No Where, Now Here, Marjorie Fedyszyn at Catherine G. Murphy

Banner Image: Detail of Revel, 2025, Artist made cotton paper

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Pink and orange are welcome reminders of brightness after Minnesota’s first false spring. In the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Kate’s through February 28, textile artist Marjorie Fedyszyn explores sculptural textile work with a neon tinge.

In asking for directions, the building that houses the gallery was helpfully singled out as, “the Brutalist one.” Between the return to gray cold, the building’s concrete hull, and the hulking wooden doors, it was a noticeable contrast to be tucked into a room of soft, bright sculpture.

Viewers are invited to touch as soon as they enter No Where Now Here – not the artwork, but a small sample of Fedyszyn’s embossed paper, white and pink on the top, pure fluorescent underneath. You can see why it would be tempting to touch the work on the walls. The exhibition is textural. It pulls from both materials and techniques that we use our hands for every day – writing, cutting, dressing, sewing, mending, knitting. 

 

Upper image: Spellbound II, 2025, neoprene, cotton thread. Lower Image: Spellbound II (detail), 2025, neoprene, cotton thread

On either end of the gallery, facing each other across an invisible dining room table, are two ghostlike installations of neoprene. The cream-colored fabric has been decoratively cut like a paper snowflake or intricate papel picado. The fabric is stitched throughout with fluorescent pink thread, loose ends dangling after completing their decorative path. Nailed at key points to the wall, the dense fabric holds its shape to form thick folds reaching toward the floor.

The show represents and is inspired by an important moment in Fedyszyn’s life, what she describes as a profound journey with long-held trauma. She describes in her artist statement “the process of letting go of deep-seated pain and resentment.”

This tension feels visceral in the gathers of fabric, a thin thread holding such bulk under pressure. The thickness of the neoprene is almost flesh-like, soft and spongy. It’s also beautiful, contrasting vibrantly with the pink thread and rippling delicately beneath its gathers – never even, always beautiful. The neon colors represent for Fedyszyn a sense of “lightness and hope she has recently discovered in her life.”

Bright pink and undulating curves are mirrored in a series of handmade cotton paperwork. Organically shaped and brightly colored, the cotton paper is thick and holds its shape. It rolls out from the wall, back in on itself, holding its cast like papier mâché. The paper is embossed with loops of what looks like thick rope. On closer inspection, the rope is looped around itself in the knit stitch, repeated over and over again as in a giant swatch.

 

Upper image: Revel II, 2025, handmade cotton paper. Lower Image: Revel I (detail), 2025, handmade cotton paper.

Like sewing, knitting is based on tension. How to keep it even, how to carry just enough of it. If you’re looking for perfection, knitting tension, too, can be a synonym for stress. In Fedyszyn’s work, the embossed knitting is loose, uneven, playful. It echoes the ethos of the exhibition, giving oneself permission – to explore, change, heal. It varies – sometimes tight, sometimes open. Ultimately, this knit work is used as a mark making tool, leaving its impression on the paper, but not appearing in the gallery itself. It leaves a mark but is no longer physically present.

The exhibition consists of not only the overlapping textures and shapes in the work itself, but in the light and shadow created by holes and edges in the work. The cotton fiber is visible in the surface of the paper, the rope masks it where it’s been pressed into the paper. The edges of the paper curl and fold in on themselves.

In the middle of some embossed loops, the paper has been removed entirely. It creates a small hole, through which the viewer can see and through which light can enter the work and take on its own dimension. They create and offer a view of the shadows formed between the work and the wall. Installed, these sculptural works act on the gallery space, creating a new dynamic within the room. The brightness, the depth of texture, and the layers combine to provide a rich and uplifting sensory experience as we look ahead toward longer days.◼︎ 

No Where, Now Here is on view at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery through February 28. There will be an artist talk in the gallery on February 26 at 6:30 p.m., and a closing reception on February 28 from 5 to 7 p.m. A performance by Annika Johansson, incubating, will take place at 6:30 p.m.