In collaboration with the Parsons MFA Textiles Program, abc will be hosting a month-long exhibition curated by Preethi Gopinath (Director, MFA Textiles) and Gabi Asfour, featuring textile art by eight recent Parsons graduates in addition to four additional abc-sourced artists.
This partnership with New York Textile Month and Parsons MFA Textiles is true to abc's continued passion for slow design and celebration of the art of textiles. This in-store art installation at abc's Manhattan Flagship (888 Broadway) will be on display from September 19, 2023, to October 19, 2023, with an Art of Textiles Event on September 30 and October 1 that will include demonstrations of handloom weaving and hand spinning of yarn.
Stop by Union Square and discover the magic of slow design like you have never experienced before for New York Textile Month.
On Display at abc - Meet the Artists
Jason Greenberg
Based out of New York City, Jason Greenberg is a textile artist who brings awareness to waste within the fashion industry through traditional textile craft and modern techniques. Through natural dye research, cloth-construction, and embellishment, Jason tells the story of natural dyes and slow craft to educate the viewer on how textiles come into existence. Coming out of Parsons’ MFA Textiles program, Jason’s core methods of working are in loom weaving, machine needle-felting, and natural indigo dye.
Jason is a Gen 3 graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles Program, Class of 2022.
Instagram: @jasonphillipgreenberg
Website: jasonphillipgreenberg.com
Jing Li Bista
"Each one of my sculptures is a portrait of my inner self from a time. The environment surrounding us makes us who we are, so I see my work as a reflection of reality through the lenses of my mind's eye. Born and raised in a major city in China, I have spent half of my lifetime in America and married a man from the Himalayan mountains. I am mixed culturally, linguistically, and emotionally. Therefore combining different materials that seemingly don’t match is natural to me. As an only child drifting in a foreign country since the beginning of my adulthood, I have always felt the heaviness of family. It is the roots that ground me and give me nourishment, and also a metaphorical weight in the back of my mind. Even though I choose fiber as my medium and soft sculpture as an art form, elements of weight and rigidity are always present. Having survived and lost loved ones in the pandemic, the subject of death has become inevitable. Hair, blood, and tears fall from our bodies, get carried away by wind and water, and become part of the soil of the ground. They are reminders of death, falling and blending onto the ground like our bodies eventually do. Hence my usage of human and animal hair, as well as earth elements such as rocks, fossils, and moss."
Jing Li Bista is a Gen 2 Graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles Program, Class of 2021.
Instagram: @jinglibista
Garvi Rathod
Born and raised in India, Garvi Rathod is a textile artist and illustrator living in New York City. She believes in uniting culture, technology, innovation, and materials to produce responsible designs. In her work, she creates narrative textile illustrations that integrate embroidery and surface embellishment techniques and incorporate re-purposed materials from garment factories.
In her project "Nature's Needlework”, she captures the essence of a picturesque childhood village, where lush nature thrived. She explores the juxtaposition between the beauty of nature and the adverse effects of industrialization in India. Within her illustrations, she incorporates embroidery, patchwork, and appliqué techniques using waste textiles sourced from garment industries in India that have been a result of industrialization. She uses a combination of hand painting and digital painting to create narrative illustrations and replaces regular sequences with repurposed sequences made out of soda cans. Through this project, she aims to start a conversation about the adverse effects of the textile industry on our environment while highlighting the serenity we get from the beauty of nature.
Garvi is a Gen 4 Graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles program, Class of 2023.
Instagram: @garvi.rathod
Website: garvirathod.com
Ollie Hongji Li
Ollie focuses on creating three-dimensional art forms, employs knitting and knotting techniques, and works with wool yarn that he spins by hand on a spinning wheel and hemp yarns that he colors himself with natural dyes. As a sexual minority growing up in China, Ollie advocates against gender stereotyping and patriarchy. Through his work, Ollie wants to empower people who suffer from patriarchy’s oppression and speak out for gender equality.
Ollie is a Gen 4 graduate of Parsons School of Design with a Master of Fine Art in Textiles in New York City (Class of 2023). He received his BA in 2019 from the University of Southampton (England) in Printed textiles design. He is also a textile designer. In 2023, Ollie was honored to receive the Creative Promise Award from the Surface Design Association (SDA) for his outstanding textiles art, the Aquafil - Econyl Design 2023 Award and he is a finalist for the 2023 Dorothy Waxman International Textiles Design Prize.
Instagram: @ollie_must_create
Lelia Bacchi Curotto Levy
Lelia Bacchi Curotto Levy is a Brazilian textile artist who is passionate about creating art based on characters and the story around them that comes to life during the process of making. “They tell me their story and I give them my hands,” says the artist. "My creativity relies on coincidences, moments where the character on its own tells me what he wishes for, it's the spot where we find each other”.
Lelia expresses her ideas in a variety of techniques she has been exploring since her Master’s at Parsons on Fine Arts Textiles. Felting, knitting, and basketry are the leading media explored by her in a path that as she says “it’s only starting”.
Lelia is a Gen 4 graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles program, Class of 2023.
Instagram: @leliabacchi
Hannah Kim
Turning waste into treasured designs, Hannah Kim is an emerging designer with a background in Industrial Design and Textiles. She is currently the Fabrication/R&D Specialist at Loomia Technologies INC., an e-textiles company and teaches at Parsons for the MFA Textiles program. Merging tradition and technology, her works bring together materiality and time. Her lighting designs have been featured in NeoCon 2022, Design Milk, and was a winner for the Econyl Sustainability Design Challenge 2022.
Knit Wave Lighting is a series of knitted light sculptures that embody the tranquility of the ocean. With integrated LEDs and sensors, the knitted sculpture changes colors and/or brightness that easily adapts to the user's preference. When the light is activated, the LEDs replicate the moon shining on crashing waves. Designed with the end in mind, the textiles of the Knit Wave Lighting series are made with Econyl™ - a 100% regenerated and recyclable nylon yarn that can easily be separated from any electronic part and brought back into the regenerative recycling process of nylon. It can also be applied to any lighting system because of its modularity. Knit Wave Lighting is a true hybrid e-textile.
Hannah is a Gen 3 graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles program, Class of 2022.
Instagram: @hannahhhhhkim
Katherine Weir
Katherine Weir is a textile artist and knitwear designer living in Brooklyn, NY. She earned an MFA in textiles from Parsons School of Design and a BFA in botany and scientific illustration from Evergreen State College. Her work is largely informed by her continuing study of botany and ecology. Through material and motif, her work emphasizes humans’ embeddedness within nature, exploring deep ecology, myth, and individuation.
Katherine is Gen 4 graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles program, Class of 2023.
Instagram: @katherinepriceweir
Website: katherineweirnewyork.bigcartel.com
Yi Hsuan Sung
Yi Hsuan is a textile artist who has developed textiles from bioplastics that she cooks up. She uses agar, a natural gel extracted from red seaweed, as the main medium to create decorative floral arts. Her goal is to bring nature’s beauty into interior spaces through a more sustainable material and fabrication process. Her most recent research is producing natural inks to color agar flowers. She has experimented with cultivated indigo and various wild plants found in the forest during her residency at Oak Spring Garden Foundation, 2021.
Yi Hsuan’s inspiration derives from a respect for natural materials and her love of organic colors and textures. Her work has been featured by American Craft Council, Metropolis, NYCxDesign, Arts Thread, New York Textile Month, and others. Her pieces have been displayed in several renowned venues such as Mana Contemporary, The Met, and Governors Island. Yi Hsuan has an MFA in Textiles from Parsons School of Design and a BA in Fashion from Taipei Shih Chien University.
Yi Hsuan is a Gen 1 graduate of the Parsons MFA Textiles program, Class of 2020.
Instagram: @yihsuan_sung
Website: yihsuansung.com
Heidi Hankaniemi
Born in Finland, Heidi Hankaniemi now lives and works in New York City. Hankaniemi's work has been exhibited throughout Europe and in the US, including at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Mana Contemporary Art Center. Solo exhibitions include L’Space Gallery in Chelsea NY, Espacio Valverde Madrid, Espacio de las Aquas Madrid. She is involved in New York Textile Month and currently works in a studio by the Chashama organization.
The Bloom Series is a unique union of handiworks such as floral embroideries, lace, crochet, linens, and doilies from flea markets all around the world. These vintage pieces are brought together by this NYC-based Finnish textile artist in an effort to let the anonymous makers of the past flourish together in the future.
Heidi received her BA (Hons) Degree in Critical Fine Art Practice and a Foundation Diploma in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins in London UK. Her work is predominantly textile-based.
In addition to Fine Art, Hankaniemi has worked extensively within the commercial arts field, focusing on site-specific installations and visuals. These include projects for Swarovski, Sir Elton John, Tiffany’s, among others. Hankaniemi’s work is included in private collections in Europe and America and has been featured in publications ranging from Artnet and Architectural Digest to Vogue, Hola and HELLO!.
Instagram: @heidihankaniemi
Website: heidihankaniemi.com
Elodie Blanchard
Elodie Blanchard is a Brooklyn-based artist and designer. Through material exploration, repurposing, and a near-meditative process of repetition, she transforms the discarded and the commonplace into fantastical objects and playful environments that give us permission to explore our ambiguous relationship to nature, to others, and to ourselves. Her universe is joyful and humorous.
In addition to her artist practice, she partners with companies to develop textiles collections and architects to create large scale installations.
Born in Grenoble, France, Blanchard studied sculpture at l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, fashion at l’Ecole des Arts Appliqués Duperré. She established her design studio in 2005 and has since collaborated with numerous architects, designers, and brands to develop textile collections and large-scale works.
Instagram: @elodieblanchardstudio
Website: elodieblanchard.com
Rentrayage 
Rentrayage is a sustainable lifestyle company that designs luxury fashion and homewares out of existing, recycled, and regenerative materials. Their exclusive home pop up shop with abc is committed to living sustainably + beautifully in the most frequented spaces of your home.
Born out of the concept of reimagining and reanimating what has already existed, Rentrayage creates beauty and value, new shape, new form, new style from what has been discarded. Each piece is stylish as it is revolutionary.
Instagram: @rentrayage
Shop Rentrayage's Pop Up Shop at abc
MOLA SASA
MOLA SASA creates unique handcrafted pieces to infuse the perfect amount of freshness and sophistication into the wardrobe of the contemporary woman. Free-spirited and worldly, Mola Sasa is synonymous with an effortlessly chic individuality.
Bridging the gap between tradition and progress, Mola Sasa collaborates directly with various indigenous communities of Colombia to translate their own traditional art forms and crafts into unparalleled accessory collections defined by a distinctive blending of techniques, colors, textures, and materials.
Instagram: @mola_sasa
Website: molasasa.com
Mieko Mintz
Born in Japan and based in the United States, Mieko Mintz has been in love with vintage fabrics, and her bond with Kantha, a centuries-old method of embroidery craft, is very special. Her passionate creations are comfortable, sophisticated, and contemporary.
Mieko’s work follows the Kantha tradition; first, her designs are made into Kantha Throws in West Bengal and then are cut to fit and inspired by her tradition with Japanese Kimono culture.
She finds romance in the saris’ reincarnation in the new Kantha: old saris coming back to life in a totally different time and land. Its integration with the Kimono tradition moves the clothing into a new realm of international relevance, home textile pieces that will last a lifetime.
After working with the Bengal women, Mieko hopes that their tradition will continue longer; 100 years into the future and beyond, for the life of the Kantha. Mieko is working on starting a foundation to promote the continuation of Kantha culture and keep it alive. These plans include a Museum to present Kantha as an art form, not just material for use for its commercial value.
The Mieko Mintz label defines luxury clothing and is carried by prestigious boutiques across the United States and Japan.
Website: online.miekomintz.com
Instagram: @miekomintz
