Group Exhibition: Return Weight

Exhibition Abstract

Artists: Ann Clarke, Melissa Conroy, Josi Valle Ellis, Gracelee Lawrence, Isabel Padilla Bonelli, Leeza Meksin, Kieran Meksin-Smith, Havily Nwakuche, Anna Oxygen, Rania Shah, Lilian Shtereva, Carla Rangel Garcia, Jackie Riccio, Inez Rodriguez de Villiers, Yun Hsiang Wang, and Keiaria Williams.

Curator: Marissa Cote

Return Weight is a group exhibition of craft and material-based artists, including Ann Clarke, Melissa Conroy, Josi Valle Ellis, Gracelee Lawrence, Isabel Padilla Bonelli, Leeza Meksin, Kieran Meksin-Smith, Havily Nwakuche, Rania Shah, Lilian Shtereva, Carla Rangel Garcia, Jackie Riccio, Yun Hsiang Wang, and Keiaria Williams. Through knitting, felting, embellishing, relationship building, performing, 3D printing, and many more mediums, each artist utilizes and reinvents notions of materiality, pushing the boundaries of contemporary craft.

The title Return Weight derives from the original mechanism of the Jacquard loom, where small, lead weights would be used to open the foundational threads of a weaving when lifted, and close the threads when returned to their resting position. Each "return" of the weight signified forward motion, as the next line of the weaving could then begin. This movement of material illustrates the temporal gesture at the heart of this show. Return Weight charts "returns" — to ancestral roots, to traditional techniques, to the role of a parent, to the repatriation of land, and more. These returns are facilitated across a grid of temporality, exploring where we have been, where we are, and where we might head next as the weights return, and the work continues.

There will be a curator's walk-through on Wednesday, September 3, from 3:15–4:15 p.m.

Curator Biography

Marissa Cote is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ithaca, NY. She is a Creative Visual Arts M.F.A. candidate for 2026 at Cornell University. Cote earned a B.F.A. in Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2018. She was recently a Fellow at Clark University's Low Residency M.F.A. program. In 2023, Cote mounted her first solo exhibition, I promise to stay in touch at the Distillery Gallery in Boston. Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including at Tilton Gallery (New York, NY), Machines with Magnets (Pawtucket, RI), Fort Point Community Arts Gallery (Boston, MA), and New Alliance Gallery (Somerville, MA).