Xenobia Bailey (born 1955) is an American fine artist, designer,

Supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

ist, cultural activist and

fiber art Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a #Natural fibers, natural or Fiber#Artificial fibers, artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The st ...

ist best known for her eclectic

crochet Crochet (; ) is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread (yarn), thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term ''crochet'', which means 'hook'. Hooks can be made ...

African-inspired hats and her large-scale crochet pieces and

mandalas A mandala (, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid ...

Early life and education

Born Sherilyn Bailey in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 1955, in the 1980s she changed her name to Xenobia for the warrior queen of ancient

Palmyra Palmyra ( ; Palmyrene dialect, Palmyrene: (), romanized: ''Tadmor''; ) is an ancient city in central Syria. It is located in the eastern part of the Levant, and archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first menti ...

and made her way to New York City. She began her professional life as a costume designer for the now defunct Black Arts/West and earned a BFA in

Industrial Design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in 1977.

Affirmative action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...

took her to the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

where, she says, "the whole world opened up to me". She discovered

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

, the study of music and culture from around the world. She followed it with courses in tailoring and

millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners made and sold a range of accessories for clothing and hairstyles. ...

Seattle Central Community College Seattle Central College is a public college in Seattle, Washington, United States. With North Seattle College and South Seattle College, it is one of the three colleges that comprise the Seattle Colleges District. The college has a substant ...

. In the late 1970s, she worked for the CETA program as an art instructor, which led her to meeting master needleworker Bernadette Sonona. It is here that Xenobia advanced her skills and learned how to create needleworks without the use of a pattern or template.

Work

Bailey focuses on ancient African styles, reviving undocumented, non-commercial, engineered designs, artifacts and other cultural treasures from contemporary rural and urban homemakers. Influences on her work include economic culture and a wish to design experimental nature-based-futuristic, sustainable material culture in the aesthetic of funk for a skilled craft & masons labor force. She is concerned with social and economic development and the health and well-being for under-served rural communities that were socially erased during the

Atlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

. Her large-scale crochet pieces and

consist of colorful

concentric circles In geometry, two or more objects are said to be ''concentric'' when they share the same center. Any pair of (possibly unalike) objects with well-defined centers can be concentric, including circles, spheres, regular polygons, regular polyhe ...

and repeating patterns. Bailey's art work ranges from costumes, hats, wall pieces and newer digital images are "the far cry from the traditional shawls and doilies associated with the medium". Her pieces are often connected to her ongoing project '' Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk''. Bailey's work strives to create a textile culture and aesthetic that African Americans were unable to develop because of slavery and reconstruction. "To be an artist and be able to create things – it's like fireworks every time you think about something," says Bailey. "I try to get energy and movement from something that is not moving at all." Bailey's technique, of mostly circular rows of single crochet, forms a fabric classified as ''

tapestry crochet Tapestry crochet is sometimes called jacquard crochet, intarsia, mosaic, fair isle, and colorwork, but today these terms usually describe different techniques. Since the yarns are switched back and forth to create motifs, tapestry crochet fa ...

'' in flat, geometric, highly colored designs influenced by African,

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

, and Native American and

Eastern philosophies Eastern philosophy (also called Asian philosophy or Oriental philosophy) includes the various philosophies that originated in East and South Asia, including Chinese philosophy, Japanese philosophy, Korean philosophy, and Vietnamese philoso ...

, with undertones of 1970s "

Funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

" aesthetic. Her work draws upon the

Kongo Cosmogram The Kongo cosmogram (also called ''yowa or dikenga cross'', Kikongo: ''dikenga dia Kongo'' or ''tendwa kia nza-n' Kongo)'' is a core symbol in Bakongo religion that depicts the physical world (''Ku Nseke''), the spiritual world (''Ku Mpémba'') ...

, or Yowa, a symbol important to Kongo metaphysics and spiritual ceremonies. Her signature stitch is a flowy line, as if it is dripping. She calls it the "liquid stitch". Her hats have been featured in

United Colors of Benetton Benetton Group S.r.l. () is a global fashion brand based in Ponzano Veneto, Italy, founded in 1965. Benetton Group has a network of about 5,000 stores worldwide. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Benetton family's holding company Ediz ...

ads, on ''

The Cosby Show ''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom created by (along with Ed. Weinberger and Michael J. Leeson) and starring Bill Cosby that originally aired on NBC from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, with a total of 201 half-hour e ...

'', and in the

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

film ''

Do The Right Thing ''Do the Right Thing'' is a 1989 American comedy-drama film produced, written and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro and Samuel L. Jackson an ...

'' (worn by Samuel L. Jackson as DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy). She credits her shift from hats to walls to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

artist

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...

. Bailey's piece "Sistah Paradise Great Wall of Fire Revival Tent (Mandela Cosmic tapestry of energy flow)" was exhibited at Stux Gallery in Fall 2000. The piece was hand-crocheted with cotton acrylic yarns, with 10' high x 5' diameter. In 2000, Bailey received the

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...

Award in the discipline of

Visual Arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. In 2003, her designs were featured in an

Absolut Vodka Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, in southern Sweden. Absolut is a part of the French group Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard bought Absolut for €5.63 billion in 2008 (equivalent to € in ) from the Swedish state. Absolut ...

advertisement entitled "Absolut Bailey." Bailey has been

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

at the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an African-American art museum at 144 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African A ...

, the

Society for Contemporary Craft Contemporary Craft (CC), which was previously known as the Society for Contemporary Craft, presents contemporary art in craft media such as ceramics, metals, fiber, glass, wood, and mixed media by international, national, and regional artists. I ...

in Pittsburgh, and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in New York City. In an experimental collaboration sponsored by the

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, commonly called "Haystack," is a craft school located at 89 Haystack School Drive on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine. History Haystack was founded in 1950 by a group of craft artists in the Belfast, Maine are ...

and the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

, Bailey crocheted with

electroluminescent wire Electroluminescent wire (often abbreviated as EL wire) is a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor that produces light through electroluminescence when an alternating current is applied to it. It can be used in a wide variety of applications—v ...

. Her work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Jersey City Museum, the

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-name ...

, and the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. As an addition to her ongoing project ''Paradise Under Reconstruction'', she created a hanging installation in 2006 called ''Mothership 1: Sistah Paradise's Great Walls of Fire Revival Tent''. This piece was created to cover the topic of absent historical documentation for African enslavement in America. In September 2014, Bailey partnered with students from Boys & Girls High School in

to design and produce furniture to furnish a home for the Historic Hunterfly Road Houses. Sixty students, aged 14–17, designed three pieces for an imaginary couple moving into 21st-century Brooklyn using recycled materials. In 2016, Xenobia Bailey created a large-scale glass mosaic at the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

for the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

's 34th Street – Hudson Yards station. She named the piece ''Funktional Vibrations''. Bailey crocheted the design for the mosaic; the Miotto Mosaic Art Studio then digitized it and translated it into the final mosaic. That same year, she also participated in the SITE Santa Fe Biennial. Bailey was a 2018 artist-in-residence at the

McColl Center for Art + Innovation McColl may refer to: * McColl, South Carolina * McColl Center for Art + Innovation, an artist residency and contemporary art space in Charlotte, North Carolina. * McColl (surname) * McColl (superfund site), a US Environmental Protection Agency ...

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. In 2020, Bailey unveiled a new public art mosaic entitled "Morning Stars" at

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

's new Pier District. In 2020, Bailey designed the public art work, permanently installed in the Grand Reading Room, in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC. The library was originally designed by German American Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1972. During the summer of 2021, Bailey realized in The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place. ''Mothership'' was on view June 28 under her canopy entitled ''Functional Frequency Environment''. In 2024, Xenobia Bailey presented her exhibition ''Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: The Second Coming'' at Venus Over Manhattan. This marked her first solo gallery show in New York City in over two decades, featuring approximately twenty recent and historical crochet works in an immersive installation.

Collections

Her work is in the permanent collections at Harlem's

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) be ...

, the

Allentown Art Museum The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1934 by a group organized by Walter Emerson Baum, a Pennsylvania impressionist painter. The museum maintains a collection of ov ...

, the Museum of Contemporary Arts, the

Texas Fashion Collection The Texas Fashion Collection is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and documentation of historically significant fashion. It is operated by the University of North Texas through the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) a ...

, and in the

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...

Selected exhibitions

Solo

* 2002: Xenobia Bailey: Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk—Phase IV (January 18 - February 17) * 2008: Jersey City Museum, '' Eossessed'' (June 16 - August 24, 2008) * 2015: 34th St–Hudson Yards Station, ''Funktional Vibrations'', Glass Mosaic, The

(Permanent Installation 2015) * 2020: ''Morning Stars'', St. Pete Pier, St. Petersburg, Florida (permanent installation). * 2020: Permanent installation, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, DC

Group

* 2015: Xenobia Bailey (1955, Seattle) is one of the artists in the exhibition ''Fiber: Sculpture 1960–Present'' in ICA Boston, from October 1 till January 4, 2015. The exhibition also has a catalog in print form. * 2017: ''Studio Views: Craft in the Expanded Field,'' Museum of Arts and Design, New York City (October 24 – December 17, 2017) *2019: Vibration & Frequency Experiment Funktional Material Culture Design Lab, Seattle at Wa Na Wari

Honors and awards

In 2000, Xenobia Bailey won a

grant for her project ''Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk''. In 2017, Bailey won the Americans for the Arts Public Art Year in Review Award for her artwork ''Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: A Quantum Leap, Starting From The Top…!!!'' In 2019, Bailey was one of the inaugural recipients of the BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize.

References

External links

* https://xenobiabailey.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Xenobia 1955 births 20th-century African-American artists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century American women artists 21st-century African-American women artists 21st-century American women artists African-American contemporary artists African-American women artists American contemporary artists American costume designers American dollmakers American fashion designers American installation artists American milliners American mosaic artists American women costume designers American women installation artists Artists from Seattle Crochet Living people Pratt Institute alumni Textile artists from Washington (state) University of Washington alumni Women mosaic artists