Michelle Grabner: Weaving Life into Art

Michelle Grabner: Weaving Life into Art is the artist’s first solo exhibition at an encyclopedic museum. Grabner is perhaps best known for her intricate, labor-intensive abstract paintings, made with silverpoint and black gesso and others inspired by fabrics found in the domestic sphere. Working also in photography, drawing, video, sculpture, and installation, Grabner has consciously made her art reflect her life, as she draws from her everyday experiences as artist, professor, curator, critic, as well as mother and wife.

Over twenty years ago, Grabner began making her extensive series of “paper weavings.” These works have come to represent the rich interwoven nature of her overarching artistic practice, one that endeavors to work both in and outside of traditional networks and systems. She actively threads together the various roles she has undertaken in the art world, from co-curating the Whitney Biennial last year to managing a leading contemporary art space called The Suburban with her husband, artist Brad Killam, on the grounds of their home in Oak Park, Illinois.