KENNESAW, Ga. | Sep 15, 2026

A century of textile history meets contemporary artistic practice in the inaugural exhibition at Kennesaw State University’s new Emily Bourne Grigsby Galleries in the Robert S. Geer Family College of the Arts’ School of Art and Design.

The Geer College of the Arts at Kennesaw State University will open the Emily Bourne Grigsby Galleries this fall with an exhibition that looks deeply at the history, design and cultural legacy of one of the region’s most recognizable textile manufacturers.

Woven Reflections: Reimagining the Karastan Archive brings together works from the Mohawk Industries carpets archives with contemporary installations by School of Art and Design resident artist Rowland Ricketts. Co-curated by Assistant Professor of Textiles and Surface Design Amanda Britton and Ricketts, the exhibition explores the ways patterns, materials and processes can carry stories across generations.

Ricketts extends those ideas through two installations created for the new galleries, bringing contemporary artistic practice into direct conversation with the Karastan archive. His work draws on histories of textile materials and patterns, creating a dialogue between the manufactured objects of the past and the handmade, process-driven practices of the present. 

“Textiles are deeply connected to the history of this region, and the Karastan archive gives us a remarkable way to explore that history,” said Ricketts. “This exhibition allows us to think about where these patterns and processes came from, how they were transformed through industry and design, and what they can mean to artists and audiences today.”

The exhibition will open with a public reception October 24 in the new Emily Bourne Grigsby Galleries and Athos Menaboni Gallery, located within the Geer College of the Arts’ Arts District at Chastain Pointe.

“Mohawk Industries has been an extraordinary creative partner in bringing Woven Reflections to life,” said  Jawshing Arthur Liou, Dean of the Geer College of the Arts. “We are grateful not only for access to the Karastan Archives, but also for the expertise and deep industry knowledge that Mohawk leaders, including Vice Presidents Mark Page and Tracy Pruitt, have so generously shared throughout this collaboration. Their partnership has brought a depth and authenticity to the exhibition that would not otherwise have been possible.”

The carefully structured compositions of the Karastan rugs invite close observation, while their recurring motifs raise questions about how visual language travels across cultures and generations. The exhibition begins with the late 1920s, a period of profound transformation in American life as new technologies and mass communication were changing how they worked, lived and experienced the world. In 1928, Karastan emerged from that moment, introducing machine-woven interpretations of traditional Persian carpets to American consumers.

One of Ricketts’ new works magnifies a historical Karastan design in indigo-dyed felt, a material from his own personal studio archive. Another captures a sense of the volume of material needed to make these rugs by condensing some 48,000 yards of yarn into one square inch of woven design.

Throughout the exhibition, repetition and symmetry are considered not simply as decorative elements, but as systems that shape how we see and understand the world. 

The Karastan archive offers a window into the remarkable intersection of skilled craftsmanship, industrial technology and design that made the carpets possible. Woven rugs, design drawings, hand-painted design cartoons and other archival materials reveal how an idea moved from conception to production, while the carpets themselves demonstrate the visual power of symmetry, repetition and geometric order.

For Britton and Ricketts, the archive also creates an opportunity to consider what happens when patterns and processes move through time.

“Bringing the Karastan archive into these new galleries gives us an opportunity to look at a significant part of our region’s textile history through a contemporary lens,” Britton said. “For our students, it also makes the connection between history, design and making tangible. They’re not simply studying textiles; they’re seeing how materials, processes and ideas carry stories forward.”

^{Rowland Ricketts and Amanda Britton curate a wide array of exhibition material provided by Mohawk Industries. Photography by Livia Stetson.}

The collaboration also advances KSU’s growing Textile and Surface Design program, connecting students with industry expertise, professional practices and the rich history of textile innovation. These experiences are helping the university build a distinctive, workforce-ready program that prepares emerging designers to contribute to the future of the textile and surface design industries.

For Kennesaw State University, the exhibition carries an additional sense of continuity. Ricketts was the first artist to exhibit at the Zuckerman Museum of Art nearly two decades ago. His return to KSU, now as a co-curator and artist creating new work for the inaugural exhibition in the Emily Bourne Grigsby Galleries, connects the university’s early commitment to contemporary textile art with its expanding vision for the Arts District.

The new galleries were created as part of that vision: a place where the work of students and faculty can be presented alongside other nationally and internationally recognized artists and ideas. The late Emily Bourne Grigsby was a great friend of the arts, in addition to being the Fulton County Grand Jury Associations first woman president and arbitrator for the New York Stock Exchange. Because of her admiration and respect for Athos Menaboni, her friend and one of Georgia’s most prominent artists, she donated two of his paintings to KSU’s Zuckerman Museum of Art to help establish its Athos Menaboni Art Fund. She also endowed the Athos Menaboni Art Research Scholarship for the College of the Arts. Her bequest of $1 Million after her death has helped fund these permanent gallery spaces that honor Athos Menaboni and the students at KSU’s School of Art & Design.

The inaugural exhibition reflects that mission by bringing together a significant regional archive, a KSU faculty member and a resident artist whose work has been exhibited at institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum.

“The Emily Bourne Grigsby Galleries and Athos Menaboni Gallery were created to bring artists, students and our community into conversation,” said Director of the School of Art and Design Geo Sipp. “This exhibition embodies that vision. We’re able to bring an important regional archive into the gallery while also creating new work and new experiences around it. It’s a wonderful way to begin the life of this space.”

Together, the archive and contemporary installations invite visitors to look again at textiles not simply as functional or decorative objects, but as records of technological change, cultural exchange, human labor and memory.

Nearly a century after Karastan began translating traditional textile traditions through American manufacturing, Woven Reflections: Reimagining the Karastan Archive asks what those patterns can still tell us — and what new patterns might emerge when artists revisit them today.

 

Woven Reflections: Reimagining the Karastan Archive
Curated by: Amanda Britton and Rowland Ricketts 
In partnership with Mohawk Industries

Public Opening: October 24, 2026, 4 PM
Exhibition dates: October 27-December 4, 2026

Location: Chastain Pointe, Suite 101, 1200 Chastain Road, Kennesaw, GA 30144

Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.  Closed Sundays & Mondays.

Free Admission

 

For more information about times and locations, please visit the Zuckerman Museum of Arts webpage.