Homeful of Hands brings together the work of four artists united by an interest in materiality, craft and facture, addressing issues of the domestic and so-called decorative from varying angles. Through portraiture, the seemingly abstract patterns of textiles, the depiction of home interiors and the adornment of those interiors with objects, the four artists here collectively point toward deep engagement with questions of making, intimacy and the indexical. American, New York-based painter Clare Grill's heavily patterned paintings, which the artist demurs to characterise as abstract, draw on a tradition of embroidery and handcraft, while the no less richly patterned works of the American, Chicago-based Ann Toebbe, which depict a birds eye view of flattened interiors, combine folk tradition with the rectilinearity of hard-edge abstraction. The portraits of the Mexican, New York-based painter Aliza Nisenbaum, which are full of opulent textiles and a vibrant palette, revolve around human intimacy in one form or another, whether it be through the depiction of people or through still life. And the glass and ceramic sculptures of the New Zealand-born, New York-based artist Kate Newby, which typically play with the division between interior and exterior, tend to materialize aspects of intimacy through the way they are created.

In each and every case, the works in this exhibition oblige usthrough their literalness, modest conviction, and subtle complexityto reconsider clichés and questions of the domestic and its relation to the handmade.

Aliza Nisenbaum (b. 1977, Mexico City, Mexico) holds a BA in psychology from the Universidad, Iberoamericana, Mexico and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ann Toebbe (b. 1974, Cincinnati, Ohio) earned her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and holds MFA from Yale University and at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Clare Grill (b. 1979, Western Springs, Illinois) attended the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota,and received her MFA at Pratt Institute, New York.

Kate Newby (b. 1979, Auckland, New Zealand) graduated with a Doctor of Fine Arts (2015) from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts.