Process and Practice: 40 Years of Experimentation

Celebrating four decades as a pioneering force for artistic innovation, The Fabric Workshop and Museum concludes its 40th anniversary year with Process and Practice: 40 Years of Experimentation. The exhibition, curated by Executive Director Susan Lubowksy Talbott, highlights FWM’s renowned Artist-in-Residence Program and explores the experimental essence of art making.

Throughout its history, FWM has collaborated with some of the leading artists of our time to challenge their boundaries and expand their practice. In FWM’s studio—a veritable living laboratory—Artists-in-Residence explore often unfamiliar materials, test ideas and ultimately create new works of art. Each leaves behind materials—research, handwritten notes, samples, sketches and prototypes—documenting their process and tracing the evolution of their artwork from concept to completion. Retained in nearly 400 archival Artist Boxes, these process materials represent a chronicle of contemporary art throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Process and Practice will display the contents of Artist Boxes alongside finished works by such celebrated artists as Chris Burden, Renée Green, Cai Guo-Qiang, Ann Hamilton, Jim Hodges, Anish Kapoor, Roy Lichtenstein, Yinka Shonibare, Sarah Sze, Richard Tuttle and Carrie Mae Weems. The exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at FWM’s important collection; reveals its significance to the history of contemporary art; and serves as a tribute to the enduring vision of its late founder, Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website