December 6, 2017, by Andrew Russeth.
The other stunner was a solo outing by Tschabalala Self at the new Miami space of Thierry Goldberg Gallery, a longtime denizen of the New York’s Lower East Side. Self’s bewitching stitched and painted fabric portraits have been popping up in prominent places over the past couple of years now (in the gender-themed group exhibition “Trigger” at the New Museum, most recently), and they keep getting better and better—more inventive and crisper in composition without losing any of their radically loose, provisional feel. (No easy task when thread and needle are involved.) Her latest works are set in bodegas, and seeing them in the dystopian luxury land that is the Miami Design District could be discomfiting (designer stores fill the area). But Self makes it all work by setting down a checkered floor and and wallpaper with her drawings of corner-store buys. She channels a world that radiates energy, where identity and form are always in delirious, thrilling flux.