Exploring the Work of Franklin Williams: Arm-Knitting with Upcycled T-Shirts

Not sure what to do with that faded t-shirt with a coffee stain on the front? Bring it toan arm-knitting workshop with non-expert and artist Jim Drain! Participants are encouraged to bring a t-shirt or two (or three) and learn how to turn that t-shirt into fabric yardage and your arms into knitting needles. No experience necessary. The end result won’t look super pretty but you’ll get the basics of knitting and there’s a high likelihood of fun! No crummy t-shirt? No problem. We will have many on hand to use as well. While at The Bell, learn how exhibiting artist Franklin Williams’ history with textiles has helped shape his use of color and pattern in his exhibitionIt’s About Love.Free and open to the public. Registration is required and space is limited. Presented by Brown Arts Institute and The Bell.About the Facilitator:Jim Drain(b. 1975, Cleveland, Ohio) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice merges sculpture, performance, and installation. He received his BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (1998). From 1996 to 2002, Drain was a member ofForcefield, a groundbreaking collective that blended music, performance, film, and immersive installations. Notably,Forcefieldwas included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Drain has held solo exhibitions at venues including the University of Florida, Locust Projects in Miami, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin. He has also participated in prominent group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; the Serpentine Gallery, London; the Depart Foundation, Rome; and the 7th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon. His works are part of several esteemed permanent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, MOCA Los Angeles, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, the RISD Museum in Providence, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2005, Drain was awarded the Baloise Prize, and in 2015, his public art projects with Bhakti Baxter were recognized by Americans for the Arts as among the “best public art projects in the nation.” He is currently represented by Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, and Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami.About the Exhibition:Franklin Williams: It’s About LoveBursting with color, texture, and organic form, the intensely personal work of Franklin Williams (b.1940 in Ogden, UT; lives and works in Petaluma, CA) sustains a tension between figuration and abstraction. In rigorous yet whimsical artworks, Williams tenderly evokes familial and romantic love, death, sorrow, lust, and humor. On view at The Bell and List Lobby. September 19 – December 8, 2024.Can’t attend this workshop? There is a second one on November 22. Learn more here (https://events.brown.edu/bai/event/299716-exploring-the-work-of-franklin-williams)!