Philadelphia, PA, July 6, 2023 — The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to announce two exhibition catalogs that capture the spirit of collaboration and material play through the residencies of artists Jayson Musson and Elisabeth Kley: His History of Art, a cataloging of Jayson Musson’s three-channel video series developed and exhibited in collaboration with FWM in 2022, and Minutes of Sand, a book celebrating Elisabeth Kley’s new body of work and recent exhibition of the same title at FWM and The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.
His History of Art, produced on the occasion of the FWM exhibition Jayson Musson: His History of Art (July 22 –December 31, 2022), documents the creative process through which costumes, props, puppets, and stage sets were produced to tell a sitcom-esque story of art history; in the video series, Musson—performing as “Jay”— endeavors to educate his skeptical puppet sidekick Ollie on the relevance of art. This hardcover publication includes video stills, behind-the-scenes photography, draft scripts and storyboards, and images of the final work as exhibited at FWM. Beginning with an introduction by former FWM Executive Director Christina Vassallo, His History of Art contains essays by art historian Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw and artist Michael Smith, along with an interview between Musson and curators DJ Hellerman and Alec Unkovic. The exhibition, after premiering at FWM, traveled to Kansas City Art Institute. His History of Art is now available in FWM’s gift shop and online store.
Editors: DJ Hellerman, Alec Unkovic
Designer: Ted Olson
150 pages / color
$30
ISBN 978-1-7360146-3-9
Minutes of Sand catalogs Elisabeth Kley’s experimental work created through her FWM residency and exhibited at FWM in her first-ever solo museum show (March 5–August 15, 2021). Kley’s exhibition, inspired by global art and architecture histories, featured a marrying of her ceramic and painting practices with new yardage designs produced in collaboration with the FWM Studio. Co-published by FWM and The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts—to which the exhibition subsequently traveled—this paperback publication includes works on paper, sculptures, and installation views from both venues. With a foreword by former FWM Executive Director Christina Vassallo and Bemis Center Executive Director Chris Cook, the book also includes an essay by artist Amelia Stein and an interview with curators Rachel Adams and Karen Patterson. Minutes of Sand is now available in FWM’s gift shop and online store.
Edited by Sarah Braman
Designed by Joe Gilmore
Photography by Joe DeNardo, Carlos Avendaño, and Colin Conces.
128 pages / color
$50
ISBN 978-1-7360146-4-6
About the Artists
Jayson Scott Musson was born in the Bronx, NY. He received a BFA in photography from University of the Arts and an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia, also attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME in 2011. Musson is represented by Salon 94 in New York and Fleisher/Ollman in Philadelphia. His solo exhibitions include We Sing in A Dead Language, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (2019); Demon All Day, Salon 94 Freemans, New York (2017); The Truth in the Song, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia (2016); The Grand Manner at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2011); and Too Black For BET, Dazed & Confused Magazine Gallery, London, England (2008). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Lisson Gallery, and Postmasters Gallery, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Galerie Perrotin, Paris; Grimmuseum, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; David Castillo Gallery, Miami; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, among others.
Elisabeth Kley was born in New York, NY. She received her BA from Empire State College and studied at Hunter College. Her ceramics, watercolors, drawings and prints have been featured in an exhibition history spanning over 25 years; recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Garden: Elisabeth Kley and Tabboo!, Gordon Robichaux, New York, NY (2019); Elisabeth Kley, Window on Broad, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2019); Flowers Out of Water, Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Ozymandias, CANADA, New York, NY (2016); translucent threads of dawn (with Conrad Ventur), Regina Rex, New York, NY (2015); and A Sign of Eternal Beauty (with Florence Derive), GAVLAK, Palm Beach, FL (2015). She is represented by CANADA; the gallery published a monograph on her work with Pre-Echo Press in 2019. Kley lives in Manhattan and works in Brooklyn.
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