a full listing of the generous funders supporting the Center for Craft and our programming visit centerforcraft.org/support

More On View

Max Adrian, “A Fallible Complex,” 2021. Nylon, ripstop, blower, motion sensor. 92 x 136 x 76 inches.

Exhibition

Max Adrian: RIPSTOP

Through

Jul

26

Mar

29

Learn More

Exhibition

Connections in the Making

Through

Nov

17

Oct

31

Learn More