On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival

The Art Institute of Chicago presents 'On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival,' an exhibition running from September 6, 2025, to March 15, 2026. Featuring over 100 objects from antiquity to the present, the show draws primarily from the museum's own collection and is organized into four thematic sections: Death and Mourning, Transition of Realms, Care and Repair, and Resistance and Survival. Works include funeral hangings, burial cloths, mourning samplers, Indonesian ship cloths, a Taoist priest's robe, and contemporary pieces by artists such as Nick Cave, Carina Yepez, the Noqanchis collective, and Diné weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas. The exhibition is curated by four artist-educators from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Fiber and Material Studies department: Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, and Anne Wilson, with senior museum advisor Melinda Watt.