Featured Artist 
Liz Collins in her studio. Photo by Joe Kramm.
Each spring over 100 artists and art organizations in DUMBO And Vinegar Hill open their studio doors to the public for a weekend. This year the event takes place on April 22 and 23 from 1 to 6 PM. Art Spiel created a Mixed Media Guide for this event in addition to other curated guides on the Art In Dumbo website here. In conjunction with the event Art Spiel conducted a few interviews with individual participating artists. This one is with Liz Collins whose multi- faceted art includes textiles, drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation.
Tell me about yourself and about your work.
Many things drive my ideas, from repeating patterns in my daily life and surroundings to mystical esoterica and transcendental states of being. I’ve been making art all my life and have worked in many different areas, including an era where I had my own fashion knitwear brand, and another where I was a full time professor at Rhode Island School of Design. For the past 10 years my primary focus and full time job has been as a studio artist and designer, where an ongoing assortment of projects, commissions, and exhibitions has kept me occupied and busy.
Traveling, and being in places that are new, different, and foreign is something that I thrive on, and I especially like to travel for work, where I can be in another place and settle in to a routine and produce creative work on my own and with others, in workshops, factories, and residencies. Because I have a background in textiles and fashion and have worked in textile mills in several countries- Italy, Peru, Japan, Thailand, Scotland- and in the United States as well, my work is involved with and influenced by this world. There are so many ways to make fabric and to make things out of fabric and this is some of what drives me to think expansively about what is possible in my own work. Especially with regards to scale- I have yet to make the type of monumental works I dream of with long panels of patterned fabric but I am getting there.
One of my favorite things to do is make installations where I take a space- usually a room or group of rooms- and transform it/ them into a new environment. Interior design and the transformation of domestic space is of particular interest to me- how many elements can be put together like a life size 3 dimensional collage- and all those things can be in dialogue with each other. Pattern, color and material are my main ingredients to build new and wild worlds that give people a sense of awe, pleasure, and joy. I am not interested in separating art from design in my own work and have the ability to shape shift and move across these categories, using industrial and hand making textile traditions to build layers of rich content and form.
What will we see in your studio at Dumbo Open Studio?
You’ll see something new and spectacular. For this event, I am going to transform my studio into a world akin to what I described above. I just got all my work back from my show in England and have some fantastic large pieces that I will be hanging up in a new installation. I love studio visits and am happy to have people in my space to see my work; but for this I am creating a special treat that will be less about me talking to folks about what’s within and more about everyone getting a visual feast.
Liz Collins, Promised Land (2022). Woven silk and polyester. 420x144x144 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
About the Artist: Liz Collins works fluidly between art and design, with emphasis and expertise in textile media. Her solo exhibitions have been at the Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; Candice Madey, LMAK, BGSQD, and Heller galleries in NYC; Luis de Jesus Los Angeles, AMP Gallery, Provincetown, MA; the Knoxville Museum of Art in Tennessee, and Touchstones Rochdale in England. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Drawing Center, ICA/Boston, Leslie Lohman Museum, the New Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, MoMA, Addison Gallery, RISD Museum, September, Sargents Daughters, Kristin Hellegerde, Rossana Orlandi and many more. Collins’ awards include a USA Fellowship, a MacColl Johnson Fellowship, Drawing Center Open Sessions, and residencies at Siena Art Institute, MacDowell, Haystack, Yaddo, the Museum of Arts and Design, and upcoming this summer at Civitella Ranieri. Collections include Addison Gallery, Estee Lauder, Fidelity, FIT Museum, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Museum of Arts and Design, and RISD Museum.