Motherlode
July 19, 2025–January 11, 2026
On July 19, the RISD Museum will open the first US survey of artist Liz Collins’ genre-defying work. For more than three decades, Collins has moved fluidly among the realms of fine art, fashion, and design, pushing material and technical boundaries to create works that evoke emotion, energy, and individual expression. Liz Collins: Motherlode features more than 80 objects, capturing the full arc of Collins’ career from the 1980s to today. It includes immersive textile installations, monumental woven hangings, fashion, needlework, drawings, performance documentation, and ephemera.
In keeping with the RISD Museum’s commitment to centering makers and broadening perspectives, the exhibition showcases the trailblazing nature of Collins’ work and her commitment to Queer feminist creative practice and environmental activism. Motherlode is curated by Kate Irvin, RISD Museum’s department head and curator of costume and textiles, in close collaboration with the artist. The show is accompanied by the first monograph on Collins’ work, with new scholarship by leaders in art and design, including essays by Irvin, Glenn Adamson, Octavia Burgel, Zoe Latta, and Eileen Myles, and a conversation between Collins and Julia Bryan-Wilson. Published by Hirmer Publishers, the book will be available in July (limited) and broadly in August 2025.
“Collins’ creative process has yielded a spectacular abundance of work that runs the gamut from the raw and experimental to refined design collaborations to monumental installations,” said Irvin. “Through the exhibition, the RISD Museum deepens its commitment to artists who push boundaries and expand how we experience art.”
Motherlode follows Collins from her knit-focused fashion label to her early installations and performances with knitting machines, through to her ongoing engagement with personal and communal meaning across media. Collins is a trickster figure in Irvin’s words—stretching materials and defying expectations of form, function, and expression.
This is especially evident in her radical engagement with yarn, fabric, and textiles. The exhibition features highlights such as Lumberjack Goddess Dress (2005), Euphoria II (2016), Veins-Darkness (2022), and Power Portal (2024), along with works on paper like Ecstasy (2014–2016) and performance documentation from Knitting Nation, which addressed war, Queer pride, and political resistance through large-scale fiber works.
Inspired by emotional states, collective experiences, and contemporary politics, Collins uses fiber to unravel, deconstruct, and reimagine the structures of our inner and outer lives. Her practice extends to fine needlework and drawing, forming intricate studies in materiality and the aesthetics of abstraction and illusion.
In keeping with her long-standing commitment to Queer community and inclusion, Motherlode also features a salon-style exhibition of works by Queer-identified artists titled Homecoming, curated by RISD students in collaboration with Collins. Featuring works by RISD alumni, faculty, students, and staff, alongside collection objects, this project reflects the Museum’s commitment to co-creating spaces where multiple perspectives shape how stories are told.
“The exhibition is named Motherlode in part to allude to the profound source of inspiration, learning, and connection that RISD—both the school and the museum—has been in my life,” said Collins. “It’s a tremendous honor to be showing my life’s work at a place that has been so essential to who I am as an artist.”
Liz Collins: Motherlode is on view at the RISD Museum through January 11, 2026.
