The Looming: Work by August Krogan-Roley and Kurtis Skaife

The Looming is a new exhibition that brings together August Krogan-Roley and Kurtis Skaife, two artists whose work distorts  the sense of comfort and nostalgia one generally associates with craft and homemaking. Krogan-Roley and Skaife use the historical subtext and process of traditional textile techniques to construct work that contradicts expectations.

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Skaife’s crocheted series "Soft Power" confronts gender stereotypes directly, reimaging weaponry and fortification in the visual tradition of tea cozies and your grandmother’s lovingly hand-made afghan blanket.  The work embraces its duality, playing the imagery against the materials, leaving the viewer to grapple with something that is both a symbol of comfort and control. Similarly, Krogan-Roley uses the traditional concepts of tapestry to explore another element of control, the grind of habitual routine. He compiles found carpet and floor fragments into large-scale wall installations, allowing these scraps to reveal narratives about their place of origin and its inhabitants. Both of these artists weave symbolic meanings into their work manipulating their materials, exposing our  preconceptions.

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August Krogan-Roley recently received his BA from the Glasgow School of Art and has exhibited extensively throughout the United Kingdom, this will be his first exhibition in the United States. Kurtis Skaife received his BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is currently living in Iowa City. The Looming is both artists’ first two-person exhibition.