In Craft Alliance’s new exhibition Frankie Toan: Strange Familiars, larger-than-life plant sculptures tower over viewers, a 12-foot-long plush arm protrudes off the wall, and a twinkling portal hangs from the ceiling.
The installation, created by Denver-based fiber artist Frankie Toan, will be on view in the Staenberg Gallery from September 16 through October 29. Strange Familiars hosts a body of work cultivated by Toan over the course of six years. Its neon prints, whimsical shapes, and warped sense of scale constitute what Toan describes as a “Queer Garden”—a space that upends Western ideas of beauty and normativity.
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“To me, the ‘Queer Garden’ is this way to imagine a different hierarchy of relationships,” Toan says. “It’s moving away from the human-centered idea of the world and into this reminder that everything is connected.”
The exhibition asks guests to reconceptualize relationships between people and the environment. Elements of nature that aren’t traditionally categorized as beautiful—such as weeds and worms—are elevated to positions of importance. Further, many of Toan’s materials are recycled from past uses and given new purpose through their art. In this idyllic garden, humans and the natural world occupy a leveled playing field.
Strange Familiars will debut alongside a collaboration between Craft Alliance and the Missouri Botanical Garden. In the Craft Alliance Creative Commons, visitors can explore a selection of plant materials from the garden’s collection that have historically been used to dye or make paper. According to Craft Alliance’s deputy director, Jennifer Scanlan, the partnership will tie into Toan’s work by examining the intersection of plants and creativity.
As a St. Louis native, Toan says Craft Alliance served an important role in their early art education, and working with the nonprofit has been “extremely rewarding.”
“I hope that people find [the show] playful and fun and visually exciting,” Toan says. “I also hope that it’s accessible to them, and that they feel like they’re part of this conversation as well.”
Guests can meet Toan and Scanlan on October 7 from 5-6 p.m. for a tour of the exhibition. Kids are welcome at the installation, where anyone from ages 5-9 can experience the show with an interactive gallery bag provided by creators Jessica Love and Shawn Harris.
