Carolyn Mazloomi, “Black Panther Party,” 2025, cotton fabric, cotton batt, poly-cotton thread, India ink; printed, stenciled, hand painting, machine quilted.
Despite decades of friendship and practicing similar kinds of art, Carolyn Malzoomi and Sharon Kerry-Harlan have never exhibited together. That changed on January 9, 2026, when the pair’s first two-person textile exhibition opened at Claire Oliver Gallery in Central Harlem.
Titled Certain Restrictions Do Apply, the show gathers nine new artworks by Mazloomi and Kerry-Harlan, each of which contends with themes of race, culture, memory, and belonging through media like fabric, quilts, cotton, and thread. These materials, of course, aren’t coincidental. Rather, they seamlessly complement the exhibition’s scope, especially considering their racial and gendered underpinnings. For centuries, fiber art has remained within the sphere of domestic craft and feminine labor, only exploding onto the contemporary scene and gaining widespread appeal in recent years.
Still, Mazloomi and Kerry-Harlan are less interested in these historical associations and gravitate more toward textile art as a conceptual and political practice. For the two artists, quiltmaking is a radical yet restorative gesture, offering an opportunity not just to connect with but to expand upon the work of other Black artists, both past and present. Several works in Certain Restrictions Do Apply embody that goal, including Malzoomi’s Black Panther Party.
As its name suggests, the composition serves as a sort of visual archive, cataloging how the Black Panther Party advocated for freedom, liberation, and civil rights throughout the late 20th century. The quilt’s border incorporates symbols from the Black Power movement, while its central narrative spotlights the party’s free food program, which primarily focused on providing children with free breakfast before school. The program’s ultimate goal was multifaceted. By encouraging social and communal welfare, the party reasoned that Black survival, well-being, and finally revolution would follow. That ethos is perfectly captured in Malzoomi’s quilt, which radiates with determination and stripes of highly saturated colors. The work also insists upon texture, highlighting rather than hiding its quilted patterns.
Like Malzoomi, Kerry-Harlan also emphasizes materiality. In African American Gothic, for instance, the artist layers acrylic paint, silk screens, and found objects upon rusted fabric, resulting in a rhythmic surface. These various elements mimic a collage, complete with cut-out, overlapping words and letters. Taken together, African American Gothic seems to repurpose aesthetics popular in Cubism, filtering a traditionally white, masculine art form into one heavily influenced by Black history and art. The figures, too, resemble those of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who often leaned into fragmented, almost frightening depictions of human faces.
“Memory is layered,” Kerry-Harlan explains. “In fabric, I find the ability to embed echoes—of family, of the past, of cultural inheritance. My work is about carrying forward what must not be forgotten, but also making space for reinterpretation.”
Mazloomi agrees with the sentiment: “Textiles have an inherent humanity. A quilt holds touch, time, labor, and story—it holds lives. The histories of the people I depict are sewn into the fabric itself. Quilts speak on behalf of those whose voices might otherwise go unheard.”
Certain Restrictions Do Apply is currently on view at Claire Oliver Gallery through March 7, 2026.
After decades of friendship, textile artists Carolyn Mazloomi and Sharon Kerry-Harlan will launch their first joint exhibition exploring Black heritage through quiltmaking.
Sharon Kerry-Harlan, “Fragments of the Past, Threads of Memory,” 2025, thread, found objects and textiles, quilted.
Carolyn Mazloomi, “Madame C.J. Walker,” 2025, cotton fabric, cotton batt, poly-cotton thread, India ink; printed, stenciled, hand painting, machine quilted.
Sharon Kerry-Harlan, “African American Gothic,” 2025, acrylic paint and silk screens on rusted fabric, incorporating found objects, mounted on a black canvas-wrapped wood frame.
Certain Restrictions Do Apply is on view at Claire Oliver Gallery through March 7, 2026.
Sharon Kerry-Harlan, “The Empire Builder,” 2025, dye discharge, curated fabrics, quilted and embellished.
Sharon Kerry-Harlan, “I Am Invisible,” dye discharge on cotton fabric, thread and cotton batting, quilted.
