Beginning June 8, 2023, Fort Gansevoort will present Play The Hand That’s Dealt You, the first New York solo exhibition of Alabama-based artist Yvonne Wells. Born in 1939 in Tuscaloosa, Wells is known for her intricate narrative quilts depicting American history subjects, pop culture figures, and religious subject matter. As a self- taught artist living and working in the same region as the enslaved female quilters from the rural Alabama community known as Gee’s Bend, Wells is aware of heritage techniques, yet cleaves to her own contemporary visual vernacular. Through a practice that illuminates quilt making as a form of fine art and not simply craft, she has developed a style that uniquely melds geometric abstraction with bold figuration. The evolution of Wells’ personal aesthetic and technical mastery will be seen through over a dozen large works on view, spanning three decades of the artist’s career.
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