Fiber Is the New Painting: A Younger Generation of Artists Is Weaving and Sewing Personal Histories

South African artist Igshaan Adams trained as a painter at the Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town. Amid financial struggles in his mid-20s, he decided to stop buying pricey oil paints. Instead, with his grandparents’ permission, he cut up clothing and other fabrics from their home and stitched them together to create a figurative image. Soon after, in 2010, he got a job teaching painting and composition to weaving artisans at an NGO called the Philani Maternal, Child Health and Nutriti