Lost & Found (on top of everything else)
MFA Thesis Exhibit, Temple Contemporary Gallery (March 18th-21st, 2026)

“Lost & Found” is a series of love letters devoted to the intimacy of cloth and the narratives held within. Each collage-quilt-initial is assembled from discarded materials that were transformed via dyeing, scrunching, squishing, and stitching. These materials were scavenged from all corners of my life: my closet, my boyfriend’s closet, the streets of Philadelphia during a heat wave and trash union strike, the floor of the dye kitchen after the undergrads have had their way with it, etc… Stains, tears, and signs of wear are left intact while other sections are worked with needle and thread. This material alchemy is an attempt to honor its legacy and also forge new agency. Much like cloth, text and language are integral parts of the human experience. Quite literally, I have been thinking about textiles as text (both share the Latin root texere, which means to weave). Both are so commonplace to the human experience & their combined abstraction has the power to invoke a deep personal resonance. Everybody gleefully brings their own perspective to the work. In a lot of ways I think they become mirrors, portals, and doorways for self reflection + introspection.

Show documentation by John Carlano. Additional documentation below by artist.