Past Resident
2023: The Kettering Family Foundation

Artist

Levon Kafafian

Levon Kafafian is a Detroit-based Armenian-American artist working primarily with textile. Through weaving Kafafian assembles narrative threads of costume, artifact, ritual and installation into stories about possible worlds and potential futures. Their woven fabrics become portals to these other worlds, generating writing that influences future work. They infuse their stories and cloth with future ancestral practice, hybridity and magic, often collaborating toward collective visions.

Levon Kafafian has exhibited work at Stamps Gallery, University of Michigan; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; and Arab American National Museum, all in Michigan, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

2023 Spring Open Studios

April 21–April 22, 2023

A hooded, cloaked figure stands ready for action in front of a burgundy backdrop, holding a forked wooden staff toward the viewer. The figure wears a handwoven cloak with a diamond weave pattern in a reddish-pruple and black textured patterning, with a bejeweled black clasp and a horizontal striped silk tunic in multiple hues of green and black, striped handwoven pants and waistband in black and green, with assorted woven patches at the waist. They also wear an iridescent leather fanny pack adorned with evil eye pendants and a bead-encrusted face veil with purple and green beaded fringe.

Levon Kafafian, The Summoner, 2021, fiber and media, dimensions variable.

A cloaked figure is depicted torso-up with face obscured by a large draped hood and a face veil encrusted with beads, edged with evil eyes and beaded fringe in green and purple. The figure wears a handwoven cloak with a diamond weave pattern in a reddish-pruple and black textured patterning, with a bejeweled black clasp and a horizontal striped silk tunic in multiple hues of green and black.

Levon Kafafian, The Summoner, 2021, fiber and media, dimensions variable.

Two figures pose in front of an ethereally lit black and silver backdrop. Both figures wear variations of the same costume, including beaded face veils, a leather strap-spider web necklace with chain and beads, corset tops with beaded trim, and studded details, wide draped sleeves, handwoven skirts in repeating geometric patterns and leather paneled aprons, studded in patterns echoing geometric rug motifs. They are clad in all black and silver and both hold a thread taut between their hands.

Levon Kafafian, Vanagad, the Obsidian Spirit, 2021, fiber and media, dimensions variable.

A figure dressed in various green handwoven and found fabrics, reminiscent of Southwest Asian traditional clothing peers into a demitasse coffee cup to ascertain the future. She sits within a living room installation in emerald and rust tones behind a table set with small oranges, parsley, sesame candies, hand-knotted doilies and decorative brass vessels.

Levon Kafafian, Once There Was, Once There Wasn't, 2019, fiber and media, installation, dimensions variable.

A figure wears a handwoven scarf in radioactive lime green and a reddish purple, woven in a boundweave structure to create large geometric motifs. There is a detail inset image highlighting the pattern and shows the center section of the scarf is an extended repeat similar to a glitched image.

Levon Kafafian, Rite of Wild Magic, 2020, fiber, 72 × 12 in. (182.88 × 30.48 cm).

Residents from United States

Aryel René Jackson

United States

Vision Fund

Studio #305

Hanae Utamura

Japan, United States

Every Page Foundation

Studio #201

Akeema-Zane

United States, Trinidad and Tobago

Vision Fund

Studio #203

Donate

United States, Japan

Past Resident
2023: The Puffin Foundation, Dimitri Offengenden, Artist Relief

Artist

Kahori Kamiya

In her practice, Kahori Kamiya examines her Japanese identity and womanhood, reflecting on issues of racial discrimination and grief while delving into her own experience with topics like maternity, breastfeeding, and the pandemic. Kamiya employs organic shapes, semi-figurative drawings, and crystals in her painted sculptures to allude to traditional Japanese spirituality and its affinity to nature.

Kahori Kamiy has exhibited work at Solo Exhibition at Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn; Dumbo Arts Festival, Brooklyn; and the 14th WRO Media Art Biennale, Warsaw, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

2023 Spring Open Studios

April 21–April 22, 2023

Kahori Kamiya, Long Eclipse, 2023, oil paint, metal leaf, foam, resin, feather, fabric and linen, 120 × 72 in. (304.8 × 182.88 cm).

Kahori Kamiya, Blooming Flow, 2022, clay, acrylic, metal leaf, cinder block and amethyst, 23 × 43 × 22 in. (58.42 × 109.22 × 55.88 cm).

Kahori Kamiya, I Have Been Waiting For You, 2023, clay, plaster, acrylic, foam, raisin, fabric, metal leaf and amethyst, 48 × 80 × 52 in. (121.92 × 203.2 × 132.08 cm).

Kahori Kamiya, I Have Been Waiting For You, 2023, clay, plaster, acrylic, foam, raisin, fabric, metal leaf and amethyst, 48 × 80 × 52 in. (121.92 × 203.2 × 132.08 cm).

Installation view of Kahori Kamiya's solo show "Long Eclipse" at Amos Eno Gallery, 2023.

Residents from United States

Aryel René Jackson

United States

Vision Fund

Studio #305

Hanae Utamura

Japan, United States

Every Page Foundation

Studio #201

Akeema-Zane

United States, Trinidad and Tobago

Vision Fund

Studio #203

Donate

United States

Past Resident
2023: Joseph Robert Foundation, Sherrill Collection of American Art Foundation, South Arts

Artist

Ruth Owens

Ruth Owens situates the Black subject at the intersection of two relationships. She explores the human-human relationship, focusing on the racially determined relationships between members of the African diaspora and those of northern European origin, as well as the human-environment relationship, particularly the devastating effects of climate change on people with limited resources.

Ruth Owens has exhibited work at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; Ackland Art Museum, North Carolina; and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, among others.