Integral to textile artist Christy Matson’s work is her process: beginning with quick sketches or watercolor paintings, she uploads her designs to a photo-imaging application that is then programmed into her Jacquard loom. The loom is computer-programmed yet manually-operated, giving her control over the warp and weft as if she were painting with fibers. Her work often draws on the history of Modernism as well as on textiles from all over the world. Because of both her rigorous process and her inventive manipulation of materials, her work has received critical acclaim and belongs to the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. Among the exhibitions in progress opening this fall, Matson will have a solo exhibition of her work at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Fresh from her recent exhibition Christy Matson: Crossings at the Cranbrook Art Museum, which closed March 15, 2020, Matson walked us through her Los Angeles studio and answered a few questions about her practice. Read the full interview here.