2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship Exhibition
Thanks to The Great Northern Festival 2024 for featuring our 2023 McKnight Fellows in public presentations during a reception for the exhibition at Textile Center, January 30, 2024.
Virtual Exhibition
Joan Mondale, and Mary Giles Galleries • January 16 – April 6, 2024
Opening reception: Tuesday, January 30, 5 – 6 pm
Textile Center was proud to present the work of our 2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows Marjorie Fedyszyn and Delina White.
Fedyszyn addresses the universal experiences of loss and human vulnerability through her sculptural practice in textiles. Careful attention to process and the inherent properties of materials informs her creative vocabulary for this work, which simultaneously expresses ideas from broad environmental concern to personal grief and introspection. Using traditional craft techniques such as paper making, hand stitching, and feltmaking, Fedyszyn’s abstract forms and installations emerge as emotional histories that investigate ideas of control and the realms of the personal and the global.
White is a Native apparel designer, beadwork artist, and enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Grounded in the traditional designs of the Great Lakes Woodland Anishinaabeg, her artist-designed fabrics utilize contemporary materials in her wearable works. As an intergenerational, cultural knowledge keeper, White communicates the values and beliefs of the original people of the Great Lakes Woodlands as passed from her grandmother and her grandmother before her, using apparel as a catalyst to wider approaches of learning, research, and creative exploration with her community. Blanket Teachings was soon after featured in the 2024 Native Nations Fashion Night, April 24, 2024
“In celebration of the accomplishments of our 2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows, we are thrilled to present their newest work in these exhibitions in our Textile Center galleries. Intimate and intensive connections with materials, techniques, sustainability, and personal traditions and histories are at the heart of both of their creative practices. Both artists have focused intensively in their studio practices this past year with the support of the McKnight Fellowships. In addition, we are excited to partner with The Great Northern Festival to broaden public exposure to their work,” says Tracy Krumm, Textile Center’s Director for Artistic Advancement.
Funding for this program is provided by the McKnight Foundation. Textile Center is honored to be a McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships program partner.
In the Gallery
Photos by Rik Sferra
Marjorie Fedyszyn's Open Work
Exhibition Statement, Marjorie Fedyszyn
There has been a dramatic shift in my being. Open Work emerges from a place of resolve and acceptance, a place so new and unfamiliar its true meaning has yet to reveal itself. For years my focus turned toward human experiences such as loss, mental illness, and abuse as they pertain to my life experience. It wasn’t until I began processing personal traumas through my art that I was able to reach the deepest residual pain of my past and discharge it through my hands. I find the physical and meditative act of making art an emotional release. However, the burden of heavy past themes held my attention. Recently new feelings and emotions are emerging. Having alleviated much of the burden of my trauma, I now have the capacity for happier thoughts.
The nine months spent wrangling rope and forming paper in the studio creating elements for Open Work was joyful and gratifying. This new work comes from a place of lightness and ease. I sense a new foundation or inner structure, a sense of secure and confident stability within me unlike anything I have experienced. I interpret this work as a new beginning, the precipice of a unique time.
Textile Center has been a generous place of nurturing acceptance from my inception as a fiber artist over a decade ago. Hundreds of people have helped to make me a better artist, educator, and person over the years. I am grateful for the remarkable amount of love and support I experience each time I enter the building. Thank you all, past, present, and future for your unfaltering benevolence. It has been a pivotal year in my career thanks to the McKnight Foundation. I am grateful for the extraordinary gift of experience through workshops, travel, conferences, and unrestricted time in the studio over the fellowship year. Of course I could not have accomplished a fraction of this work without the steady encouragement and care of my friends and family. Many heartfelt thanks to you all.
marjoriefedyszyn.com
Unspooled I, II, and III
Handmade abaca paper, cast over knitted rope
Details of Unspooled I, II, and III
Handmade abaca paper, cast over knitted rope
Unspooled IV and V
Handmade abaca paper, cast over knitted rope
Unspooled VI, VII and VIII
Handmade abaca paper, cast over knitted rope
Details of Unspooled VI, VII and VIII
Handmade abaca paper, cast over knitted rope
Infrastructure
Cotton “weeping cord” rope, steel eye-link spring hooks
Arm knitting, gauge knitting
Delina White's Blanket Teachings
Delina White is a Native apparel designer, beadwork artist, and enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Grounded in the traditional designs of the Great Lakes Woodland Anishinaabeg, her artist-designed fabrics utilize contemporary materials in her wearable works. As an intergenerational, cultural knowledge keeper, White uses her fashion brand as a catalyst to wider approaches of learning, research, and creative exploration with her community.
“My artwork is built on the traditional philosophy of living a good life: traditional values rooted in the belief of love for oneself, human kind, and our mother Earth. Art is a way to wear the pride, dignity, and distinction of the original Great Lakes and Woodlands people. This life work is a way to communicate the values and beliefs of the original people of the Great Lakes Woodlands as an intergenerational cultural knowledge keeper, passing tradition to me from my grandmother and her grandmother before her.
Artists are the history keepers, having documented societal events since the beginning of time. We provide inspiration to motivate change, bringing awareness to thrive for a better world. In my work, apparel design and fashion accessories become a narrative to assert equity rights, the need to protect sacred sites, build a sustainable environment, and to show cultural pride as sovereign nations.
Using natural objects for personal adornment is part of the indigenous culture and tradition. Through the designs and materials used in making art, songs and dances, clothing and jewelry, we show respect for the environment and beliefs instilled by our ancestors. Making beautiful jewelry and clothing is one way we honor the gifts given to us by the Creator; it is an expression of creativity of who we are as people. It is the way we say, “I am Anishinaabe.”
iamanishinaabe.com
Blanket Teachings
Collection in the gallery
Contemporary Saw Tooth Quilt Skirt
2024
32-40″ Waist x 32″ L
M/L
Black and white polka dot grosgrain ribbons, satin blanket edge, pockets; quilt maker unknown
Polyester, cotton, satin
Traditional Anishinaabe Jacket
2022
56″ W x 17″ L, including 2″ fringe
S/M
Ojibwa Canoe Pendleton Blanket Pattern, designed by Earl Nyholm
Wool, cotton, abalone shell, ric rac
Rectangle and Square Quilt Skirt
2024
33-38″ Waist x 30″ L
S/M
Quilting follows fire (iskhode) design, pockets; quilt maker unknown
Cotton, ric rac
Block Quilt Skirt
2024
30-35″ Waist x 36″ L
L/XL
4″ Fringe down seams and hem, pockets; quilt maker unknown
Polyester, cotton, flannel
Matching Peplum Zippered Vest
2024
42″ W x 27″ L
XL
Empire waist, 4″ fringe
Polyester, cotton, flannel
x 16″ L, including 6″ fringe
One Size
Quilted cotton, knotted fringe
Cotton, polyester
- American references to patriotism have not been true for Tribal Nations.
Veteran Star Quilt Skirt
2024
40-45″ Waist x 39″ L
XL
Quilted cotton, pockets; quilt maker unknown
Heavy muslin, cotton, camouflage ribbon
- Native Americans, per capita, have the highest percentage of their people in military service, exceeding every other American ethnic group.(www.denix.osd.mil)
- Native Americans became United States citizens on June 2, 1924, and received voting rights in 1957.
- Military traditions are strong in Native American culture despite these inequities. When women come out of the military, they continue to wear skirts such as these to signify their time in the military while showing pride in their Native culture and heritage.
Colonial Star Quilt Shawl
2024
50″ W x 16″ L, including 6″ fringe
One Size
Quilted cotton, knotted fringe
Cotton, polyester
- American references to patriotism have not been true for Tribal Nations.
2024
Mini-Runway Show, Great Northern Festival, January 30, 2024, Textile Center
Gold Plaid Blanket Coat, with Beaded Hide and Fur Chopper Mitts
Turquoise Blanket Jacket, with Faux Fur Chaps
Pink Plaid Blanket Coat
Red Blanket Jacket and Skirt, with Beaded Hide, Fur, and Blanket Chopper Mitts
Press and exhibit links to the 2023 Fellows’ exhibitions
‘Native fashionista’ creates runway looks – Star Tribune (Delina White Feature)
Delina White: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan to model at Native Nations Fashion Night in Minneapolis (Delina White Feature)
‘Open Work’: A Q&A with Marjorie Fedyszyn
About the McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.
Textile Center is honored to be a McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships program partner.