Liz Collins is an artist based in New York City known for pushing the boundaries of art and design in innovative and experimental work in fabric, yarn and other materials and techniques associated with textile media. Whether in the form of textile, painting, drawing or installation, Collins frequently explores the dichotomy of structure and entropy—qualities inherent to textile that speak to the fissures present in broader architectural, political and social structures.
Collins’ work has recently been on view in the 60th Biennale di Venezia, Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, and in Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, curated by Lynne Cooke and presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. In 2025, Collins will have a mid-career retrospective at the RISD Museum in Providence, RI with an accompanying monograph.
Collins has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Touchstones Rochdale, UK (2022); Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (2015); Knoxville Museum of Art, TN (2005); and Candice Madey, NYC (2024), among others. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA (2023, 2020); LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY (2023); Lyndhurst Mansion, Tarrytown, NY (2022); Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, NYC (2021, 2017, 2014); Museum of Arts and Design, NYC (2018); Drawing Center, NYC (2019, 2018); BRIC, Brooklyn, NY (2019); Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2019); New Museum, NYC (2017); Museum at FIT, NYC (2013); Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (2015); and Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2011).
Collins’ honors include an Anonymous Was A Woman Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a MacColl Johnson Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts & Artist Relief grants, Drawing Center Open Sessions as well as residencies at Civitella Ranieri, Siena Art Institute, MacDowell, Yaddo, Haystack, Museum of Arts and Design and Stoneleaf. She is currently a queer art mentor in visual art and a member of the Female Design Council.
Courses
Spring 2025 Courses
IDISC 2709-01 - QUEER PEOPLE/PLACES/THINGS: AN ARTIST LED EXHIBITION PROJECT
LevelUndergraduate
Subject Interdisciplinary Studies
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
FormatStudio
Start date
End date
IDISC 2709-01
QUEER PEOPLE/PLACES/THINGS: AN ARTIST LED EXHIBITION PROJECT
LevelUndergraduate
Subject Interdisciplinary Studies
PeriodSpring 2025
Credits3
FormatStudio
Start and End2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: T | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PMInstructor(s): Liz CollinsLocation(s): College Building, Room 331Enrolled / Capacity: 12Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This is a project based course connected to artist Liz Collins’ upcoming mid-career retrospective exhibition at the RISD Museum, opening July 2025, and is designed to engage students in the creation and curation of a gallery space within the show. Liz Collins: Motherlode is a multifaceted show spanning 30+ years of Collins’ career in fashion, textile design, performance, installation and visual art, and will include a gallery devoted to this project and intended to be a queer social space. The space will be transformed through Liz Collins’ design elements such as wallpaper, furniture, rugs, and will hold a robust curation of queer art and artists from the RISD museum collection and from the RISD community, with exact parameters to be determined by the class in collaboration with museum staff.
The class is open to students in all departments. Students with a special interest in one or more of the following are best suited for this course: curation, interior architecture, immersive installation, artistic collaboration, queer studies. Students will work directly with Collins each week and with curators and staff from the museum to develop a clear vision and plan for this gallery.
Students wishing to be considered for this class must email apoterac@risd.edu with the following:
