Xenobia Bailey

Xenobia Bailey is a fiber artist and cultural activist who, through crochet and needlework, transforms trauma into a productive creative energy of Black Joy, and alchemizes history and disinvestment into representations of presence and future for the African-American community. She is influenced by the thrift and creativity of her mother who practiced domestic crafts and upcycled thrift store quilts and afghans into elegant coverings for used furniture. Bailey branded a “Funktional Design” aesthetic that incorporates the frequency and vibrations of her signature concentric circles, bright colors, and symbols referencing her Pacific Northwest African American experience, and the indigenous cultures of her birthplace in Seattle, Washington. Music of the 1960s, which she grew up with, also makes its way into her visual language.