The artists in Subversive, skilled, sublime. Fiber art by women mastered and subverted the everyday materials of cotton, felt, and wool to create deeply personal artworks. This exhibition presents an alternative history of twentieth-century American art by showcasing the work of artists such as Emma Amos, Sheila Hicks, and Faith Ringgold, who, stitch by stitch, utilized fiber materials to express their personal stories and create resonant and intricate artworks. An audio program highlights ten compelling backstories that are woven into the exhibition.

Accessible and familiar, fiber handicrafts have long provided a source of inspiration for women. Their ingenuity with cloth, threads, and yarn was dismissed by many art critics as menial labor. The artists in this exhibition took up fiber to complicate this historic marginalization and also revolutionize its import to contemporary art. They drew on personal experiences, particularly their vantage points as women, and intergenerational skills to transform humble threads into resonant and intricate artworks.

The artworks are as diverse as the women who made them. Among the artists included in this exhibition are Adela Akers, Neda Al-Hilali, Emma Amos, Lia Cook, Olga de Amaral, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Sheila Hicks, Agueda Martínez, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Joyce Scott, Judith Scott, Kay Sekimachi, Lenore Tawney, Katherine Westphal, Claire Zeisler, and Marguerite Zorach. The artists expressed themselves in the form of sewn quilts, woven tapestries and rugs, beaded and embroidered ornamentation, twisted and bound sculptures, and multi-media assemblages. Each artwork carries the story of its maker, manifesting—stitch by stitch—the profound and personal politics of the hand.

Several themes place artworks in conversation with an emphasis on the artist’s own words: the complex (often contradictory) influence of domestic life; feminist strategies for upending the art world status quo; shared knowledge of traditional and experimental techniques; and pushing boundaries of the perception and possibilities of fiber art. A dedicated gallery space of archival materials provides a window into the artist’s studio, deepening insight into their creative processes with sketches, mail art, and photographs. Together, these categories illuminate how artists have invited moments of contemplation about the interplay between material and message.

The exhibition is organized by Mary Savig, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft; Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator; and Laura Augustin Fox, curatorial collections coordinator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. The featured artworks are drawn entirely from the museum's collection, and the presentation includes archival materials and interviews from the archive's collections.

To complement the exhibition, SAAM produced a 10-episode narrative podcast, "Backstitch,” that allows listeners to hear directly from the artists in their own voices. These short- form audio explorations take a deeper look into the lives and creative practices of ten trailblazing artists represented in the exhibition. The podcast is narrated and produced by Emma Jacobs and Rachel Ward. The interviews were conducted for the Archives of American Art by Suzanne Baizerman, Robert F. Brown, Joanne Cubbs, Paul Cummings, Erin Gilbert, Mija Reidel, and Robert Silberman.