Textures of Being brings together artists whose practices honor the body—its sensitivities and its wisdom—as a site of deep creative knowledge. Rooted in materiality and lived experience, this exhibition reimagines disability as a form of freedom and a distinct intimate lens through which the world is encountered, shaped, and perceived.
In the United States, one in four adults lives with a disability. Yet our environment and cultural system continue to privilege an imagined norm, often neglecting the rich variation of how bodies move, feel, perceive, and relate. This exhibition shifts the focus from compliance and accommodation to the sensory realities that animate disabled life—textures of resistance and adaptation, fragility and strength, constraint and imagination. Together, the artists create a multidimensional portrait of embodiment that exceeds symbolic inclusion and moves toward a fuller, more tender understanding of what it means to inhabit a body. The intimacy and solidarity expressed through the work evoke a sense of care, reciprocity and community.
Textures of Being is both an offering and a call for everyone to honor the textures that make each of us, and all of us, fully and profoundly human.
This exhibition was juried and organized by Yu-San Cheng, Director of Visual Engagement at Contemporary Craft, and Fran Ledonio Flaherty, the creator of Anthropology of Motherhood and a Deaf artist based in Pittsburgh.
Textures of Being is part of Handwork 2026.
Exhibition Resources
Community Library Reading List
Curated for the exhibition by Dagny Felker, Librarian of Adult Collections at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Curriculum Guide
Educational resources, including hands-on activities, a glossary of terms, and other tools for integrating Textures of Being into your curriculum.
Resource List
A list of local, regional, and national resources for accessibility, advocacy, and disability justice.
Header image
Fault Lines – Missed Messages by Bhavna Mehta.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
This exhibition is made possible by the support of the McKinney Charitable Foundation, Arts, Equity, & Education Fund™, and the Lydon Innovation Fund.
General operating support provided by Allegheny Regional Asset District, The Heinz Endowments, Windgate Foundation, Cathy Raphael, Opportunity Fund, Pennsylvania Creative Industries, powered by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, Elizabeth R. Raphael Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, David Zeve, Mary Ellen Johnson, anonymous foundation, MAK Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, Giant Eagle Foundation, and by private donations.
