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.
This exhibition matters because it positions textiles not merely as decorative or functional objects but as vital agents of remembrance, resilience, and cultural continuity. By foregrounding how diverse cultures use fiber arts to process grief, sustain spiritual beliefs, and resist erasure, the show challenges hierarchies that often marginalize textile work within art history. The collaborative curatorial model—led by practicing artists who honor ancestral and material knowledge—also reflects a growing institutional shift toward more inclusive, community-engaged exhibition-making. A lavishly illustrated catalogue accompanies the show, extending its scholarly and emotional impact beyond the gallery walls.