Knit Narrative: Reese Ford, Hana Ichikawa, and Stella Moore Exhibit at Riverside Arts Center

Work by Stamps seniors Reese Ford (BFA ​’26), Hana Ichikawa (BFA ​’26), and Stella Moore (BA ​’26) is featured in Knit Narrative, a new exhibition on view April 26 — June 7, 2026 at Ypsilanti’s Riverside Arts Center North Gallery.

Knit Narrative explores the act of painting as both a tactile and conceptual form of weaving. Rooted in the visual language of rectangles and frames, the show investigates how segmented, rectilinear forms can hold figuration, texture, memory, and presence. Through this gathering of works, we aim to interrogate the limits and potentials of the painted surface — how it functions as fabric, frame, skin, and site.

Each painting in the exhibition acts as a woven node in a larger textile — a shared space where individual visions coalesce into a collective body. The exhibition itself becomes a kind of collage: a layered arrangement of scale, gesture, and perspective. The physical act of assembling our works mirrors the threading together of disparate parts, forming a visual and conceptual fabric that is both deliberate and intuitive.

Central to our inquiry is the utility and symbolism of the human body. We ask: What is a body for? How does it store memory, ritual, and narrative? Our works consider the body not only as subject, but as vessel, monument, and landscape. Some bodies are unrecognizable — made abstract through scale, fragmentation, or absence — while others confront the viewer directly, questioning the politics of visibility and gaze. When does a face become too large or too small to read as human? What does it mean to take up space, to be seen, or to resist being seen?

Knit Narrative
Exhibition Dates: April 26 — June 7, 2026
Opening Reception: May 8, 2026, 5 – 7 p.m.
North Gallery at Riverside Arts Center