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Renowned American fiber sculptor Judith Scott’s artistic career began at age 45, after facing uncommon hurdles and hardships. Born with Down Syndrome, deafened by scarlet fever and separated from her family to live in a spiritless state-run institution for most of her adult life, it was only after reuniting with her long-lost twin and enrolling in a fiber class at Creative Growth, an art center for people with developmental disabilities, that her career began in earnest. While other participants cut, wove, and stitched, Scott intuitively developed a strikingly distinctive sculptural practice: cocooning found objects with layers of meticulously-chosen colored yarn and twine. These enigmatically expressive, sometimes totemic objects occupied Scott for the remaining eighteen years of her life and, once brought to wider recognition, became some of the most sought-after works within the vibrant and capacious realm of self-taught and outsider art.

Oakland