GROUP EXHIBITION

Their unique visual vernacular exists in tender dialogue with, and in homage to, the contributions of the Gee’s Bend Alabama quilters–Black American women in collective cooperation and creative economic production – and their enduring legacy as a radical meeting place, a prompt and as intergenerational inspiration. This exhibition acknowledges the work of Gee’s Bend quilters such as Sarah Benning (b. 1933), Missouri Pettway (1902–1981), Lizzie Major (1922–2011), Sally Bennett Jones (1944–1988), Mary Lee Bendolph (b. 1935) and so many more, as central to expanded histories of abstraction and modernism.

Coinciding with the traveling exhibition, the gallery presents Community Lab: Threads of Connection–an interactive space that fosters social connections through artmaking, evolving from Los Angeles to Somerset. Alongside a range of practical workshops, the Community Lab provides opportunities to learn more about the Gee’s Bend quilters through an extensive timeline of the Alabama region and documentary provided by Souls Grown Deep.