April 12 - August 16, 2025
From HCCC:
“Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) and the Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) are pleased to co-present “Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other,” a major exhibition of the pioneering fiber artist that showcases her large-scale, community-centered, and participatory projects, including “The Beaded Prayers Project” (1998-ongoing), “The Hair Craft Project” (2014) and the “Monumental Cloth” series (2019).
The Houston presentation of “We Are Each Other,” hosted within both HCCC’s and HMAAC’s galleries, is an abridged version of the exhibition with the same name organized by Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Ml; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. Clark’s work centers on race and Black experience, and the exhibition is rooted in both audience and context, as each organizing institution is located in American cities with substantial populations of residents with a lineage to the African diaspora, and each is dedicated to celebrating and collecting contemporary art and craft traditions.
Organizing curators, John Guess Jr., Founding CEO of HMAAC, and Sarah Darro, Curator + Exhibitions Director of HCCC, commented, “We are honored to extend the tour of this significant survey exhibition to Houston, a city with a rich cultural and social landscape that has been shaped by the African diaspora. For Sonya Clark, craft and community are intertwined, and we hope that this iteration of the exhibition reflects the relationship between legacies of craft and the African American experience in the United States. Presenting ‘We Are Each Other’ across our institutions, which are devoted to African American culture and contemporary craft practice, respectively, embodies the collaborative spirit that defines Clark’s oeuvre.”
Clark is acclaimed for using everyday fiber materials, such as hair, flags, and found fabric, as well as a range of textile techniques, including weaving, braiding, quilting, and beading, to examine issues of history, racial injustice, cultural legacies, and reconciliation. “We Are Each Other” shows how her community-centered projects facilitate new collective encounters across racial, gender, and socioeconomic divisions. In addition to her large-scale installations, the exhibition will feature a range of her photographs, prints, and sculpture.
The ethos of Clark’s participatory works is embedded in the exhibition title, inspired by the Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “Paul Robeson” (1970), about the civil rights activist, which closes with, “we are each other’s harvest/we are each other’s business/we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
Clark said of the exhibition, “I am a collaboration, as is each artwork. A collaboration, a generational connection, a tie between us. From the ancestral substance that makes up my bones and blood to the engagement with community, all of it functions as a means to do the necessary work.”
About Sonya Clark
Clark holds a Master of Arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and is the recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship, a Pollock Krasner Award, an 1858 Prize, an Art Prize Grand Jurors Award, and an Anonymous Was a Woman Award. Her work has been exhibited in more than 350 museums and galleries around the world. She is a professor of art at Amherst College in Massachusetts and previously served as chair of the craft/material studies department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
Exhibition Organization and Support
“Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other” is co-organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Cranbrook Art Museum; and the Museum of Arts and Design. Support for the exhibition and publication ”Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other” was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.
About The Houston Museum of African American Culture
The mission of The Houston Museum of African American Culture HMAAC is to collect, conserve, explore, interpret, and exhibit the material and intellectual culture of Africans and African Americans in Houston, the state of Texas, the southwest and the African Diaspora for current and future generations. In fulfilling its mission, HMAAC seeks to invite and engage visitors of every race and background and to inspire children of all ages through discovery-driven learning. HMAAC is to be a museum for all people.
HMAAC is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 AM – 6 PM. Closed major holidays. HMAAC is located in the Museum District at 4807 Caroline Street. For more information, call 713-353-1578 or visit www.hmaac.org. Find HMAAC on Facebook and Instagram @Houstonmaac.
About Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Serving as a treasured resource in the Houston arts community for nearly 25 years, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a nonprofit visual arts center dedicated to advancing education about the process, product, and history of craft. HCCC showcases emerging and acclaimed artists in exhibitions, introduces visitors of all ages to contemporary craft through hands-on programming, and supports the development of working artists through its artist residency and retail programs.
HCCC is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM. Closed major holidays. Admission is free. HCCC is located in the Museum District at 4848 Main Street, two blocks south of Highway 59/69. Free parking is available directly behind the facility, off Rosedale and Travis Streets.
HCCC is supported by individual donors and members and funded in part by The Brown Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Texas Commission on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kinder Foundation; the Morgan Foundation; Windgate Charitable Foundation; and the Wortham Foundation. HCCC is a member of the Houston Museum District and the Midtown Arts District. For more information, call 713-529-4848 or visit www.crafthouston.org. Find HCCC on Facebook, Instagram and X @CraftHouston.”
Reception: April 11, 2025 | 6–8 pm
Lecture: April 12, 2025 | 3–4 pm
Lecture by Sonya Clark Saturday, April 12, 3:00 – 4:00 PM at HCCC
,
Get directions