Used textiles are potent materials with which to scrutinize the relationship between the labor conditions under which our clothes are made and the overconsumption of clothing. But they can also catalyze contemplate that things could be different. Through acts of sewing and dismantling, Rachel Breen will create a space for cultivating deep reflection of labor rights, solidarity and the power of the materials we wear in this solo exhibition.

As part of the Wakpa Triennial, the Weisman presents Towards a Common Future: Banners for Solidarity. Rachel Breen describes these organic, Kala-cotton (a drought-tolerant variety, indigenous to India) banners as representative of the hand in the making process, how textiles contain meaning, and the history of banners as a symbol of protest and resistance. Breen notes that these banners signify the importance of solidarity with workers around the world who grow and weave fiber, cut and sew fabric into garments, and then handle these materials so that we have clothes to wear. Made to be hung in galleries or carried at marches and protests, Breen's "Banners for Solidarity" were additionally inspired by Labor Day banners made in the early 1900s by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Breen's interest in labor rights stems from histories of Jewish activism in the garment industry and her own family history as immigrants and activists.

Through acts of sewing and dismantling, Rachel Breen creates projects and spaces for cultivating deeper understandings of labor rights and solidarity. Her work has been shown widely across the country, including a solo exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2020. Her solo exhibition, The Price of Our Clothes, at the Perlman Museum, was included in Hyperallergic’s 2018 Top 20 Exhibitions Across the US (December 20, 2018). Rachel was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to India in 2022 and was awarded an artist residency at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Rachel is an inaugural recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, has received four Minnesota State Arts Board grants and a fellowship from the Walker Art Center Open Field. Rachel’s social engagement projects have been presented across the state including two projects commissioned for Northern Spark, a public art festival addressing climate change in Minnesota. Rachel holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and a BA from the Evergreen State College. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, maintains an active studio practice and is a professor of art at Anoka Ramsey Community College.

Artist Rachel Breen participated in the inaugural Wakpa Triennial, presented by Public Arts Saint Paul.

The metaphors of mending have been endlessly mined and continue to influence the ideas of generations of makers and artists. Mining Mending featured the work of contemporary artists Rachel Breen, Brooks Harris Stevens, Lisa Kokin, Amy Meissner, Mark Newport, Celia Pym, Catherine Reinhart, Winnie van der Rijn, and The Collective Mending Sessions and highlights the themes of mending as the conceptual and technical basis for their artistic practices. Materials are mined for reuse and repurposed; materials are dismantled and objectified; holes are both accidental and intentional, some left, some repaired; cloth acts like skin, to be cut or torn; stitches act to heal; scars remain; power is questioned; things are (re)made to live another day, often to serve another purpose.

Im/perfect Slumbers is a multi-disciplinary series of art installations occurring in the M’s window galleries and skyway entrance. Diverse voices of local artists, writers, and cultural activists capture the historical and the contemporary state of sleeping and being in bed. Rachel will be creating a site specific installation made of used pajamas for this exhibition.

Presented in conjunction with the MCAD MFA Program, Soft Power spotlights fifteen faculty members from colleges and universities across Minnesota and adjacent states who work primarily with fibers or textiles. With an emphasis on experimentation with wide ranging materials and forms, the artworks selected for the exhibition highlight the complex relationship between objects, space, and
human perception.

Often, our most comforting rituals are saved for the darkest and bleakest months. When faced with the impending cold of winter, especially in another year where physical connection is not a given, we crave the warmth of compassion, tenderness and pleasure. Like sitting by a fireplace, art has the ability to radiate outward, causing pleasure and contentment. This exhibition features art that creates that sensation.

Exhibition Runs: November 14 – February 14, 2021

Join us on Zoom Dec 16, 2020 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) for Finding the Patterns: A Conversation Between Rachel Breen and Christina Schmid

Topic: What is Art's role in social engagement? What do sewing, drawing and fabric scraps from Bangladesh have to do with the global garment industry? Join a conversation between writer Christina Schmid and Rachel Breen about these and other questions!

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Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83119425931

Meeting ID: 831 1942 5931

“The Labor We Wear” highlights the relationship among the garment industry, garment laborers, and fashion consumers. In utilizing used clothing to create her installations, Rachel Breen holds us, the consumers of fashion, complicit in the troublesome cycle of garment production and consumption—from dangerous factory conditions to problems caused by textile waste. Breen makes these relationships visible in order to find ways to break the toxic chain.

Tickets

Opening Reception March 19
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
U.S. Bank Gallery
Free Exhibition

Saturday, January 25, 2020
Public Program  |  6:00 PM  |  In-Flux Room E110
Features: Melissa Cooke Benson, Jeff Fleming, JoAnn Gonzalez Hickey, Clarence Morgan
Reception | 8:00 – 10:00 PM  | Katherine E. Nash Gallery

Drawing is, in many ways, the most versatile of all artistic mediums. It can serve as the beginning of an idea, the beginning of a more ambitious project, or the beginning of a completed artwork unto itself. Because drawing is so elemental, so direct, such a primary means of expression, it is cherished by artists and audiences for its immediate and intimate access to the possibilities of creative expression. Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota presents The Beginning of Everything: An Exhibition of Drawings, January 21 – March 28, 2020. This group exhibition surveys a broad range of approaches to drawing, and includes works from a wide variety of geographies, time periods, and esthetic perspectives. 

HAND & I: Mending the World One Stitch at a Time brings together 22 international, national, and South Florida artists who use the delicate medium of embroidery to address society's most pressing issues. The artists address the difficult problems of climate, race, gender, immigration, and the US prison system through the "Hand," which patiently makes stitch after stitch, and the "I" which calls for resistance against complex, inhumane social policies.