Opening Reception: Friday, September 19th, 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Beyond the Fabric combines fiber arts and themes of Afrofuturism to illustrate the culture of an imagined Afro-future in the form of portraits and tapestries. The works in the exhibition draw in the audience to ruminate on the images and encourage them to think beyond their current reality.

Artist Biography:
Originally from Beaufort, South Carolina, Kyla spent much of their time working with pencil and pen, filling sketchbooks with studies of characters from their favorite shows and characters of their own. This interest in art was encouraged while simultaneously their growing skill in crochet grew with them as another external outlet of their creativity. After finishing high school Kyla attended Francis Marion University as a Fine Arts major with a minor in Art History, using the guided structure of the program to develop their skills in oil painting and receiving their Bachelors in Fine Arts in May of 2021. Kyla then relocated to Washington DC with the intention of pursuing a secondary degree, taking two years to give themself space to grow as an artist, so that they could develop their artistic visual language with their use of oil paint. Once entering the MFA program here at George Washington University Kyla began pushing the boundaries of their art, experimenting not only with color but with fiber arts and the use of textiles to create large, hanging works made up of different textures.