Denim is the most over-explained cloth in America and the least often treated as a surface. Kabeh, self-taught, based in Los Angeles, came out of fashion design and went sideways into it: stitch as mark-making, pointillism in indigo, silhouettes built from hues of blue rather than printed onto them. She describes the subject as human touch and nostalgic eras, which reads soft until you notice she is making pictures out of the fabric itself rather than pictures on it. The public record is thin, and that is the honest part of this number: an Artsy listing, no dated survey, no institution behind her yet. Downtown Los Angeles opened an 11,000 square-foot Denim Institute Museum in June to enshrine 25 brands. The more interesting work is a few miles away, one person and a needle.
THE MUSA FAMILY · HEIRWAVE
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