Central Florida artist Haley McCormick's 'Felt' fiber art exhibition to finally open this weekend

Originally set to open the week in March that the coronavirus pandemic shuttered, well, every single thing everywhere, Central Florida artist Haley McCormick's exhibition Felt is finally opening this weekend in the Downtown Art District.

Multimedia artist McCormick – whose previous medium of choice was  film – became fascinated with the endless aesthetic possibilities of fiber when she started working at a family-owned textile mill in Volusia County last year.

"It immediately changed how much beauty I see in materials," McCormick told Orlando Weekly in March. "The process of making fiber is so intimate and beautiful. It's structural, but a very free kind of structure, and I wanted to highlight that."

Felt is a somewhat reconfigured and scaled-down version of the more immersive installation that Fiber supposed to be – out of caution and coronavirus safety concerns – but attendees will still be immersed in all the myriad forms and textures and possibilities of fiber.

"Felt is a sensory experience through fragments of loose fiber, from its most raw stages to felted tapestries," promises the event description. And indeed, McCormick's practice is at the intersection of artisanal craft and conceptual installation.

Felt opens on Saturday, Sept. 5, at the Downtown Arts Collective. The opening reception is from 6-9 p.m. Or you can make an appointment earlier in the day for a viewing from noon-4 p.m. Admission is free.



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