Mary Tooley Parker is a textile artist known for her innovative approach to hooked rug making. With a BFA in Dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Parker has successfully transitioned her creative talents into the visual arts. Her work pushes the boundaries of traditional craft, incorporating unconventional materials and techniques to create vibrant, expressive pieces. Parker's art has been widely exhibited, with solo shows at prestigious venues such as LaiSun Keane Gallery in Boston and The Untitled Space in New York City. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art and the Arnot Art Museum.
In 2015, she was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Folk/Traditional Arts, recognizing her contribution to the field. This year, Parker was awarded a second NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Folk/Traditional Arts, further solidifying her position as a leader in the textile arts community. Her pieces have garnered critical acclaim, winning awards such as Best in Show at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Association National Juried Show in 2019.
Parker's work has been featured in various publications, including Hyperallergic, The Boston Globe, and New York Magazine's "The Cut." She is now represented by Good Naked Gallery in Brooklyn, marking another milestone in her evolving career.
In addition to her artistic practice, Parker has served as a panel juror for the New York Foundation for the Arts and has been featured on HGTV's Uncommon Threads. Her art is held in the Northwestern Mutual Corporate Collection and numerous private collections. Currently based in Northern Westchester County, NY, Mary Tooley Parker continues to explore the intersection of craft and fine art, pushing the boundaries of textile artistry.
Known for her intricate interpretations of people and nature, Parker draws inspiration from memories, local history, and visual imagery to craft works that reside at the intersection of traditional craft and contemporary art. Her innovative use of materials in textile art challenges the boundaries of both mediums.
Parker’s work incorporates a wide array of materials, blending traditional fibers such as wool, cotton, and silk with unconventional elements like fleece, handspun yarn, metallic fibers, bicycle streamers, and shoelaces. Her bold use of natural and synthetic dyes creates vibrant, nuanced color palettes that are as visually captivating as they are tactilely engaging. This multi-sensory approach encourages deeper interaction with the works, blurring the lines between craft and fine art.
Including two bright and whimsical pieces from her Interior series, this exhibition features seven pieces from Parker’s NOW series, a body of work created over the past few years as a tribute to beloved dogs of friends and family. Some of these dogs are now old or have passed on, while others, like rescue dogs with BB gun wounds, bear the scars of their past. Living fully in the moment, these dogs embody unconditional love. Though some of the NOW series works have been exhibited elsewhere, this is the first time they will be displayed together as a unified collection.
Through her work, Parker elevates humble, everyday materials into powerful artistic statements, offering viewers a fresh perspective on the familiar world around them.
"I create textile art using a time-intensive, historic rug making technique. There are no electric tools in my process, and I never rush to get it done. I've been enthralled with every fiber-related making format since I was 8 years old, and I'm mostly self-taught. Though I don't have a visual art education—I trained as a dancer and studied music for many years—fiber has always been my passion.
My basic process includes hand-dyeing wool yardage, cutting it into strips, and pulling these strips up through a linen foundation using a primitive, wood-handled hook. I also spin yarn to be used in the work. This slow-making approach allows me time to adjust, revise, and truly enjoy the process.
I love incorporating non-traditional materials alongside the wool. This creates a densely textured but still 2-dimensional work that I hope draws the viewer in to both examine the fiber materials and engage with their innate warmth and familiarity. My aim is to offer clear evocations of people, places, and things that resonate deeply with others' experiences.
While I'm using a traditional, folk art medium, I strive to give rug hooking a contemporary aesthetic through my tableaus, vivid colors, humor, detail, and wide use of new and exotic fibers. I want to lift these rugs off the floor, so to speak, to be viewed as art."
- Mary Tooley Parker, 2024
To learn more about artist Mary Tooley Parker, please visit www.marytooleyparker.com.