Talent: The Textile Business-- As anyone who's seen Alighiero Boetti's embroderies of the seventies and eighties knows, weaving, embroidering, quilting, and beading--all those earnest, busy-bee crafts that "serious" atists used to sneer at--have paved the way for some of the really interesting developments in contemporary art. The twenty artists in Alterations continue to put traditional textile practices to new and surprising service, from Elaine Reichek's fanciful "sampler" to Charles LeDray's miniature hand-sewn sailor suit to Devorah Sperber's Lie Like a Rug, 2000-2001 (pictured), a faux Persian rug composed of 18,000 pen caps adhered to flexible canvas. At James Graham & Sons, 1014 Madison Avenue, at 78th Street; through August 31. July 9, 2001
photo credit: Max Yawney