KENDRA JAYNE PATRICK
@ NADA MIAMI BEACH (in New York)
DECEMBER 1–5, 2020
PRESENTING A SOLO SUITE OF NEW TUFTINGS BY
QUALEASHA WOOD
SEE IN-PERSON IN
NEW YORK CITY:
DELI GALLERY
291 Ten Eyck Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206
December 1-5, 12-5pm

Kendra Jayne Patrick is pleased to debut Qualeasha Wood’s newest works for NADA Miami Beach (in New York) 2020, high-contrast tufted wool and acrylic pieces that continue the artist’s thoughts about the relationship between the avatar and the self. Here, Wood composes her ideas on the subject by means more manual and personal than the ones she uses to make her seminal tapestry works.
While the tapestries are weaved by a powerful machine and depict social media-esque self portraits of the artist that are hundreds of Photoshop layers deep, Wood applies each individual thread to the tufted works by hand. The result of such a physical, analog process (underlined by the fact that the larger works are taller than Wood herself, who is quite petite) is a depiction of a less literal self and a more literal interpretation of blackness-as-experience. Evocative of MS Paint doodles, Betye Saar’s, “Black Girl’s Window,” DIY Pinterest, and Ebecho Muslimova’s “Fatebe” drawings, these works feel like the young artist’s most personal field notes on an endlessly disquieting year.
While the tapestries are weaved by a powerful machine and depict social media-esque self portraits of the artist that are hundreds of Photoshop layers deep, Wood applies each individual thread to the tufted works by hand. The result of such a physical, analog process (underlined by the fact that the larger works are taller than Wood herself, who is quite petite) is a depiction of a less literal self and a more literal interpretation of blackness-as-experience. Evocative of MS Paint doodles, Betye Saar’s, “Black Girl’s Window,” DIY Pinterest, and Ebecho Muslimova’s “Fatebe” drawings, these works feel like the young artist’s most personal field notes on an endlessly disquieting year.

ABOUT QUALEASHA WOOD
Qualeasha Wood (b. 1996, Long Branch, NJ) holds a BFA in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work spans sculptural, textile, and digital media and suggests realities around living in the black female body that do and might exist. She has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions at Kendra Jayne Patrick for Metro Pictures, NYC; Cooper Cole, Toronto, ON; New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA; Gluon Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; and the Rhode Island School of Design's Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD Exposé Gallery, and Benson Hall Gallery, Providence, RI. Wood lives and works in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Tufted wool and acrylic
30 x 30 inches || 76 x 76 centimeters


Tufted wool and acrylic
30 x 30 inches || 76 x 76 centimeters

Installation view

Tufted wool and acrylic
76 x 61 inches || 193 x 155 centimeters


Tufted wool and acrylic
58 x 48 inches || 147 x 122 centimeters


Tufted wool and acrylic
58 x 48 inches || 147 x 122 centimeters


Tufted wool and acrylic
24 x 24 inches || 61 x 61 centimeters


Installation view