Visual arts: Common culture captured in colorful threads of 'Kuumba Connection' quilts
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning, a group of African American women banded together with purpose: support one another as quilt artists and capture and promote the culture of their community.
Two years later, the group, founded by Monica Scott and Renee Wormack-Keels, are showing the fruits of their quilting labors in a proudly colorful exhibit curated by Bettye Stull and on view at the Ohio Craft Museum.
“Kuumba Connections: Quilts by Contemporary African American Artists” is a beautiful and thought-provoking collection of 39 pieces by nine artists from Ohio and several other states.
The word “kuumba” refers to the sixth principle of Kwanzaa: creativity or leaving one’s community more beautiful and beneficial than one found it. The artists in this exhibit are bold in their use of multiple colors, materials and technique, not to mention themes that often have to do with protest and social justice.
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Included in her five works in the exhibit are three depictions of African royalty presented as large playing cards by Gahanna artist Wendy Kendrick. These regal portraits are “Jelani, King of Diamonds,” “Jaffe, Jack of Diamonds” and the dashing “Amani, Queen of Diamonds.”
With eight pieces in the show, Cynthia Caitlin of Beaver Creek demonstrates great versatility in her subject matter, style and format. “Off Kilter” is a large quilt made of African fabric squares, each at a bit of a tilt. Not confined to creating traditional flat quilts, Caitlin has created gorgeous quilt vases including “Majestic Swirls Vase.”
A number of the artists incorporate buttons, shells, beads, leather and other materials into their work. Stefanie Rivers of Columbus has a field day with the extras adorning the woman’s large head in her quilt “Queen of Everything.”
Carole Gary Staples, of West Chester, presents portraits of three strong women in “You Are My Sister.” Her subjects have patterned fabric faces and are wearing real earrings. In her “Corona Virus with Police Brutality on the Fringe,” buttons with the heads of murdered Blacks are found below the portrait of a woman wearing a Black Lives Matter button.
Judy Harris Middleton of Starkville, Mississippi, used material from the handmade cotton dresses of her grandmother to dress the little girls in her “Three Generations” quilt.
Group co-founder Renee Wormack-Keels of Reynoldsburg honors significant Black women of Ohio in her “The Ohio Star Quilt” and female blues singers in “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues,” including the sassy words from the Ida Cox song that gives the quilt its title. (Look up the lyrics; they’re worth it.)
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Some of the artists have been quilting for a long time and others are relatively new to the art. In the notes beside her lovely turquoise and yellow “Roots & Wings” quilt, group co-founder Monica Scott of Columbus writes “I consider myself a personal work in progress.”
Regardless of the artists’ experience, each has crafted quilts that are powerfully communicative. As curator Stull writes, “The Kuumba quilters follow the tradition of African American women. They are the storytellers of our culture, and the creative connectors preserving our history and stitching together their stories for the viewer to enjoy.”
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At a glance
“Kuumba Connections: Quilts by Contemporary African American Artists” continues through April 2 at the Ohio Craft Museum, 1665 W. Fifth Ave. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is free. Visitors are required to wear masks. Call 614-486-4402 or visit www.ohiocraft.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: African American quilts on display at Ohio Craft Museum
