Mischief

Liz Collins, a Brooklyn based contemporary textile and fibre artist, is bringing her first European exhibition, Mischief, to Rochdale from 1 October 2022. Mischief, created in collaboration with Touchstones Rochdale Gallery and Museum and guest curator Dr Julia Bryan-Wilson, will take over all four gallery spaces and includes immersive installations transforming spaces with intricately hand stitched wall pieces as well as industrially manufactured sculptural works. Mischief uses explosive patterns and colours to transform everyday inspirations into a provocative, mischievous aesthetic, exploring the boundaries between art and design through textiles and fibre.

Liz Collins: “Everything old is new again in this exciting moment where I am looking back and forward, in collaboration with the museum, the curator, textile mills, and the Rochdale community. It’s an honor to arrive here at Touchstones at this time, a place so steeped in resonant histories: textiles, labour, music, and queer life. “

Guest curator Julia Bryan-Wilson writes: "With her bold textiles and radical graphics, Liz Collins creates dazzlingly powerful works. Her aesthetic mischief blurs the lines between art, craft, and design".

Nestled inside the Mischief exhibition will be “Queer, People, Places and Things”, an extra special exhibit co-curated by a group of LGBTQ+ Rochdale locals stemming from Liz’s desire to provide a platform for the voices of queer artists. This show-within-the-show is an immersive environment that features Liz’s vibrant designs, including her wallpaper, rugs, and upholstery, creating a place for dialogue and conversation, generously supported by textile brand ZigZagZurich, a division of 4Spaces.

Chase Waterman, part of the group involved in the special exhibit says: “Taking part in the Liz Collins project so far has been a great experience, and my first queer artistic experience of this kind. It’s been inspiring to look at so much art throughout history from queer artists and creators, to learn about their lives and to feel connected to them in such a personal way.”

This one of a kind exhibit will include works curated from the Juan Yarur Torres Collection, a prominent collector and president of Fundacion AMA in Chile, a leading arts organisation which promotes, researches and supports the development of modern and contemporary art by Chilean and South American artists. Working in partnership with Fundacion AMA twenty works from the collection have been chosen and generously loaned for display as part of ‘Queer People, Places and Things’, chosen by Collins and Bryan Wilson for their queer aesthetic. Works by leading South American artists such as Francisco Copello and the photographer Paz Errazuriz sit alongside internationally recognised artists from the collection such as Robert Indiana and Leonor Fini.

These twenty pieces of work will be shown alongside some significant pieces from the Rochdale Borough collections, The Walker Art Gallery and Bolton Museum & Art Gallery, all presented through a queer lens.

About Liz Collins:
Liz Collins (b. 1968, Virginia, USA) is a New York-based queer feminist artist and designer known for her bold abstract patterns, her inventive use of materials, and her radical experiments with fibre. She received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and had her own fashion design label in the early 00s, that was celebrated internationally for groundbreaking knitwear. She has exhibited her work extensively at leading arts institutions, including the Tang Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the New Museum.

About Dr Julia Bryan-Wilson:
Julia Bryan-Wilson is Professor of Contemporary Art and LBGTQ Art History at Columbia University. She curated Louise Nevelson: Persistence, an official collateral event of the 59th. Venice Biennale and her book on Nevelson is forthcoming from Yale University Press. Her most recent book Fray: Art and Textile Politics was published in 2017 and was awarded the ASAP Book Prize, the Frank Jewett Mather Award, and the Robert Motherwell Book Award.

Mischief will be on view from Saturday, October 1, 2022 – Sunday, January 8, 2023. For more information, visit Touchstones Rochdale Gallery.