Crafting America Spotlight Talk: Josh Faught & Diedrick Brackens
This video is part of a series of lectures spotlighting artists from the exhibition “Crafting America” at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Join us for a series of lectures spotlighting artists from the exhibition Crafting America. In this conversation, artists Josh Faught and Diedrick Brackens will present a discussion about narratives projected by select pieces, textiles as political or social statements, and relationships between language, community, and constructions of identity.
ABOUT JOSH FAUGHT
Josh Faught’s practice combines textiles, pop cultural detritus, and archival materials to address the relationships between language, community, and constructions of identity. Recent solo museum exhibitions include a site-specific installation at the Neptune Society Columbarium as part of the SFMoMA SECA Art Award Exhibition (2013); the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2013); and the Seattle Art Museum in conjunction with the Betty Bowen Award (2009). Solo exhibitions also include Kendall Koppe Gallery, Glasgow (2014, 2019); and Lisa Cooley, New York (2010, 2012, and 2014). His work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions, including at the New Museum, New York (2017); Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogota (2018) Sadie Coles HQ, London (2018); the Saatchi Gallery (2018); the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2014); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2014). In 2017, Faught also produced a site-specific work for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, commissioned by Western Bridge. Faught is the recipient of the 2009 Seattle Art Museum Betty Bowen Award, the 2011 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant, the 2012 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award (SECA), the 2016 Artadia Award, and the 2016 Eureka Award from the Fleishhacker Foundation. Faught is a Professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland.
ABOUT DIEDRICK BRACKENS
Diedrick Brackens (b. 1989, Mexia, TX; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) is best known for his woven tapestries that explore allegory and narrative through the artist’s autobiography, broader themes of African American and queer identity, as well as American history. Brackens employs techniques from West African weaving, quilting from the American South and European tapestry-making to create both abstract and figurative works. Often depicting moments of male tenderness, Brackens culls from African and African American literature, poetry and folklore as source. Beginning his process through the hand-dying of cotton, a material he deliberately uses in acknowledgement of its brutal history, Brackens’ oeuvre presents rich, nuanced visions of African American life and identity, while also alluding to the complicated histories of labor and migration. Brackens utilizes both commercial dyes and atypical pigments such as wine, tea and bleach to create his vibrant, intricately-woven tapestries that investigate historical gaps, interlacing the present with his singular magical realist worldview.
One of Brackens’s recent bodies of work considers the Center for Disease Control’s shocking projections of HIV diagnosis rates for black and Latino gay men. While the AIDS epidemic is frequently discussed as a thing of the past, Brackens considers the present moment as the lens through which we examine history–what we have learned, and what, or who, has been overlooked. Brackens’ scenes intentionally lack any sort of moralizing tone, allowing his subjects the freedom of living life on their terms. Jack Shainman Gallery is proud to represent Brackens in collaboration with Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA / Seoul, KR.
Sponsored by Del Monte Food, Inc. and Puregold Price Club, Inc.
Explore more “Crafting America” videos here: https://bit.ly/CraftingAmerica-YT
—
Visit our website: https://CrystalBridges.org
Sign up for eNews: https://bit.ly/CrystalBridges-eNews
Follow us on social media
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/CrystalBridgesMu…
Instagram: https://Instagram.com/CrystalBridgesM…
Twitter: https://Twitter.com/CrystalBridges
LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/company/Crystal-…
Pinterest: https://Pinterest.com/CrystalBridges