Basil Kincaid: Spirit in the Gift

September 3rd, 2025 to FALL, 2026

Basil Kincaid: Spirit in the Gift marks the first solo museum exhibition in Washington DC for Kincaid (b. 1986, St. Louis, MO). Four large-scale quilted artworks created during the artist’s residency at the Rubell Museum in Miami in 2023 will be presented in the DC museum’s largest gallery.

Kincaid’s work pays homage to the long history of quilt-making while exploring the relationships between identity, ancestry, and place. Some themes are deeply personal and autobiographical, others are more universal, but all evoke the joy inherent in the artist’s love for and nurturing of community. The entailed and labor-intensive process of creating these monumental works is balanced by an improvisational, spontaneous, and fluid quality that runs throughout them. The result is as indebted to freehand drawing and jazz music as it is to patchwork quilt making and embroidery.

Buttons in the Sky Bursting at the Seams, 2023
Kente, Ghanaian Wax Block Fabric, cotton, wool, velour, polyester, sequins, embroidery floss, lace, batting, buttons, curtains
144 x 204 x 12 in. (365.8 x 518.2 x 30.5 cm)
acquired in 2023

The Courtship of Lightnin' Bugs, 2023
Kente, Ghanaian Wax Block Fabric, cotton, wool, fur, polyester, embroidery floss, tweed, yarn, velvet, curtains
96 x 168 in. (243.8 x 426.7 cm)
acquired in 2023

The Fields We Lay and Turn with Horns, 2023
Corduroy, Kente, Ghanaian Wax Block Fabric, cotton, wool, fur, polyester, sequins, embroidery floss, selected materials from previous performance works, curtains, on wall
180 x 240 x 6 in. (457.2 x 609.6 x 15.2 cm)
acquired in 2023

Guardian Spider and Shadow Snake, 2023
embroidery and hand woven cotton fiber on canvas
192 x 144 in. (487.7 x 365.8 cm)
acquired in 2023