Exhibition Opening: Michael C. Thorpe @ PRJM

The PaulR. Jones Museum is proud to present MichaelC. Thorpe: Nonsensical Formalism March 3 – April 28, 2023. 

• First Friday opening, March 3, 12 noon to 8:00 p.m.
• First Friday artist’s reception, April 7, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. (open 12-8 p.m.)

Brooklyn, New York-based textile artist Michael C. Thorpe creates art quiltsand fabric collages of bright, dream-like scenes and highly personal“meandering thoughts,” as one of his early solo shows was titled. For Thorpe,the quilt has become a canvas for dreaming up alternate pasts and exploringpotential futures. The young artist sold all eighteen pieces at his first soloexhibition in 2020.

Daniel White, director of the Paul R. Jones Museum, who organized theexhibition, said, “Working from a deeply personal narrative, Thorpe brings afresh voice to an age-old tradition and he is breaking new ground visually withthe medium. As the Gee’s Bend Quilters took their work to the Whitney Museum in2003 and elevated quilts beyond their craft identity, a new generation oftextile artist brings his work back to the Alabama Black Belt. Thorpe’s workbrings the Southern quilt tradition full circle as we celebrate how thattradition inspires contemporary artists working today.”

Michael C. Thorpe is represented by LaiSun Keane Gallery, Boston,Massachusetts. Nonsensical Formalism has been made possible by grantsfrom the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for theArts. More about the exhibition here.