Opening Reception: Knit Narrative

Knit Narrative
An exhibition of work by Reese Ford, Stella Moore, and Hana Ichikawa, selected from Riverside’s 2025 Call for Exhibitions
About the show
Knit Narrative explores the act of painting as both a tactile and conceptual form of weaving. Rooted in the visual language of rectangles and frames, the show investigates how segmented, rectilinear forms can hold figuration, texture, memory, and presence. Through this gathering of works, we aim to interrogate the limits and potentials of the painted surface—how it functions as fabric, frame, skin, and site.
Each painting in the exhibition acts as a woven node in a larger textile—a shared space where individual visions coalesce into a collective body. The exhibition itself becomes a kind of collage: a layered arrangement of scale, gesture, and perspective. The physical act of assembling our works mirrors the threading together of disparate parts, forming a visual and conceptual fabric that is both deliberate and intuitive.
Central to our inquiry is the utility and symbolism of the human body. We ask: What is a body for? How does it store memory, ritual, and narrative? Our works consider the body not only as subject, but as vessel, monument, and landscape. Some bodies are unrecognizable—made abstract through scale, fragmentation, or absence—while others confront the viewer directly, questioning the politics of visibility and gaze. When does a face become too large or too small to read as human? What does it mean to take up space, to be seen, or to resist being seen?
The exhibition space is activated as more than a container; it is a participant in the dialogue. The positioning of works invites new relationships between canvas, wall, viewer, and body. Paintings turn toward and away from one another, suggesting shifting lines of sight and modes of address. Our approach disrupts passive viewing, prompting reflection on what it means to look and be looked at.
In both the making and presentation of our work, time and labor are embedded. Textile practices—knitting, weaving, stitching—intersect with painting to emphasize slowness, repetition, and care. These material processes challenge hierarchical distinctions between “fine art” and craft, and in doing so, they confront gendered histories of artistic labor.
As emerging artists, we reject the notion that painting is a dead or exhausted medium. Instead, we position it as a living, breathing practice—one capable of absorbing, reconfiguring, and holding complexity. Weaving Bodies, Holding Space is a statement of presence and a call to see figure painting anew: not as static representation, but as an evolving, dynamic engagement with bodies, identities, and the spaces they inhabit.
This exhibition is a celebration of what it means to be together—each of us individual, yet held within a collective frame.
gallery
hours
Exhibition Dates:
April 26, 2026 – June 7, 2026.
Opening Reception:
May 8th, 5-7pm.
Location:
The North Gallery at Riverside Arts Center
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Open Hours:
Saturdays | 11am – 2pm
Return here for additional open hours when they become available.
All gallery events are FREE but we encourage a $5 donation to support Riverside and the expansion of our programs.


