November 17 - December 17, 2023
From Prizer Arts & Letters:
“Ten years ago, artist Kathie Sever launched Fort Lonesome at Prizer with an exhibition featuring her custom chainstitch embroidery work. Her distinctive and amazingly intricate pieces sold out immediately. Now, Fort Lonesome is returning to Prizer for a forward-looking 10th Anniversary show. With Kathie at the helm, Fort Lonesome has grown to include Christina Hurt Smith, Bekah DuBose, Lauren Chester, Amrit Khalsa, Michelle Devereux, Brian Allmand and Stephani Rose. They continue to make stunningly beautiful custom chainstitch embroidery clothing in an era of fast fashion while simultaneously pushing the boundaries and of western wear. About the show, Fort Lonesome writes, “As we approach the 10-year anniversary of Ft Lonesome, we are considering the arc not only of our last decade of rodeo tailorhood, but what the next era of the Fort might look like. Bringing the paradigm of western wear along for the ride and building off of the shoulders of our predecessors, we’d like to invite new heroic archetypes into our visual vernacular. Wherein the zeitgeist of exploration and growth once was captured in the story of a cowboy and his shenanigans, the spirit of the now-time seems to require a heroic metamorphosis. To what or whom do we look in this moment to be inspired to explore, evolve, and transform- simultaneously while taking care, instigating play, seeking interconnection?”
About the artists: Fort Lonesome exists within the physical boundaries of Austin, Texas. It is, however, more accurately constrained only by the ever-expanding dialogue between a small handful of curious luddites, collectively dragging the shrapnel of a forgotten craft into alignment with our contemporary era. While the invention of digitally deployed embroidery relegated most hand-cranked chainstitch embroidery machines to the basements and attics of pragmatic technicians, one erstwhile machine in Texas captured the imagination of a trained oil painter with a fixation on western wear. The resulting deus ex machina summoned forth from the ether a harmonious collection of individual artists, curious to tap the potential of these forgotten machines; meanwhile fortuitously concocting a collective visual whole vastly greater than the sum of its autonomous parts. Since, Fort Lonesome has blossomed into an evolving ecosystem, focusing primarily on maintaining a dedication to the continuum between art and fashion with a strong focus on heirloom quality and unexpected imagery. Lovingly, the Fort carries forth the torch of the Rodeo Tailor, aiming to midwife the legacy of the craft into its rightful place as an iconic evergreen opportunity to innovate, narrate and adorn.”
Reception: November 17, 2023 | 6–9 pm
2023 E Cesar Chavez St.
Austin, 78702 Texas
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