Installation view, 40 Under 40: Craft Futures, Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, July 20, 2012 – February 3, 2013.

In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Renwick Gallery, the exhibition features the work of 40 artists born since 1972 – the year the Smithsonian Art Museum established its contemporary craft and decorative arts program. All of the works were created since September 11, 2011, drawing particular attention to the state of contemporary craft and the way it relates to our society. Although we often associate craft with functionality or pure aesthetics, the pieces in this exhibition have more profound stories to tell in much the same way as contemporary art.  The show explores issues of technology, technique, relevance, and even the current economic climate as it relates to craft. Christy Oates fuses traditional woodworking techniques with CAD software technology to make furniture, while Joshua DeMonte creates jewelry using digital fabrication, both examples of how new technologies are changing the nature of craft. Several artists highlight the importance of sustainability exemplified by Jeff Garner’s sustainable clothing designs and Uhuru’s furniture made from reclaimed materials.

Sebastian Martorana, "Impressions," 2008. Marble. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia A. Young in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Renwick Gallery and the 30th Anniversary of the James Renwick Alliance.

I was immediately struck by a work in the first room by professional stone carver and sculptor Sebastian Martorana. Impressions is a beautifully realistic pillow sculpted from a slab of a marble that originally served as a door stoop in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. This especially resonated for me as marble steps are an icon of Baltimore’s landscape where several generations of my family have lived. Martorana sculpted the creases in the fabric as elegantly as those in the drapery of an ancient roman sculpture, a skill that defined sculptors of that time.

The artists in the exhibition work with materials as varied as glass, paper, metal, fibers, wood, and yarn. Sabrina Gschwandtner is another artist who brings a traditional craft – quilting – into a new light. In a statement about feminism and labor, she weaves quilts from 16mm feminist documentary film reels that were deaccessioned from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Sabrina Gschwandtner, “Hula Hoop,” 2010. 16mm film and polyamide thread. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chris Rifkin in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Renwick Gallery. Photo by Sabrina Gschwandtner.

In addition to the compelling works of art on view, the exhibition’s educational features were engaging and pertinent to a 21^st century audience. Each wall label had a QR code linking to supplemental information online and a touchscreen monitor at the end of the exhibition featured videos submitted by each artist. I got to know each artist as they revealed themselves through YouTube videos.  Stacey Lee Weber gives us a tour of her studio where she creates sculptures out of pennies; Melanie Bilenker demonstrates the process of embroidering with her own hair; Matt Moulthrop explains how he is the third generation in his family to have work in the permanent collection at the Gallery; Bohyun Yoon makes music on camera with tubes of glass blown in his studio. Although craft and decorative arts can seem archaic, the Renwick Gallery proves this to be untrue in both the exhibition’s diverse selection of work and attentive educational elements.

This show left me feeling inspired and intrigued by both the hard skills and craftsmanship of the artists, but also the creativity and ideas explored through their crafts. The young artists featured in the exhibition prove the continued vitality of craft as it constantly adapts to respond to the contemporary landscape and tackle significant big-picture issues. If 40 Under 40 is any indication, I’d say the future of craft is looking bright.

40 Under 40: Craft Futures is on view at the Renwick Gallery through February 3, 2013

Ghada Amer, The Fortune Teller (2008). Acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 50 x 60 inches.

In “Color Misbehavior” three large canvases dominate the front room and the entire exhibition.  The Fortune Teller (2008) is sewn with overlapping images of naked women in various poses.  The tangled web of red, orange, blue, and purple threads partially conceal the representational forms; since all the lines of stitched thread are the same thickness, the layered images appear and then vanish as the eye passes over the canvas.  But one image comes into focus and stays: in orange, Disney’s Little Mermaid, a clothed and serene counterpoint to the naked women around her, but no less compliant.

Ghada Amer, The Egyptian Lover (2008). Acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 62 x 78 inches.

The Egyptian Lover (2008) is similar in its layered images and consistent line weights, but in this case the embroidery is done over primed canvas painted with beige, lilac, yellow, and blue.  The drips of thin acrylic paint mingle with the “drips” formed by the long tangles of threads, blending the materials nicely.  As with The Fortune Teller, a Disney character joins the orgy of naked limbs, this time in the form of Snow White.  Her kittenish glance is directed over her shoulder. These two canvases portray transparent layers of fantasy women, conflating the myth of the vulnerable, forever-sexually-available woman with the delusion of the innocent and submissive girl.  Combined, they create a madonna-whore tension.  An obvious move?  Maybe—but it is effective.

The title of Who Killed “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon?” (2010) points to Picasso’s well-known painting of distinctly unrefined prostitutes standing in unsubmissive, even aggressive poses.  But in Amer’s work the woman depicted is hyper-groomed with perfect eyebrows, Chola-style eye makeup, and ironed hair.  Drips of paint behind the stitching run like tears from her eyes.   Amer answers the question posed in the title of who killed the sexually adept, self-possessed women and replaced them with the vulnerable and passive displays with which we are now familiar.  Picasso’s women were nude, but Amer’s are naked.

The other work in the exhibition continues this theme.  The next room contains canvases stitched with repeats of a single image, often almost completely concealed by masses of threads, and smaller embroidered-paper works that each show a single women in a pose that is sexual but not erotic.  Amer uses these images to form a critique of woman-as-idealized-object, and tension resides in this shifting cultural no man’s land between acceptable fare and profanity.   The work is dynamic and the content and materials present opposing notions of femininity.  Combined, they create a mix of allure and repulsion.