"Pile Paragons," opening at TuftCon '23

Tufting is an art and Tuft the World wants to shine a light on a select group of tufters whose work inspires and excites us through a one month exhibition. The selected artwork will be on display during TuftCon, Philadelphia’s first ever tufting convention. Submissions were reviewed and chosen by textile artist Qualeasha Wood.


This Juried exhibition is on view from March 26-April 30, 2023.

Exhibition on view, by appointment: March 27th-April 30th (please email studio@tufttheworld.com to schedule a viewing)

Opening Reception: Select guests are invited to join us on Sunday, March 26, 2023 from 12-2:30pm in the Bok Building (rm 501) in South Philadelphia.  TuftCon ticket holders and exhibiting artists are welcome, unfortunately we cannot extend the opening reception invitation to guests or public due to capacity restrictions.

Closing Reception: Please join us for a public closing reception on Saturday, April 29th from 6-8pm. 

Congratulations to our exhibiting artists:
Bahls, Cecilia

Benét, Blue

Berman-Gestring, Kyra

Brown, Sheraya

Calderón, Mandy

Cheverall, Liberty

Cibel, Audrey 

Colón, Magan

De La Paz, Monica 

Edwards, Coelina

Ericson, Evan

Gonçalves Costa, Jessica

Grue

Hall, Ciera

Hall, Derek

Henthorne, Abigail

Hill, Grace

Hooper, Sheri

James, Tara

Janek, Sachiko

Kim, Jongbum

Kosowski, Tara

Lahnert, Halo

Leka, Hanna

LeVitre, Cathy

Liddell, Sarah

Linton, Jennifer

Maas, Grace

Orlowski, Anna

Padungvichean, Duairak (Lun)

Perez, Venus

Santiago, Michael

Slaughter, Chelsea

Slayden, Shelby

Stamper, Elise 

Stone, Melissa

Tomlinson, Heather

Wojkovich, Tessa 

Zisman, Vicky

Exhibition Map

Qualeasha Wood, Guest Juror

Qualeasha Wood is a textile artist whose work contemplates realities around black female embodiment that do and might exist. Inspired by a familial relationship to textiles, queer craft, Microsoft Paint and internet avatars Wood's tufted and tapestry pieces mesh traditional craft and contemporary technological materials. Together, Qualeasha navigates both an Internet environment saturated in Black Femme figures and culture, and a political and economic environment holding that embodiment at the margins. Like the vast majority of her age-peers, Wood has operated one mortal and multiple digital avatars since pre-adolescence. For her what are intuitive combinations of analog and cybernetic compositional processes make for a plainly contemporary exploration of Black American Femme ontology.