The Beautiful Forevers:

contemporary painting in dialogue with historic textiles

Curated by MARGARET LANZETTA

RARA AVIS, Long Island City, New York September 2024

In The Beautiful Forevers: each artist addresses a significant aspect of global textiles: Steve DeFrank: color, Tamara Gonzales: symbolism, Joyce Kozloff: politics, Margaret Lanzetta: pattern, Holly Miller: materiality, and Sarah G. Sharpe: thread.

The historic textiles are from Margaret Lanzetta’s extensive global collection, which began with the acquisition of a blue and white weaving in Luxor, Egypt in 1978. The collection now includes a wide array of pieces: Guatemalan huipils, African bark cloths, Malaysian songkets, Indian block prints, etc. The title, The Beautiful Forevers, is excerpted from the 2012 non-fiction book by Katherine Boo, chronicling the lives of slum dwellers in Mumbai. These slum dwellers, like many textile artisans, toil anonymously; rarely credited for their work or talents. Yet, like textile artisans, they create works that are beautiful forever.

The exhibition is featured as part of the New York Textile Month IV, September 2024.