Project: Alyson Vega

June 4–July 16, 2016 320 West 13th Street
Tired of Sleeping and Ship installed side by side on a wall. Tired of Sleeping depicts a figure ripping apart a piece of fabric, while Ship depicts a large ship against dark, stormy waters.

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016

Frontal view of four works installed side by side on a wall. From left to right: Night Train Man, Wired #1, Wired #2, and Caravan Train Man.

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016

Two similarly sized pieces, The Building and Down the Stairs (at MFTA), installed side by side on a wall. Both are figurative pieces composed entirely of fabric.

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016

The mixed media works Don't/Touch Me and Wired #3 installed side by side on a wall. Both are composed of heavily textured multicolored patchworks of fabric inside square frames.

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016

A bust portrait on patterned, reddish brown patchwork fabric. Bright multicolored decorations seem to float around the top of the subject’s head.

Alyson Vega

I Think Just The Right Amount, 2016

Fabric, feathers, mesh, paint on antique quilt pieces

20 × 13 in.

A face outlined in white inside a circular piece of multicolored fabric sits suspended by reddish-brown string inside a square orange frame.

Alyson Vega

Wired #2, 2016

Fabric and wire

12 × 12 in.

A gridded patchwork landscape composed of various patterned fabrics. Over the landscape, a rudimentary, bodiless face gazes out from inside a floating rhombus.

Alyson Vega

Night Train Man, 2015

Mixed fiber

19 × 24 in.

Press Release

White Columns is proud to present a solo exhibition by the New York-based artist Alyson Vega. Vega is affiliated with New York’s Fountain House Gallery and the recently shuttered Healing Arts Initiative (H.A.I.) – organizations that support artists living and working with mental illness and developmental disabilities. (White Columns has collaborated extensively with both organizations and artists affiliated with them.)  A self-taught artist, Vega only started to make art after the result of a surgical procedure for a brain tumor ended her 22-year teaching career. Re-animating the sewing and quilting techniques from her childhood, Vega has subsequently developed a highly idiosyncratic and formally, aesthetically and psychologically complex body of work – rooted in her own experience – that explores questions of loss, transience and change. For her project at White Columns – her first solo exhibition – Vega presents a group of recent sewn, collaged, and assemblage works that are self-reflexive, open-ended, poetic, and profoundly empathetic.

Alyson Vega received a BA in Japanese Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University. She taught for more than twenty years. Her work has been presented in exhibitions at Fountain House Gallery and Healing Arts Initiative (both New York), among others, and was included in the 2016 ‘White Columns Annual’ exhibition selected by White Columns’ director Matthew Higgs.

Checklist

Related Press

Tired of Sleeping and Ship installed side by side on a wall. Tired of Sleeping depicts a figure ripping apart a piece of fabric, while Ship depicts a large ship against dark, stormy waters.
Frontal view of four works installed side by side on a wall. From left to right: Night Train Man, Wired #1, Wired #2, and Caravan Train Man.
Two similarly sized pieces, The Building and Down the Stairs (at MFTA), installed side by side on a wall. Both are figurative pieces composed entirely of fabric.
The mixed media works Don't/Touch Me and Wired #3 installed side by side on a wall. Both are composed of heavily textured multicolored patchworks of fabric inside square frames.
A bust portrait on patterned, reddish brown patchwork fabric. Bright multicolored decorations seem to float around the top of the subject’s head.
A face outlined in white inside a circular piece of multicolored fabric sits suspended by reddish-brown string inside a square orange frame.
A gridded patchwork landscape composed of various patterned fabrics. Over the landscape, a rudimentary, bodiless face gazes out from inside a floating rhombus.

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016 (Tired of Sleeping and Ship installed side by side on a wall. Tired of Sleeping depicts a figure ripping apart a piece of fabric, while Ship depicts a large ship against dark, stormy waters.)

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016 (Frontal view of four works installed side by side on a wall. From left to right: Night Train Man, Wired #1, Wired #2, and Caravan Train Man.)

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016 (Two similarly sized pieces, The Building and Down the Stairs (at MFTA), installed side by side on a wall. Both are figurative pieces composed entirely of fabric.)

Alyson Vega, installation view, 2016 (The mixed media works Don’t/Touch Me and Wired #3 installed side by side on a wall. Both are composed of heavily textured multicolored patchworks of fabric inside square frames.)

Alyson Vega I Think Just The Right Amount, 2016
Fabric, feathers, mesh, paint on antique quilt pieces
20 × 13 in. (A bust portrait on patterned, reddish brown patchwork fabric. Bright multicolored decorations seem to float around the top of the subject’s head.)

Alyson Vega Wired #2, 2016 Fabric and wire 12 × 12 in. (A face outlined in white inside a circular piece of multicolored fabric sits suspended by reddish-brown string inside a square orange frame.)

Alyson Vega Night Train Man, 2015 Mixed fiber 19 × 24 in. (A gridded patchwork landscape composed of various patterned fabrics. Over the landscape, a rudimentary, bodiless face gazes out from inside a floating rhombus.)