Iviva Olenick

States of Emergenc(y)e reimagines government-issued emergency blankets given to detained immigrants as performance-protest quilts and immigrant and refugee advocacy messages through textile arts, including embroidery, cross-stitch, quilting and natural dyeing. In addition to being exhibited, blankets will be worn in silent performances in parks bordering NYC boroughs in spring-fall 2020. Standing at borough borders, we ask viewers and participants to consider how it would look and feel if we couldn't cross borough (or country) boundaries?

To facilitate public participation in making and performing in blankets, artist Iviva Olenick will host free embroidery lessons, including one at the opening of Society for Domestic Museology's States of Emergenc(y)e exhibit. Sharing embroidery and cross-stitch motifs from around the world, Iviva will illustrate the common language of thread across cultures, while inviting participants to share their culturally-specific textile and embroidery knowledge. Resources available at embroidery sessions will include books documenting global embroidery practices. 

Iviva Olenick uses textile arts and storytelling to engage conversation around contemporary race, gender and socioeconomic inequities through handcrafted drawings, paintings, sculptures and wearable art, and by developing and leading interdisciplinary, public, hands-on art and educational programs, including propagating colonial textile crops from seed and leading walk-in embroidery, weaving and natural dye workshops at public sites. Iviva has exhibited her work and taught at the Center for Book Arts, NYC; Wyckoff House Museum, Brooklyn (Artist in Residence, 2017–18); BRIC Arts, Brooklyn (BRIC Media Arts Fellow, 2011); Old Stone House, Brooklyn; Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; Hunterdon Museum, Clinton, NJ; among others. Iviva teaches Fibers as a faculty member of SVA’s MFA Art Practice Program, and is an educator for the Studio Museum in Harlem and the New Museum, NYC. She has a BA in French Language and Literature/Psychology from Binghamton University and an AAS in Textile/Surface Design from Fashion Institute of Technology. Muriel Guepin Gallery, NYC has represented her embroidered artwork since 2008.

To keep in touch with Iviva about performances of States of Emergenc(y)e, you can find her on Instagram as @iviva_in_brooklyn, or email her at ivivaolenick@gmail.com. 

Exhibition

Opening & Workshop, February 22nd, 2020

Iviva Olenick’s solo exhibition, States of Emergenc(y)e, opened on Saturday, February 22nd, 2020 with a community embroidery workshop. The exhibition is up through March 21st and open by appointment.