Alex McQuilkin: That Hand-Touch Sensibility

By combining conceptualism and craft, Alex McQuilkin (b. 1980, lives New York state) acknowledges the influential legacy of male-defined art movements of the 1960’s whilecritiquing them from a contemporary feminist perspective. She appreciates the absurdity of transcribing LeWitt’s lofty, abstract manifesto with its emphasis on ideas into a handcraft typically associated with the feminine and the decorative. Her embroideries question the stereotypical gender roles embedded in patriarchy and the myriad ways in which society conditions women to reflexively accept and internalize these insidious cultural conventions.

McQuilkin’s work also explores the tangled relationship between the aesthetics of popular culture and the formation of female identity. The artist-made wallpaper is inspired by designer Laura Ashley’s floral motifs, which were popular during McQuilkin’s suburban childhood and often featured in the bedroom sets of female characters in 1990s film and television as a marker of good taste. Overall, the graceful patterns, soft pastels, and textiles used to create the artist’s traditionally feminine domestic interior comment on gender norms, class aspirations, and social expectations.

Guest curated by Helaine Posner (C’75).

This exhibition is generously supported by Lucille M. & Richard F.X. Spagnuolo.