At the New Art Dealers Alliance (Nada) New York fair, running until 17 May, multiple artists are presenting works that heavily incorporate textiles to explore themes of culture, belonging, and history. Artists such as Keith Lafuente (with SoMad), Polina Osipova (with JO-HS), and Griselda Rosas (with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles) use fabric and sewing techniques to examine histories of inequality, migration, and labor. Rosas embroiders over painted paper using imagery from Mexican codices, Osipova prints family photos onto traditional Chuvash fabric, and Lafuente repurposes scraps from Oscar de la Renta to comment on global labor inequalities. Other participants like Ruth Owens (with Voltz Clarke Gallery) use textiles in lightbox works to tell personal stories of migration and abduction.
This trend matters because it highlights how contemporary artists are turning to textiles—a medium historically associated with craft and women's domestic labor—to excavate overlooked histories and address pressing social issues. By foregrounding textiles at a major art fair, Nada New York signals a broader shift in the art world toward valuing material practices that have long been marginalized. The works also demonstrate how personal and collective histories can be woven together through fabric, offering a tactile, intimate counterpoint to more traditional fine art media.