CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Hands Up…Don’t Shoot #2,” 2024 (poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 58 x 102 inches / 147.32 x 259.08 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
STORYTELLING, CRAFTSMANSHIP, and the often harsh realities of African American history co-exist in the work of Carolyn Mazloomi (b. 1948). A West Chester, Ohio-based artist, curator, and author, Mazloomi was an aerospace engineer before transforming her career. She first began quilting in the 1970s. Today, her quilt designs pay homage to legendary civil rights activists and focus on social justice themes, such as voting rights, police reform, equality in public schools, and gun violence.
In April, Mazloomi joined Claire Oliver Gallery in Harlem. “Whole Cloth: Narratives in Black and White,” her inaugural exhibition with the gallery opens Sept. 3. The show features 15 quilts, nearly all made this year.
Mazloomi’s quilts are narrative, graphic, and pictorial. She employs a variety of techniques, including a printing process to transfer her drawings onto fabric, painting, appliqué, and quilting. The works are finished and framed with patchwork borders with geometric patterns.
Channeling the black-and-white photographs that documented the Civil Rights Movement, the black-and-white quilt works on view in the exhibition include layered portraits of Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, James Baldwin, Ida B. Wells, and Henrietta Lacks. “Ode to Harriet Powers: Mother of African American Quilting,” (2024) portrays artist Harriet Powers (1837-1910) against a backdrop that replicates one of her Bible-themed quilts. Born into slavery, Powers created extraordinary story quilts in the 1880s and 1890s.
“Voting Rights” (2024) features sign-carrying protesters in the foreground with voters lining up to cast their ballots in the background. A composite image, “Strange Fruit #3” (2024), pictures Billie Holiday belting out one of her most well-known songs alongside the disturbing symbols referenced in her lyrics: Black bodies hanging from trees before an audience of hooded Ku Klux Klan members.
“Hands Up…Don’t Shoot #2” (2024) is an American flag-inspired work that speaks to the historic brutality endured by people of color. The flag’s “stars” are replaced by 50 figures with their hands raised above their heads. The names of nearly 100 Black and Brown people killed by police are listed on the red stripes with a schematic of enslaved Africans crammed in a ship’s hold during the Middle Passage appearing on the white stripes.
Carolyn Mazloomi’s quilt designs pay homage to legendary civil rights activists and focus on social justice themes, such as voting rights, police reform, equality in public schools, and gun violence.
CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Good Trouble: In Honor of John Lewis,” 2024 (poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 75.5 x 59.5 inches / 191.77 x 151.13 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
Mazloomi, who founded the African American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles in 1981 and the Women of Color Quilter Network in 1985, is an authority on the art and history of Black quiltmaking and has authored books and lectured widely on the subject.
Over the years, her work has been recognized with a variety of honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 from Faith Ringgold’s Anyone Can Fly Foundation; United States Artists Fellowship in 2021 ($50,000); and 2024 Taproot Fellowship ($50,000). She was named an NEA National Heritage Fellow in 2014, the nation’s highest award for traditional art. Mazloomi has been featured in about 80 exhibitions and her work is represented in two dozen museum collections, the forthcoming Claire Oliver presentation is her first solo show in a New York gallery in more than 20 years.
In a new video produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Mazloomi talked about her work, cited the scholarly and historic significance of quilts, and noted that everyone has a relationship with cloth, which explains why quilts are an ideal medium for raising challenging topics.
“Quilts can make a statement, or art can make a statement, about difficult subjects,” Mazloomi said in the video below. “Whereas, people might not want to read about those difficult subjects, but you can render them in quilts and hopefully when people see them it will make them think visuals have power, just as words have power. So it’s my hope that my quilts can inflict the change.” CT
“Whole Cloth: Narratives in Black and White” is on view at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York, N.Y., from Sept. 3-Nov. 16, 2024
FIND MORE about Carolyn Mazloomi on her website, Instagram, and at Claire Oliver Gallery
In a new video produced on the occasion of her forthcoming exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery, artist Carolyn Mazloomi talks about her work and explains why quilts are an ideal medium to raise difficult subjects. | Video by Claire Oliver Gallery
CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Strange Fruit #3,” 2024, Poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 75 x 65 inches / 190.5 x 165.1 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Ode to Harriet Powers: Mother of African American Quilting,” 2024 (poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 67 x 60.5 inches / 170.18 x 153.67 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free: Fannie Lou Hammer,” 2024, Poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 78 x 60.5 inches / 198.12 x 153.67 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Ode to a Native Son,” 2024 (poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 78.5 x 52.5 inches / 199.39 x 133.35 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
CAROLYN MAZLOOMI, “Voting Rights,” 2024 (poly-cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, fabric paint, 67 x 67 inches / 170.18 x 170.18 cm). | © Carolyn Mazloomi, Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
BOOKSHELF
Carolyn Mazloomi has authored several books about African American quilts. The selections include “And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations” and “Journey of Hope: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama,” as well as “Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition” and “Quilting African American Women’s History.” Also authored by Mazloomi, “Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts,” includes a preface by Faith Ringgold and won the 1999 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award for Best Nonfiction book. “Threads of Faith: Recent Works from the Women of Color Quilters Network” is co-authored by Mazloomi and Patricia C. Pongracz.
