McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship Exhibition

McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship Exhibition

An exhibition featuring the work of 2021 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows Sarah Kusa & Ka Oskar Ly.

Textile Center is proud to present the work of our 2021 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows: Sarah Kusa and Ka Oskar Ly. This exhibition is on view in Textile Center’s Joan Mondale Gallery, Tuesday, January 18 through Saturday, April 9, 2022, and will be available virtually at textilecentermn.org/mcknight2021 exhibition in March 2022. 

About the Artists

Sarah Kusa creates sculpture and installations dealing with themes of human vulnerability and interconnection, and the precarious relationship between vulnerability and power. Currently, her work has coalesced around the theme of anxiety, both collective and individual. Using simple gestures and systems in repetition and materials that are in themselves, vulnerable, her works in this installation address physical and digital containment strategies, to prompt responses from the audience and from herself as maker. 

Ka Oskar Ly  is a queer Hmoob/Moob (Hmong) American artist and cultural producer. Their newest installation uses Hmong dress and painted dreamscapes as movement building and organizing tools, to hold space in an exploration of community, culture, and identity, serving to redefine Hmoob aesthetics and queer cultural futures. The installation spans two locations, with the “portal” at Textile Center connecting to a “portal” in a second mural at the Hmongtown Marketplace, located at 217 Como Ave in St. Paul. The work at the Hmongtown location is on view from 9 am – 7 pm daily. 

“Textile Center is thrilled to present this new work by our 2021 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows. Their installations resonate with messages of interconnectivity — human to human, human to culture, and humans to time. Kusa’s focus on containment strategies in her work play out through the use of abstraction and spare material language. Ly’s work focuses on the self as interconnective tissue between two worlds — traditional Hmong culture and queer American Hmong culture — as they explore possibilities from the perspective of artist and cultural innovator. The work is exciting, fresh, and new, and represents exactly what these fellowships are intended to support — time to explore, reflect, and expand their creative practices,” says Tracy Krumm, Textile Center’s Director for Artistic Advancement.

About the McKnight Fellowship for Fiber Artists

Designed to identify and support outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists, the McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists provide recipients with a $25,000 unrestricted cash award. In addition, the fellows receive public recognition, studio visits and public discussions with critics from the field, an exhibition at Textile Center, professional development support, the opportunity to apply for an artist residency in partnership with the McKnight Foundation and the Artist Communities Alliance, and access to Textile Center’s resources, including a library of more than 32,000 books and periodicals and a state-of-the-art dye lab. The fellowships are funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by Textile Center.

Gallery Hours

Tuesday-Saturday: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Image: Left- Ka Oskar Ly, Right- Sarah Kusa


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