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= Liz Collins (artist) = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search Liz Collins (born 1968) is an American contemporary artist and designer. Collins is recognized for her artwork involving fabric, knitwear, and textiles as well as the fashion label she developed. She has expertise in textile media including the transition of fabric into multi-dimensional forms as a method to vary the scale of her pieces to make them architectural and inviting rather than object-based. Collins is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Contents

 * 1Early life and education
 * 2Career
 * 3"Knit-Grafting"
 * 3.1Knitting Nation
 * 3.2Other work
 * 4Exhibitions
 * 4.1Solo exhibitions
 * 5Collections
 * 6Awards
 * 7References
 * 8External links

Early life and education[edit]
Liz Collins took her first fashion illustration class at age 10 to follow her childhood aspirations of becoming a fashion designer. From there she began experimenting with all different kinds of mediums before eventually returning to knitting. Liz Collins first graduated with a BFA degree '''in textiles (1991) from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and shortly after opened a local boutique with a friend in Providence, Rhode Island to sell her wearable hand knit pieces. In order to fine-tune and build on her skills in knitting, she eventually returned to RISD to earn her MFA degree again in textiles (1999)'''. Collins launched her personal knitwear clothing line in 1999 as her MFA thesis at RISD and ran her business until 2004.

She was a professor of textiles at RISD from 2003 to 2013.

Career[edit]
After receiving her M.F.A., Collins spent the next several years developing her own knitwear company until 2004 with her new skills in machine knitting. Recognized for its innovative design, Collins developed a patent for her specialized technique of interweaving and assembling different materials to construct her garments. The label gained popularity, celebrity recognition, and media coverage. Collins became a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1999 from her personal brand. In the middle stages of her fashion design career, she could no longer afford to finance her label's labor wages and meet society's demand of product. Collins soon began to outsource her products which is when she felt disconnected with her creative process and missed the hands-on aspect of designing garments.

Once the fashion label closed, Collins then returned to RISD to teach textiles as an associate professor, until 2013.[self-published source?] She has also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Moore College of Art, Pratt Institute, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Parsons School of Design.[self-published source?] In 2017, Collins served as a mentor to Marco DaSilva in Queer Art's Fellowship program.[self-published source?]

"Knit-Grafting"[edit]
"Knit-Grafting" is a term created by Liz Collins used to describe her artistic process of reconstructing garments, and is most specifically used in her work as a fashion designer. This term stemmed from the fundamental of Grafting, which is the process of intertwining two or more fabrics together. '''"Knit-Grafting" involves the knitting of several rows of narrow strips that are then "fused" together with a non-knit fabric. It is organic in its flow and allows the artist to change direction and shape the fabric as they go.''' Collin's Knit-Grafting incorporates numerous panels of fabrics as well fusing various materials together. These materials may include Lace, Metals, and other mediums used to make her design stand out. '''It is this technique that has inspired so much of Collin's work featuring themes of the human body, anatomy, and especially veins. "Pride Dress" incorporated Knit-Grafting to form the silhouette of a 1950's ballgown and interact with the gallery space through the stretching and pulling of knit strings attached to the floor and walls. The piece plays also with themes of tension, bondage, wrapping, and relief.'''

Knitting Nation[edit]
As a response to the fashion industry she previously worked within, Collins launched Knitting Nation. KN was a multi-part installation and performance project that spanned the course of several years and was globally spread. It was a site-specific installation with collaborative performance that revealed some facets of the textile and apparel manufacturing processes by demonstrating costumed seamstresses manually working on knitting machines. The objective of this work was to bring awareness to topics such as sexuality and gender within fashion, labor, and the issue of sustainable practices through immersive, visual means. What Knitting Nation suggests is if "the clothes make the man", then it is often women who make the clothes. Crafting is filled with power hierarchies and gender nuances that are centered around the LGBTQ+ culture as fiber-based crafts like embroidery, knitting, and sewing examine the numerous preferences of society and raise reactions of those disapproving. More specifically, Knitting Nation Phase 4 was titled "Pride" to admire and acknowledge the original rainbow flag of the LGBTQ+ Community. This installation was a hand knit rainbow flag that was displayed at the front and center steps of a park in Providence, Rhode Island for six hours.

Other work[edit]
Installation view of Liz Collins' Cave of Secrets in the exhibit Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon at the New Museum, 2017

Other artwork by Liz Collins incorporates recycled textiles from previous art pieces, abstract designs, and structural components like poles and fences. These pieces typically entertain a diverse color palette, and explore themes such as human interconnectedness and cosmic energy. Her work exists on a plane of varying size such as intimate, fibrous wall hangings to life size installations that transport the audience to a temporary alternative universe. Collins emphasizes interactive multi-media art that embodies various textures, scents, and colors in the materials to help make the audience's experiences multi-sensory.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, some of Collins exhibitions have included Social Distancing Studio Visits (2021), Staring Into the Sun (2022), and Every Which Way (2022) for Meta’s Manhattan office complex in the historic James A. Farley Building.  

Solo exhibitions[edit]

 * 2005: Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
 * 2006: RISD, Providence, Rhode Island
 * 2008: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
 * 2011: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts
 * 2011: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts
 * 2012: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City
 * 2016: Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York City – featuring a time-based performance and installation

Collections[edit]
Collins has public collections in museums and gallery spaces across the country, which include the Museum of Arts & Design in New York, New York; the FIT Museum in New York, NY, the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York, the Leslie-Lohmann Museum of Art in New York, NY, and the School of Art Institute of Chicago and the Fashion Resource Center in Chicago, IL.

Awards[edit]

 * United States Artist Target Fellowship, 2006
 * MacColl Johnson Fellowship, 2011
 * CeCArtsLink Grant with intentions to produce a Knitting Nation installation in Croatia.

References[edit]

 * 1) ^ Jump up to:a b
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 * 4) ^ Jump up to:a b
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 * 6) ^ Gschwandtner, Sabrina. Knitknit : Profiles + Projects from Knitting's New Wave. New York :Stewart, Tabori & Chang.[page needed]
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 * 9) ^ Jump up to:a b Collins, Liz. Curriculum vitae. http://lmakgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/LCollins_CV18-1.pdf
 * 10) ^ Jump up to:a b c d "Bio." Liz Collins, https://lizcollins.com/Bio.
 * 11) ^ Jump up to:a b
 * 12) ^ Chaich, John, author. Queer Threads : Crafting Identity and Community. [Los Angeles, California] :Ammo, 2017.[page needed]
 * 13) ^ Jump up to:a b Edelkoort, Lidewij. "Indomitable." NYTM Magazine, pp. 87–91.
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 * 15) ^ Benjamin Sutton (24 August 2022), https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/08/24/meta-new-york-office-art-commissions [Meta puts analogue art front and centre in sprawling new Manhattan office] The Art Newspaper.
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External links[edit]

 * Official Website
 * https://madmuseum.org/learn/liz-collins
 * https://academicaffairs.risd.edu/tag/liz-collins/