Exhibit features textile artists from NY, DC, and CT

ALLENTOWN, PA — The Fine Art Galleries at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center have opened their newest exhibit, Queer Embroidery, on display through February 27, with an artist reception on January 18 from 6-8pm. The exhibit features artists Arin Jayes, Rebecca Levi, and Michelle Morgan and is curated by Deborah Rabinsky.

Queer Embroidery is a celebration of the act of queering textile arts, often seen as a traditional art form, and not frequently associated with LGBT art. The three featured artists come from different geographies and cultural contexts.

Arin Jayes is a transgender textile artist, craftivist, urban gardener, and mental health professional in Washington, DC. His art is a practice of love and solidarity with social justice movements. Through his embroidery, he seeks to craft distinctly non-traditional pieces that are both well-made, beautiful to look at, and that honor past and present social justice activists.

Rebecca Levi’s work captures and redefines ideas of American domesticity and desire, subverting the norm with the unexpected as it invites a collision between traditional handicrafts and unexpected sources like vintage physique magazines, pin-ups, comic books, Tumblr, and memes. A native New Yorker, resident of Brooklyn, and frequent visitor of beloved Provincetown, much of her inspiration is from source material culled from flea markets in Chelsea and vintage stores on Commercial Street. Her work appears in the book, Queer Threads edited by Todd Oldham and John Chaich.

Michelle Morgan is a queer embroidery artist who recently finished her Ph.D in American Studies, and whose work examines visual and material culture. She is a mother in New Haven, Connecticut and is finding a style that fits her, learning the boundaries and versatility of thread and cloth. Her pieces speak to the question of craft, art, history, race, class, gender, and sexuality, particularly since embroidery is an ancient form of art that spans geographic locations and cultures. Her pieces focus on embroidery as “female” craft and highlight the question of what is considered art. As a queer female artist Michelle insists that textile arts have to be taken seriously.

About Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center: (www.bradburysullivancenter.org)

Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center provides arts, health , and youth programs to strengthen and support the LGBT community across the Greater Lehigh Valley.