Xenobia Bailey facts for kids

Xenobia Bailey (born 1955) is an American artist and designer. She is famous for her amazing crochet artwork. Her pieces often include colorful hats and large, round designs called mandalas. Her art is inspired by African styles and has a unique, vibrant look.

Early Life and Learning

Xenobia Bailey was born Sherilyn Bailey in Seattle in 1955. In the 1980s, she changed her name to Xenobia. She chose this name after a strong warrior queen from ancient Palmyra. Then, she moved to New York City.

She started her career designing costumes for a group called Black Arts/West. She studied Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She earned her degree in 1977. Later, she went to the University of Washington. There, she learned about ethnomusicology, which is the study of music and culture from around the world. She also took classes in tailoring and making hats.

In the late 1970s, Xenobia taught art through a government program. This is where she met Bernadette Sonona, a master at needlework. From Bernadette, Xenobia learned how to create beautiful needlework without needing a pattern.

Her Artistic Work

Funktional Vibrations, a mosaic from 2016 at the 34th Street subway station in New York City.

Xenobia Bailey's art often uses old African styles. She brings back designs and cultural treasures that were not well-known. Her work is also influenced by how people live and how she wants to create new, natural, and futuristic designs. She uses a style called "funk."

She cares about helping communities and keeping their history alive. Her large crochet pieces and mandalas are full of bright colors. They have many circles inside circles and repeating patterns. Her art includes costumes, hats, and wall hangings. These pieces are very different from traditional crochet items like shawls.

Xenobia's art is part of her ongoing project called Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk. She wants to create a special textile art style for African Americans. This style would be something they could not fully develop because of slavery.

Xenobia says, "To be an artist and be able to create things – it's like fireworks every time you think about something." She tries to make her art feel like it's moving, even though it's still.

Crochet Techniques and Inspirations

Xenobia mostly uses a technique called tapestry crochet. She creates flat, geometric designs with many colors. Her art is inspired by African, Chinese, and Native American ideas. It also has a strong "Funk" style from the 1970s.

She uses symbols like the Kongo cosmogram, which is important in Kongo spiritual traditions. Her special stitch looks like a flowing, dripping line. She calls it the "liquid stitch."

Her hats have been very popular. They appeared in ads for United Colors of Benetton. They were also seen on The Cosby Show and in the Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing. In the movie, Samuel L. Jackson wore one of her hats.

Exhibitions and Collaborations

Xenobia Bailey's art has been shown in many places. Her large piece "Sistah Paradise Great Wall of Fire Revival Tent (Mandela Cosmic tapestry of energy flow)" was shown in 2000. It was hand-crocheted and very tall. In 2000, she received an award from Creative Capital for her art.

In 2003, her designs were featured in an Absolut Vodka advertisement. She has also been an artist-in-residence at several museums. These include the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Society for Contemporary Craft. She even worked with the MIT Media Lab to crochet with special glowing wire.

In 2006, she created Mothership 1: Sistah Paradise's Great Walls of Fire Revival Tent. This art piece was part of her Paradise Under Reconstruction project. It aimed to highlight the missing historical records of African enslavement in America.

In 2014, Xenobia worked with students from Boys & Girls High School in Brooklyn. They designed furniture using recycled materials. This project helped furnish a historic home.

In 2016, Xenobia Bailey created a large glass mosaic for the New York City Subway. It is at the 34th Street – Hudson Yards station. She named this beautiful mosaic Funktional Vibrations. She crocheted the original design, and then it was turned into a mosaic.

In 2020, she revealed a new public art mosaic called "Morning Stars" in St. Petersburg. That same year, she designed a permanent art piece for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington D.C.

In 2021, her artwork Mothership was displayed at Brookfield Place in New York City. In 2024, Xenobia Bailey had her first solo gallery show in New York City in over twenty years. It was called Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: The Second Coming.

Art Collections

Xenobia Bailey's art can be found in many important collections. These include the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Her work is also at the Allentown Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Texas Fashion Collection, and the Museum of Arts and Design.

Selected Exhibitions

Solo Shows

• 2002: Xenobia Bailey: Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk—Phase IV
• 2008: Jersey City Museum, [RE]Possessed
• 2015: 34th St–Hudson Yards Station, Funktional Vibrations, Glass Mosaic, The Studio Museum in Harlem (Permanent Installation)
• 2020: Morning Stars, St. Pete Pier, St. Petersburg, Florida (Permanent Installation)
• 2020: Permanent installation, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, DC

Group Shows

• 2015: Fiber: Sculpture 1960–Present at ICA Boston
• 2017: Studio Views: Craft in the Expanded Field, Museum of Arts and Design, New York City
• 2019: Vibration & Frequency Experiment Funktional Material Culture Design Lab, Seattle at Wa Na Wari

Awards and Honors

In 2000, Xenobia Bailey won a Creative Capital grant for her project Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk. In 2017, she received the Americans for the Arts Public Art Year in Review Award. This was for her artwork Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: A Quantum Leap, Starting From The Top…!!! In 2019, Bailey was one of the first artists to receive the BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize.