One Stitch over the Line

The Sheldon Art Galleries (3648 Washington Boulevard; 314-533-9900 or www.thesheldon.org) offer a bonanza of new works, with no fewer than seven shows celebrating their official openings with a free public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, October 12. Of the exhibitions, Unraveled: Crossing the Line Between Fashion and Art is the most arresting. Part of the city-wide biennial Innovations in Textiles, Unraveled draws as much from the world of installation art as it does the catwalk. Nina Ganci’s piece -- a shapeless mound of black yarn lumped on the floor that emits a single strand, which becomes a floating black dress -- speaks to the romantic mystery of fabrication: From simple materials come beautiful things, at least when passed through the proper hands. Paula Lincoln’s Old Sins Cast Long Shadows, a dress made of book pages cast into molds of Lincoln’s hands and surrounded by tar-paper silhouettes of human bodies, also touches on the implications of handmade -- literally and figuratively -- while addressing the long-term impact of our words and actions. Unraveled: Crossing the Line Between Fashion and Art remains on display through Saturday, January 12, and the galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday.
Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Oct. 12. Continues through Jan. 12, 2007