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Renwick Invitational 2018
Disrupting Craft
Begun in 2000, the Renwick Invitational is a biennial juried showcase for midcareer and emerging craft artists who deserve wider recognition. The makers selected for Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018 -- Tanya Aguiñiga, Sharif Bey, Dustin Farnsworth, and Stephanie Syjuco -- challenge convention and infuse craft with a renewed sense of activism, emotional purpose, and inclusiveness.
Aguiñiga uses natural fibers to reveal raw personal narratives with universal feelings of vulnerability, often through performative and collaborative ways to connect communities. From utilitarian pots to abstract wall pieces, Bey explores complex cultural histories, while discovering ways his artistic process can interweave his identities as artist, educator, and father. Inspired by the narratives unfolding around him, Farnsworth manipulates wood into haunting storylines with intricate portraits of today's youth, shining a spotlight on those inheriting societal and economic decay. Syjuco challenges perceptions of "types" in America with social practice projects and the tropes of craft, uncovering the complicated and contradictory ways we understand identity and nationhood.
These four artists show how craft can reach beyond the art world, revealing broader narratives about skilled making and the handmade. While responding to current pressing issues, they also revisit their own dentities and communities. The work featured here offers moments of contemplation on the rapidly transforming world around us, and disrupts the status quo to alter our perspectives, bring us together, and lead us to a more empathetic, compassionate future. |