Lost & Found (on top of everything else)
MFA Thesis Exhibit, Temple Contemporary Gallery (March 18th-21st, 2026)

“Lost & Found” is a series of love letters devoted to the intimacy of cloth and the narratives held within. Each collage-quilt-initial is assembled from discarded materials that were transformed via dyeing, scrunching, squishing, and stitching. These materials were scavenged from all corners of my life: my closet, my boyfriend’s closet, the streets of Philadelphia during a heat wave and trash union strike, the floor of the dye kitchen, etc… Stains, tears, and signs of wear are left intact while other sections are worked with needle and thread or plunged into a dyepot. This alchemy is an attempt to honor the material legacy and forge new agency. Much like cloth, text and language are integral parts of the human experience. Quite literally, I have been thinking about textiles as text (both share the Latin root texere, meaning to weave). Words and clothes are so commonplace that their combined abstraction has the power to invoke a deep personal resonance—everybody gleefully brings their own perspective to the work. In a lot of ways I think they become mirrors, portals, and doorways for self reflection & introspection. They are as much about me as they are you.

Show documentation by John Carlano. Additional documentation below by artist.