“The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition of works by Los Angeles–based artist and designer Tanya Aguiñiga. Craft & Care highlights Aguiñiga’s practice at the intersection of fiber art, design, social practice, and activism, with a focus on motherhood, care, border issues, and the creation of community—themes that run throughout the artist’s work. The exhibition spotlights AMBOS Project (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), Aguiñiga’s ongoing activation of the US–Mexico border.

Aguiñiga’s work, ranging from her ‘Performance Crafting’ series—which uses craft to generate dialogues about identity, culture, and gender—to furniture whose material and form reimagine its functionality to provide ‘support,’ asserts design (and craft) thinking as political. At the heart of her practice is an inquiry into how community is created, and the role that craft, design, and materiality play in its formation.” — MAD 

“We are thrilled to bring Tanya’s multifaceted practice to MAD,” said Shannon R. Stratton, MAD’s William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator. “Her work is compassionate and courageous, and her emphasis on interaction and collaboration is inspiring. Both her process and her finished pieces testify to the power of craft and design to bring people together.”

Tanya Aguiñiga, CRAFTA, Craft in the Post NAFTA Era, 2012.  Mixed media, 40ft wide x 12 feet deep. Courtesy of the artist

Tanya Aguiñiga, Performance Crafting, Community Felt-In, 2014. 6ft high x 48 ft long. Courtesy of the artist

Tanya Aguiñiga, Support, 2014, from Future Tropes Denim, thread, salt, rice. Variable. Courtesy of Volume Gallery, Chicago

Tanya Aguiñiga, Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo, 2016.  Recycled dress and bathing suit straps. Variable. Courtesy of Gina Clyne Photography

Tanya Aguiñiga, Reindigenizing the Self, 2017. Installation View. Courtesy of Volume Gallery, Chicago

Tanya Aguiñiga, Reindigenizing the Self (detail), 2017

MAD presents Craft & Care as part of this season’s investigation of the political impact of craft. It is installed in the second-floor galleries, across from and in dialogue with the current exhibition La Frontera: Encounters Along the Border, which explores the border as a complex landscape of human interaction through the medium of contemporary jewelry.

Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft & Care is curated by Shannon R. Stratton, MAD’s William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, with the support of Assistant Manager of Curatorial Affairs Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. 

Images courtesy Museum of Arts and Design.