Kay Healy: Victory

MCBA Outlook Gallery
August 27–November 7, 2021

viewable from the street.
(open book is currently closed to the public.)

This 3’ x 13’ painted fiber panel (acrylic on cotton with polyester batting) is part of a series of larger-than-life painted fabric pieces based on panoramic self-portrait photographs that document Healy’s process of becoming a mother. After four years of trying to conceive, including two losses, Victory depicts Healy and her two-day-old daughter’s departure from the hospital. The fisheye perspective in each piece in the series is meant to capture the suspended and disorienting feeling of the journey into parenthood. —Kay Healy

Join Kay Healy for Fiber Stories: Artist Talk & Demo on Wednesday, October 20 from 7–9pm! Kay will discuss her influences, the stories behind her projects, and demonstrate the trapunto quilting process she uses in her work. Sign up here.

 


Through her life-sized drawn, painted, and screen-printed fabric installations, Kay Healy investigates themes of home, loss, displacement, and resilience. Healy received a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from the University of the Arts. Her installation Coming Home was purchased by the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and her work was supported by the Independence Foundation’s Fellowship in the Arts. Healy has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Madison Park in New York City, Gallery Septima in Tokyo, Japan, the Windgate Gallery in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and other galleries. She lives and works in Philadelphia.