Carole Harris “The Past is Present”

Sargent's Daughters

[Image: Carole Harris "Momento" (2018) mixed media, 18.5 x 17 in.]

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Sargent’s Daughters presents The Past is Present, the first New York solo presentation of the work of Carole Harris, a Detroit-based artist whose career spans five decades. Harris blends techniques from quilting, embroidery, and paper-making, often combining found materials to produce abstract, wall mounted compositions. By distilling the past alongside the present, her work weaves together a variety of histories and memories into tangible objects that both evidence the past and suggest new assemblages.

Often drawing inspiration from her native Detroit, Harris produces quilts that retain a rawness despite their polish, meandering like the city in unforeseen spurts and directions. Though Harris’ practice is grounded in the history of textile arts, she has redefined and subverted the basic concepts of quilting to suit her contemporary context. Her compositions layer together textiles and techniques sourced from across the United States, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Instead of traditional quilts, Harris’ textiles are frayed, ripped, and burned. They extend beyond the typical boundaries placed on fiber arts and connect to music, sculpture, architecture, and other media.

The titles of Harris’ works often reference the gospel, blues, Motown, and jazz stylings of her childhood. Like a jazz musician, Harris’ practice is one of masterful improvisation. Taking into consideration her own relationship to each piece of fabric, the history of its making, and the sensory experience of each textile, Harris layers them together into a final composition. The resulting works have a harmonious quality, generated through a nuanced balance of shape and color.

The Past is Present brings together a selection of works from across Harris’ career, ranging from 1994 to 2021. Throughout this diverse body of work, the artist translates her travels and previous experiences into a blend of exuberant fabrics and rhythmic stitchings. As Harris states, these abstractions are “artifacts, telling a story of time” through their multiple layers.

Carole Harris (b. 1943, Detroit, MI) received a BFA from Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). Harris has exhibited across the United States, in Michigan, and internationally, including the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, MI); Museum of African American History (Detroit, MI); The River Gallery (Chattanooga, TN); National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center (Wilberforce, OH); and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Montgomery, AL). Harris’ work has been published in numerous books and her work has been reviewed by several newspapers and magazines. In addition to her studio career, Harris was the owner of an interior design firm based out of Detroit, MI. Harris has been a constant advocate for the arts and education for over thirty years as a lecturer, mentor, curator, and juror. She has served on numerous art and education panels, as well as visiting critique for a number of art schools in Michigan. Harris has sat on several boards, among them; Inside Out Literary Arts, African Renaissance Theatre, Pewabic Pottery, the Board of Visitors for the College of Fine and Performing Arts at Wayne State University and the Board of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.ers.co