Water, Fiber, Form: Stories of Black Hair is a mixed-media exhibition that explores the intersections of material, memory, and identity through textiles, ceramics, and collage. Rooted in Black hairstyling traditions, the work reimagines hair as a fiber art, positioning braiding, weaving, and adornment within the lineage of contemporary craft. Water functions as both material and metaphor, shaping form while reflecting transformation, resilience, and continuity. Through large-scale textile installations, woven hair tapestries, and ceramic vessels that hold, anchor, and expand fiber, the exhibition creates a layered environment where structure and movement coexist. Collage works extend this narrative, assembling fragments of image, pattern, and texture into visual stories of cultural memory and self-definition. Together, these works challenge conventional hierarchies of craft and art, honoring the labor, ritual, and innovation embedded in everyday practices while inviting viewers to reconsider what is seen, valued, and preserved.

Ashley White is a Richmond, Virginia–based artist working across textiles, ceramics, and collage. Her practice explores the intersections of craft, culture, and identity, with a focus on Black material traditions and the narratives embedded within them. Through her ongoing body of work, Water, Fiber, Form, she reimagines hair as a fiber art, drawing connections between hairstyling practices, weaving, and vessel-making. White has participated in residencies at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and Gracia in Guatemala, where she deepened her research through engagement with Indigenous textile practices and material traditions. These experiences inform her approach to fiber as a site of cultural knowledge, exchange, and continuity. Her work centers material as a form of storytelling, inviting viewers to consider how process, tradition, and labor shape identity, memory, and contemporary expressions of craft.

My latest work explores the intersections of material, culture, and identity through textiles, ceramics, and collage. I am interested in how Black women’s craft and beauty traditions, particularly hairstyling, function as sites of knowledge, care, and cultural expression. By highlighting hair as fiber, I challenge conventional distinctions between adornment, craft, and fine art, positioning braiding, weaving, and repetition as both process and language. Working across what I describe as water, fiber, and form, I use material to examine transformation and continuity. Water acts as a catalyst, shaping and softening, while fiber carries lineage and connection. Form emerges through gestures of weaving, coiling, and layering, translating intimate acts into sculptural presence. Through this work, I seek to honor the labor and innovation embedded in everyday practices, creating space for new understandings of craft that are rooted in Black cultural traditions and lived experience.

An Artist Talk with Ashley White

Saturday, June 13, 1 pm

Celebrating the opening of her exhibition, Water, Fiber, Form: Stories of Black Hair, Ashley White will discuss the meaning and inspiration behind her work which explores the intersections of material, memory, and identity through textiles, ceramics, and collage. Visit our exhibitions page to learn more about her work.

Free to the public (a $10 donation is suggested)