Mark Newport returns to form & concept gallery for a solo exhibition that cuts to the heart of the Michigan textile artist’s practice. Mending features torn muslin cloths with meticulously embroidered patches, a symbol of the scars that life etches on the body and psyche. The show opens on Friday, February 24 from 5-7 pm. “This series explores the idea of repair and scarring,” says Newport. “I was a very accident prone child. I have some scars.” The artwork in Mending stands in stark contrast to the artist’s first exhibition at form & concept. In the gallery’s ReFashion group show, Newport presented hand knit superhero suits. “The costumes suggest the body, masculinity, armor,” Newport explains. “This new series is more about vulnerability, so I’m flipping that coin on its head.”
Newport is an artist and educator living in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Newport’s work has been exhibited throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Cranbrook Art Museum. He is the Artist-in-Residence and Head of Fiber at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He earned his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1986 and his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1991.
Read more at http://www.formandconcept.center/exhibitions/mark-newport-mending/