2022 Thomas Mann Fellow Rosario Talevi (Soft Agency) lädt gemeinsam mit der Kuratorin Karis Medina (Josef & Anni Albers Foundation), der Künstlerin Ahree Lee und Kurator und Historiker Gary Riichirō Fox zu einer Lesegruppe & Gespräch über Anni Albers Webetechniken im Wohnzimmer des Thomas Mann House ein.

*In English*

Anni Albers (1899–1994) was a textile designer, weaver, writer, and printmaker who pioneered new possibilities for textiles as art, both as purely pictorial constructions and as functional objects. In 1922, she enrolled in the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, a then-new school that transformed modern design and emphasized the connection between artists, architects, and craftspeople. There Anni met a young artist and teacher, Josef Albers (1888–1976) who in 1925 would become her husband. In 1933, after the closing of the Bauhaus, the Albereses were invited to the newly-established Black Mountain College in North Carolina to develop the art program, which would serve as an essential core to the curriculum for all students. During their time at Black Mountain College, Anni made extraordinary weavings, developed new textiles, and taught, while also writing essays on design and craft that reflected her independent and passionate vision.

In this collaborative event between the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation and the Thomas Mann House, 2022 Fellow Rosario Talevi (Soft Agency) and curator Karis Medina (Josef & Anni Albers Foundation), together with artist Ahree Le and curator & historian Gary Riichirō Fox, will convene a reading group in the living room of the Thomas Mann House. Although Anni Albers never claimed feminism and generally eschewed political labeling, this reading group will approach and negotiate Anni's legacy, her concepts, and ideas in dialogue while engaging with contemporary questions on gender specificity, invisible labor, and the construction/transmission of feminist genealogies. This event seeks to explore Anni Albers' transatlantic vision of weaving as a cultural practice.

In person event at the Thomas Mann House. By invitation only.

Karis Medina is the Associate Curator at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation where she aids and facilitates research on the Alberses. In her own research, her primary focus is studying and codifying the structure of Anni Albers’s textiles and pictorial weavings. She has lectured and led workshops at University College London, Yale University, Pratt Institute in New York, and New Britain Museum of American Art. She has an active art and weaving practice and has shown work in exhibitions in New York, Chicago, New Haven, and Croatia.

Ahree Lee is a multi-disciplinary artist working in video, new media, and textiles. Lee received her B.A. from Yale University in English literature and a M.F.A. in graphic design from Yale School of Art. Her commissions include the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the 01SJ Biennial, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and the Sundance Channel. Her honors include an artist residency at Santa Fe Art Institute and a Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Award nomination, and her work has been written about in Hyperallergic, Metropolis, and Fast Company.

Gary Riichirō Fox is an architectural historian and curator. He has curated exhibitions and research programs at Getty Research Institute and at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, and he has led history/theory seminars at SCI-Arc and UCLA. His work has been supported by the American Alliance of Museums, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Graham Foundation, the UC Humanities Research Institute, and the W.M. Keck Foundation, among others. Gary studied at Yale University and the Architectural Association; at UCLA, he is currently completing a dissertation project where his research considers histories of aesthetic governance and environmental simulation.

A collaboration between the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation and the Thomas Mann House with friendly support from Christopher Farr Cloth & Thomas Lavin.