Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018 features four remarkable
artists who challenge the conventional definitions of craft, imbuing it
with a renewed sense of emotional purpose, inclusiveness, and activism.
Tanya Aguiñiga transforms natural materials into textiles, furniture,
and more that reveal raw personal narratives and universal feelings of
vulnerability, often using collaborative ways to connect communities and
provoke dialogue. Sharif Bey, who is constantly reinventing his artistic
process to interweave his roles as educator, father, and ceramicist,
explores complex cultural identities with works ranging from the
utilitarian to the sculptural and purely abstract. Dustin Farnsworth
manipulates wood into haunting storylines that inhabit intricately
detailed portraits of today's youth, shedding light on those inheriting
societal and economic decay. Stephanie Syjuco uses social practice and
the tropes of craft to challenge our perceptions of "types" in
contemporary America, uncovering complicated and contradictory ways we
understand our identity and nationhood. Throughout the essays, authors
Abraham Thomas, Annie Carlano, and Sarah Archer examine how each artist
has used their chosen media to contribute beyond the confines of the art
world. Begun in 2000, the Renwick Invitational is a biennial series
designed to celebrate artists deserving of wider recognition. Disrupting
Craft is the eighth installment in the series. Other titles in the
Renwick Invitational series include Visions and Revisions (2016),
(2011), and Staged Stories (2009).
