Kelly Taylor Mitchell Studio Newsletter: April

Kelly Taylor Mitchell
April 15, 2026

Hi Y’all,

How are you feeling? On my end, I am trying to hold on to hope with both hands. Stepping in to spring, I am sharing art offerings and invitations to tactility. Perhaps you are craving these things as much as I am . . .

Come Bearing Gifts (detail), 2025. Handmade paper, sequin and tinsel tassel, raffia, netting, stickers, bricks, beads.

Closing Soon + Closing Thoughts

Your last day to catch my solo presentation Kelly Taylor Mitchell: mouth wide open, on view at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is April 26, 2026. If you have seen the show (in person or in spirit): I thank you, I love you.

Totem #10, 2023-25. Hand embroidered and transfer-printed found textile, tassel, ceramic beads, palm fronts, brick dust.

I am incredibly grateful for the generous community of artists, curators, designers, preparators and cultural practitioners at the MFA who collaborated with me to bring this show to life. In light of recent firings at the MFA this gratitude is sorely magnified by the ever-present institutional devaluing of intellectual labor, especially that of black and brown museum workers. I can’t help but consider the way in which my work centers the passing down of knowledge, story, and craft a type of stewardship practiced by so many who give to museums without reciprocity. These firings bring with them the familiar disappointments wrapped up in institutional violence — tokenism, inclusion cos-play, etc., etc., etc. Learn more about what is happening at the MFA here.

With that being said, visit on a pay what you want day, check if the free entry categories apply to you or simply engage via the related photos and conversation here in the newsletter.

Namesakes (detail), 2024-25. Pano da costa textile, hand embroidery, sewing, image transfer, tassels, peanut sacks.

Read: Gathering Memory, Mapping Diaspora

It was a joy to be in conversation with Jordan Barrant in response to Kelly Taylor Mitchell: mouth wide open. We talk water, intuition, memory work and more.

Read the conversation in the Boston Art Review here.

Totem #10 (detail), 2023-25. Hand embroidered and transfer-printed found textile, tassel, ceramic beads, palm fronts, brick dust.

Tune in!

I hope you will enjoy the exhibition playlist:

Learn More.

Find more details about the exhibition on the MFA’s site:

Installation view, Kelly Taylor Mitchell: mouth wide open, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Let’s Get Our Hands Dirty

What are you doing in August? Let’s meet behind the vat. I am incredibly excited to return to Women’s Studio Workshop to teach two workshops this summer: Southern Fiber Lab and Many Hands: Collaborative Papermaking. Sliding scale pricing! take one! take both! email me with absolutely any questions!

^“^{Southern Fiber Lab is an experimental and exploratory workshop where site specific plant matter becomes paper. You will learn how to cook and process foraged fibers with southern roots like kudzu, spanish moss and plantain. The resulting pulp will act as the basis for introductory sheet formation processes like double couching, inclusions, and blowouts.”}

^{“Many Hands is a pulp painting workshop that emphasizes collaborative process. This workshop challenges the notion of an isolated artist practice and alternatively invites participants to work together to create a large-scale collaborative handmade paperwork. This collaborative papermaking project will center improvisation and intuition as aesthetic guides.Overbeaten linen and flax fibers will be used to explore techniques in pigmentation, sheet formation and various pulp painting techniques.”}

Thank you for reading.

With warmth,