Non-Binary Code

Solo Exhibition | Studio 203, Los Angeles, CA | 9.16.2023 – 11.4.2023 | Opening reception September 16, 3-7pm

My first L.A.-based solo show is set to debut this fall. Join me at the opening reception, Saturday, September 16, 2023, at Studio 203 in Culver City. More info to be announced in the coming months—be sure to subscribe to my email list so you don’t miss any info.

You can also sign up for the Studio 203 newsletter to learn more.

Your support is needed

I’d like to ask you: will you join my team of producers? I just launched a Patreon to help fund my art practice—sign up to become a producer and help support the work. Whether it’s a dollar a month or more, there are perks at every level, from acknowledgements to signed limited edition prints. You also have the option to make a tax deductible donation through SIMA, a non-profit that I’ve partnered with for fiscal sponsorship. All of your support goes directly to the work, and I thank you with my deepest gratitude.

About the work

Non-Binary Code is an exploration of gender identity, textile-based practices, and coded meaning. The exhibition will consist of several large scale knitted wall-hangings, along with an interactive installation. To make this work, playing with the binary nature of the knit/purl stitch-work inherent to knitting, I translated the word “non-binary” into binary code. Using knits for 1 and purls for 0, the word/code becomes a knitting pattern. This pattern is a repetitive manta which I use to knit these textile wall hangings and interactive lounge. Meditating on gender identity, the work both imbues and obscures meaning of the word “non-binary”, much in the way binaries of gender, and the desire to transcend these binaries, are coded into the concept of non-binary identity and gender itself. The lounge installation invites viewers to come rest, mingle, or meditate on hidden meanings of gender expression and identity that we often take for granted. The choice of medium—acrylic (yarn) on canvas—brings the work in dialogue with the history of white paintings in minimalist abstraction. I am especially thinking of the white grid paintings of Agnes Martin when making this work whose own relationship to gender —resisting the label of “female artist” out of a desire to just be seen as an artist — belies similar sentiments of transcending binaries. The use of binary code also has an especially poignant connection to the history of textile production, when the jacquard loom and punch card knitting were both used to develop the first computer languages. I see this work as a queering of many supposedly binary hierarchies, complicating and challenging distinctions of art & craft, digital & handmade, male & female. It’s social impact functions in several ways: to make non-binary and gender-nonconforming people feel seen, to educate cis folks on gender beyond the binary, and to facilitate conversation about these ideas amongst the viewers.

Influences/Influencers: California Fibers

Group Exhibition | Craft in America Center, Los Angeles, CA | 9.9.2023 – 12.2.2023

California has driven the fiber arts since the mid 20th Century. Countless schools, college programs, workshops, guilds, and artist collectives have led experimentation and development of this artistic medium. The desire to formulate a language for sculpture and expression through fiber has been a core driving force. The artists in this exhibition are part of a historic organization that has been at the forefront of contemporary fiber art in Southern California, across the state, and far beyond. The work in this exhibition represents some of the vast influences that are shaping fiber art today. It is simultaneously a celebration of how fiber has become a beam of influence on the broader contemporary art world in recent years.

Established in 1970, California Fibers started in San Diego as a work study group for the professional advancement of member artists. These years were an exuberant time when internationally, fiber artists were moving beyond historic practices into new realms of dimensionality, scale, and volume. Their unprecedented work embodied a vitality to move into the present and future through an understanding of traditional material and process. Female artists were lead voices in pursuit of this craft. They formed an entirely new field for contemporary art.

Echoing the principles of their medium, California Fibers was, and is, an intermeshed network of artists. They work in a range of fiber disciplines and techniques including weaving, quilting, embroidery, and basketry, which keeps their creative conversation expansive and diverse. This connectedness among artists and the collective spirit, rare among other parts of the art world, has helped push the medium forward. The organization is one of the longest running artist groups in the country. We are pleased to present this exhibition that showcases the breadth of their influential and innovative work.

Participating Artists

Sandy Abrams • Olivia Batchelder • Charlotte Bird • Ashley V. Blalock • Carrie Burckle • Marilyn Mckenzie Chaffee • Ben Cuevas • Doshi • Polly Jacobs Giacchina • Lydia Tjioe Hall • Susan Henry • Annette Heully • Anifaye Korngute • Kathy Nida • Liz Oliver • Marty Ornish • Michael F. Rohde • Aneesa Shami Zizzo • Rebecca Smith • Cameron Taylor-Brown • Elise Vazelakis • Debra Weiss • Peggy Wiedemann

For past exhibitions view curriculum vitae here, and press write-ups here.