“I’m interested in practices that evoke our inherent connectedness— and I believe that our relationship with denim binds us together. Denim tells our work and play stories, it dresses our culture, our movements, rebellions and attitudes. When we wear our jeans, we step into our collective histories and my intention is to pit the intimacy we all have with this material against what is lesser known, and more abstract. Overall, my work is a resistance to the erasure of African-American history, and a celebration of contributions that workers have tightly woven into American culture. My artwork exclusively uses Levi’s denim out of the fondness I’ve held since childhood for my first pair, and because when enslaved people were officially freed in 1865, Levi Strauss was beginning its stronghold in American industry. To me, this brand is a portal through which my hands can authentically weave our past in context, with the complex and layered truths that remain in our present day.
I identify as an abstract painter and use denim to ‘paint’ in 2- and 3-dimensions. I tie, twist, stretch, layer, mold, build, collage and assemble gesture. My natural palette is born out of the subtleties in the ways denim is worn and weathered by each body. Individual styles of wear cause a patina, texture and life literally worn into, and left behind with each garment. I use acrylic paint to enhance the visual depths that I explore and build using the ancient tools and dexterity of hands, fingers, muscles and body position to bend, reach, squat and crawl— to respect and celebrate people who work.”
Teri Gandy-Richardson identifies as an abstract painter, and uses denim as her medium to create work in 2- and 3-dimensions. Her artwork has been shown nationally and internationally. Most recent group exhibitions include Ancestors in Progress II, 2025 at the Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, New York; The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition 2024-2025 at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York and Afro Latinx Mix Tape 2024 at the Jamaica Arts Center, Queens, New York. Internationally, she participated in the group exhibition, DENIM— Stylish, Practical, Timeless Blue Fabric with A History, 2020-2021 at the Spielzeug Welten Museum in Basel Switzerland. Originally an Architecture major at The Cooper Union, Teri changed majors and instead graduated earning her BFA in Painting. Teri currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
We welcome Teri to the studio as our May WIP resident!
You can visit her studio on Sundays from 2pm to 5pm.
Textile Arts Center’s Work in Progress (TAC WIP) is a window into the studio practice of contemporary artists and designers that engages the public in a dialogue with the field of textiles.