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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Visual Art Xenobia Bailey Is (Home)Coming

Posted by Jen Graves on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 1:34 PM

Xenobia Bailey
Xenobia Bailey's Sistah Paradise: The Gatherer, 2008

The year was 1974, and Xenobia Bailey was not yet an iconic artist. She was, instead, the daughter of parents who each worked several jobs at once: bus driver, janitor, nanny, railroad man. The young Xenobia took as much work as she could get assisting in costume design at Seattle's only black theater, Black Arts/West. But Bailey wanted to make her own work and her own way.

So she left Seattle with a one-way ticket to New York that was purchased for her by other African American women in Seattle—in search of a community of African American visual artists. Bailey found that, enrolling to study industrial design at Pratt Institute that year, and more: By the 1980s, her hats and textiles were featured in museums like the Brooklyn Museum and the New Museum; they showed up in fashion magazines like Elle; they made it into films (Do the Right Thing) and onto TV (The Cosby Show).

Now, 37 years after she left, Bailey has come back home, to create an exhibition at the Northwest African American Museum. It opens Saturday (reception 6-8 pm), and it's called The Aesthetics of Funk.

Until then, check out what it's like to go to a big, bright Bailey exhibition, or see her blog.

Comments (3) RSS

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anyone other than me gasp a littel when you read the word Xenobia?

Posted by Patches Pal on October 25, 2011 at 3:55 PM

You can't believe how excited I am to read about this! I've literally been waiting for this show—or something like it—for decades. I love her work and I had no idea she was from Seattle. Exciting!!

Posted by mitten on October 26, 2011 at 6:54 AM

Check out Xenobia Bailey works. She was determine to do her dream...Thanks for sharing the hope! Zenobia

Posted by Zenobia on November 3, 2011 at 11:02 AM