Center for Craft 25th anniversary logo in red

Current Exhibition

UPcoming Exhibition

past Exhibition

On View 

Max Adrian: RIPSTOP

The Center for Craft is excited to present a solo exhibition of patchwork textiles and inflatable sculptures by the Ohio-based fiber artist. Adrian’s volumetric, pneumatic work transports viewers into artifice, desire, and worldbuilding. Drawing from rich legacies of queer fiber art & theory, the exhibition features monumentally scaled works that physically respond to viewers presence by filling with air.

You can still sponsor RIPSTOP by contributing before July 12, 2024. Donate today for your opportunity to be recognized during the opening reception on August 15, 2024, and on the exhibition's Title Wall. To underwrite this exhibition, please donate now.

Max Adrian: RIPSTOP

SPONSOR

On view

Jul

26

Mar

29

Through

Jul

26

Mar

29

When

Jul 26, 2024

Mar 29, 2025

Max Adrian, “A Fallible Complex,” 2021. Nylon, ripstop, blower, motion sensor. 92 x 136 x 76 inches.

Photo credit:

Jake Holler

Current Exhibition

UPcoming Exhibition

past Exhibition

On View 

Max Adrian: RIPSTOP

On view

Jul

26

Mar

29

Through

Jul

26

Mar

29

When

Jul 26, 2024

Mar 29, 2025

Max Adrian, “A Fallible Complex,” 2021. Nylon, ripstop, blower, motion sensor. 92 x 136 x 76 inches.

Photo credit:

Jake Holler

Current Exhibition

UPcoming Exhibition

past Exhibition

On View 

Max Adrian: RIPSTOP

On view

Jul

26

Mar

29

Through

Jul

26

Mar

29

When

Jul 26, 2024

Mar 29, 2025

Max Adrian, “A Fallible Complex,” 2021. Nylon, ripstop, blower, motion sensor. 92 x 136 x 76 inches.

Photo credit:

Jake Holler

FRONT & CENTER

Front & center

Max Adrian: RIPSTOP is a solo exhibition of textiles and inflatable sculptures by the Ohio-based fiber artist and recipient of the prestigious 2015 Center for Craft Windgate-Lamar Fellowship, which honors the top emerging craft artists nationwide. Adrian’s work transports viewers into artifice, desire, and world-building concepts. Drawing from rich legacies of queer fiber art and theory, including the AIDS memorial quilt and José Esteban Muñoz’s foundational text, Cruising Utopia, RIPSTOP features sculptures made from faux fur, satin, pleather, fringe, and ripstop—the show’s namesake—a woven nylon material that allows the pieces to hold air. On view are monumentally scaled works that inflate in response to the viewer.

Adrian’s use of alluring, sensual fabrics reflects the material culture of queer communities. At the same time, the handwrought textile techniques and inflatable technology he employs are drawn from his background working in a commercial mascot shop. Though many of his works are built from the scraps of those high-profile commercial characters, they—unlike mascots—interrogate consumption and capitalist desire. Informed by the aesthetics of drag, puppetry, and camp horror films, works like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-2019) become subversive, representing violence, repression, and the hyperstimulation of late capitalism.

While in isolation during COVID-19, Adrian’s work shifted to investigating desire and queerness at an infrastructural scale. His modernist bounce-house sculpture, A Fallible Complex (2021), continues the entangled history of inflatable architecture and utopian experimentation that sprang forth in the late 1960s through collectives like Ant Farm and Utopie. This monumental piece defies the expectations of a space designed for play and pleasure. It’s alluring, but its entrance is blocked. While its many portholes invite spectatorship and voyeurism, one would be met with a missing floor if one attempted to enter the colorful maze of interlocking levels. The structure is promising but ultimately unstable.

RIPSTOP suggests that the world Adrian desires, like queer utopia itself, is not here quite yet. It is on the horizon.

Center for Craft invites you to join us to celebrate the exhibition opening for Max Adrian: RIPSTOP on Thursday, August 15 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm!

This event is free and open to the public. Artist remarks will be at 6pm and light refreshments will be provided.

LEARN MORE →

SUPPORT

No items found.
No items found.

OPENING RECEPTION

Thu

,

Aug

15

,

5:00 pm

7:00 pm

Where

Bresler Family Gallery

67 Broadway St

ARTISTS

Max Adrian

ARTISTS

EasterN Band Cherokee Exhibiting Artists

CURATed By

Sarah Darro

ORGANIZED BY

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Exhibition management BY

Marilyn Zapf and Lisette Gallaher

Installation by

Lauren Roquemore

Exhibition design

Edited by

Graphic Design by

Photography by

exhibition events

The events for this exhibition have passed. See our full calendar for upcoming events.

Meet the artists

ᏚᏍᏓᏯᎫᎾᏱ Gabriel Crow

Cherokee, NC

Faye Junaluska

Cherokee, NC

Lucille Lossiah

Ramon Lose

Cullowhee, NC

ᏯᏗ ᎺᏂ Betty Maney

Cherokee, NC

ᏗᎳᏂ Dylan Morgan

Cherokee, NC

ᎺᎵ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Mary W. Thompson

ᏎᎳᏂ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Sarah Thompson

Patricia Welch

Field Building

CRAFT RESEARCH TALK

View the catalog

View the catalog

View the catalog

About RIPSTOP

The Center for Craft is excited to present a solo exhibition of patchwork textiles and inflatable sculptures by the Ohio-based fiber artist. Adrian’s volumetric, pneumatic work transports viewers into artifice, desire, and worldbuilding. Drawing from rich legacies of queer fiber art & theory, the exhibition features monumentally scaled works that physically respond to viewers presence by filling with air.

You can still sponsor RIPSTOP by contributing before July 12, 2024. Donate today for your opportunity to be recognized during the opening reception on July 26, 2024, and on the exhibition's Title Wall. To underwrite this exhibition, please donate now.

about the artists

Photo credit: Jamie Hopper

about the curator

No items found.

exhibition Images

exhibition Images

Curatorial

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

Thank

you to the

Virginia A. Groot Foundation

and

Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation

for

makng these residencies possible.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

RIPSTOP is supported, in part, by Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft.

The

Center

for

Craft

is

supported

in

part

by

the

,

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

2023

Curatorial

Fellow

This exhibition was supported, in part, by the John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation,

and Buncombe County Government.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

The

Center

for

Craft

is

supported

in

part

by

the

,

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

2023

Curatorial

Fellow

A special thanks to

and the

for sponsoring Handwork and Hope.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

The

Center

for

Craft

is

supported

in

part

by

the

,

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

The 2023 Curatorial Fellowship is supported, in part, by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund.

Thank you to Phillips, the leading auction house in art and design, for sponsoring the Curatorial Fellowship show.

Preservers, Innovators, and Rescuers of Culture in Chiapas is supported, in part by,

The Center for Craft is supported, in part, by the

Aram Han Sifuentes is a recipient of the Center for Craft’s 2022 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship. This substantial mid-career grant is awarded to two artists to support research projects that advance, expand, and support the creation of new research and knowledge through craft practice.

This

exhibition

is

supported

in

part

by

the

the

and

For a full listing of the generous funders supporting the Center for Craft and our programming visit centerforcraft.org/support

This

exhibition

is

supported

in

part

by

the

the

and

the

a

division

of

the

Department

of

Natural

and

Cultural

Resources.

For a full listing of the generous funders supporting the Center for Craft and our programming visit centerforcraft.org/support

The

Center

for

Craft’s

John

Cram

Partner

Gallery

presented

in

collaboration

with

UNC Asheville transforms lives through leadership and education. The designated liberal arts and sciences institution for the UNC System and one of the nation’s top 10 public liberal arts universities, UNC Asheville enrolls 3,600 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate majors and a Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences degree. UNC Asheville also encourages students to take part in a nationally acclaimed undergraduate research program and participate in interdisciplinary learning. From internships and hands-on projects, to study abroad and community engagement, students experience an education that extends beyond campus into the vibrant City of Asheville, the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and the world.

and

Warren Wilson College logo

A liberal arts college grounded in social responsibility, where hard work and community are more than just words.

.

This

exhibition

is

supported

in

part

by

the

the

and

For a full listing of the generous funders supporting the Center for Craft and our programming visit centerforcraft.org/support

More On View

Exhibition

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Through

Nov

17

Oct

31

Learn More