After more than four decades of collecting fine-art quilts, artist and curator Carolyn Mazloomi—the founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network and one of the foremost champions of Black American textile art—is exhibiting her collection with Claire Oliver Gallery in “Masters of the Stitch: Threaded Stories.” From Wendell Brown’s The Family (2024) to Donna Chambers’ POTUS #44 (1998) and Michael Cumming’s Haitian Mermaid #2 (1996), Mazloomi’s collection stands as one of the most significant archives of Black quilt-making in the U.S. As such, the exhibition presents a rare opportunity for private and institutional acquisition. Within, the works represent a range of techniques—including narrative appliqué, improvisational piecing, rust-dyeing, digital printing on fabric, machine embroidery, three-dimensional construction, and more. “Quilts are the vernacular of Black American storytelling, they hold an immense power in both their material, craftsmanship and visual histories,” Oliver tells Surface. “As a gallerist showing these works, I see my role as helping to preserve the legacy of these artists and the stories they depict, for future generations and also positioning them as artworks on par with any great work of art in the canon.”