To Go Back and Forth

February 17 - March 5

Monaco is delighted to present To Go Back and Forth, a solo exhibition of new work by Liz Whelan, organized by Monaco member Emily Mueller in the Main Space.

Please join us for an opening reception Friday, February 17, 2023 from 6 to 9 p.m with viewings available on Saturdays from 12 to 4 p.m. and by appointment.

For all inquiries and appointments please contact: Emily Mueller at eemueller23@gmail.com or Monaco at info@monacomonaco.us / IG: @monaco_usa

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Liz Whalen’s practice both cherishes and challenges the traditions of fiber artwork. Her felt objects expand and stretch the limits of wool. The fibers are fused together through repetitive labor and agitation with their surfaces via needles and friction. Whalen asks viewers to consider the evolving and transformative state of fiber as these felts have no beginning or end, no back or front. 

In To Go Back and Forth, the forms and patterns created from the felt become the structure that holds the pieces together. Denying a typical warp/weft grid structure, the grid is instead promoted as decoration. She embraces and questions traditional craft, leaning towards a definition of craft that prioritizes whimsy, lightness, illusion, and the hand rather than technicality.

BIO

Liz Whelan

b. 1994

Using material, color, and form, Liz creates felted and mixed media works to raise questions of empathy and focus through the tactility, vibrancy, and shape of her natural fiber. She received her M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and B.F.A. from the University of Kentucky. In 2018, Whalen was published in New American Paintings Issue #136, representing 1 of 40 emerging artists in the South, as well as featured in ArtMaze Magazine, London, U.K. She was the recipient of the Arthur Oswald Scholarship and Sam Fox School Travel Grant in 2019 to travel to Germany and Mexico researching natural fiber dye techniques and contemporary color theory. In 2020 she participated in the St. Louis Textiles Fiber Biennial. Her works have recently been shown at the Kemper Art Museum, Miami University in Oxford, Take It Easy ATL, Intersect Chicago (SOFA) in Chicago with re.riddle gallery, and the World of Co Artist Residency in Sofia, Bulgaria.

For all inquiries and appointments please contact: Monaco at info@monacomonaco.us / IG: @monaco_usa