Guest curated by Venancio Aragón
Reception: Thursday, May 29, 4:30 - 6:30 PM
The Center of Southwest Studies cares for an extensive collection of textiles, including the nationally renowned Durango Collection©, which represents close to 1,000 years of weaving traditions in the Southwest. Western ethnographers, anthropologists, and art historians have constructed most of the academic framework for documenting and understanding Diné textiles, which are typically characterized by their designs, colors, and specific geometric elements that adhere to a regional typology classification system shaped by a settler gaze. Until recently, the contributions of weavers and their creations have often been less emphasized in textile scholarship, as traditional academic approaches have not always recognized Diné weavers themselves as significant sources of information.
From the Fringes: Diné Textiles that Disrupt features a selection from the Center’s collections, as well as contemporary Diné weavings from Venancio Aragón, his mother Irveta Aragón, and Aragón’s students from Diné College’s Navajo Cultural Arts Program. The exhibition highlights a range of technical and aesthetic oddities that disrupt and complicate regional typology. By showcasing historical alongside contemporary pieces, From the Fringes seeks to celebrate those techniques within the Diné textile repertoire that have been understudied and emphasize artistic innovation, experimentation, and the cultural, personal, and intergenerational significance of weaving within Diné communities—past, present, and future.
From the Fringes features loaned textiles from the collections of Dr. and Mrs. Ari and Lea Plosker, Claire and Aron Weinkauf, and Annie Vought.
About the Guest Curator: Venancio Aragón
Venancio Aragón, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is an experimental textile weaver whose work combines ancient techniques with vibrant polychromatic designs, that has come to be known as an “Expanded Rainbow Aesthetic.” Aragón learned to weave from his mother, Irveta, at the age of ten and has developed a creative practice focused on reviving rare and lesser-known techniques including twills, two-faced, shaped weavings, tufting, and hybrids.
Fusing his cultural background with the knowledge he gained as he earned degrees in Cultural Anthropology (University of New Mexico) and Native American & Indigenous Studies (Fort Lewis College), Aragón views Navajo weaving as a way to preserve Diné culture and identity by promoting the continuation and practice of his ancestor's legacy. Aragón’s textiles have been featured in major publications and exhibited widely, including at the Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ), Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, FL), Tempe Center for the Arts (Tempe, AZ), and The Ah Haa School for the Art’s Daniel Tucker Gallery (Telluride, CO). Aragon is a past Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellow with the School of Advanced Research (Santa Fe, NM), and has received numerous accolades for his textiles, including Best of Class-First Place and Judge’s Choice awards from the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market and the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts’ Santa Fe Indian Market. In addition to his weaving practice in his home studio in Farmington, NM, Aragón is adjunct faculty of Navajo Cultural Arts at Diné College and currently pursuing a master's in education from Fort Lewis College.
For more information visit Venancio’s work, check out his website and Instagram.