Throughout her 25-year career, the textile and social-practice artist Sonya Clark has addressed race and visibility, using Blackness as a way to reappraise history. She is renowned for her sculptures, created from human hair, black pocket combs, flags, currency, and beads. She weaves the materials together, stitching and folding, twisting and tying, creating an elegant wreath out of hair and wire (a play on the Victorian memento mori made of hair), or adorning Abraham Lincoln with cornrows of black thread, or stringing a violin bow with a dreadlock. This exhibition of 100 works celebrates Clark’s unique language, while tackling themes of heritage, labor, language, and belonging. –E.C.

Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle and Mend
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National Museum of Women in the Arts / Washington, D.C. / Art
National Museum of Women in the Arts / Washington, D.C. / Art
Sonya Clark, “Black Hair Flag (detail),” 2010 © Sonya Clark. Photo: Taylor Dabney.
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