Loraine Lynn

born 1987, Toledo, OH
lives in Toledo

For FRONT 2022, Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Loraine Lynn presented a selection of new tufted textiles. Exploding across the space in her signature manner, they confound the typical gallery placement of artworks by functioning as both visual objects and an immersive space for gathering. Her joyous, hypercolored pieces are tactile explorations of form and process that celebrate creative labor. Lynn creates her work using industrial methods—a tufting gun combined with commercial-grade yarns—but repurposes these tools to generate original, challenging, and playful forms. Suggesting fungi or other beings in dialogue, the artworks encourage conversations at multiple scales.

Originally trained in glass and ceramics, Lynn turned to textiles as a counterpoint to those traditionally male-dominated fields. Her focus on hand production also questions the region’s association with assembly-line labor and manufacturing, emphasizing how craft and the joy of making can bring people together.

Lynn also participated in the FRONT 2022 preview exhibition at Transformer Station, for which she spent several months prototyping an experimental, reconfigurable seating unit with the Brooklyn-based architecture firm SO–IL. Despite much effort, the project was not ultimately realized. By including the unrealized designs in the preview exhibition, FRONT asked: What are the challenges within unconventional collaborations between communities, artists, and designers? What lessons can we take from the experience of projects that do not materialize?

The Pod of Dust and Rainbows

Episode 2 introduces us to FRONT 2022 artist Loraine Lynn, whose rambunctious and inviting work was featured in the FRONT 2022 preview exhibition, 'Grand Prototypes, Humble Tools', and now as part of the FRONT 2022 Triennial, 'Oh Gods of Dust and Rainbows', at Reinberger Gallery at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Tufting guns, stitch and bitch, mis-performance—it’s a wild ride from glass blowing, to blowing up carpets, to blowing up as a FRONT 2022 artist.
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The Pod of Dust and Rainbows has been made to accompany the 2022 edition of FRONT International: The Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.

The show was hosted and produced by Dr. Lady J & Kenyon Farrow, recorded at the Studio West 117 and West 117 Foundation podcast studio.

This project was made possible with generous support from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Dushko Petrovich Córdova, executive producer. Naomi Columna, sound design. Theme music by Elephant Ornament.

Cleveland Institute of Art

Loraine Lynn JOY(full), 2022, Commissioned by FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.