Max Adrian, the artist behind "RIPSTOP," and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Curator + Exhibitions Director Sarah Darro will host an intimate tour of Adrian’s motion-activated inflatable sculptures.

These monumentally-scaled, hand-sewn pieces transport viewers into a realm of artifice, desire, and utopian worldbuilding. This talk will delve into Adrian’s wide ranging creative influences, from queer fiber art and game theory, to camp horror films and puppetry, as well as his background working in a commercial mascot shop. The tour will also address the historic connections between inflatable design and utopianism.

Adrian (he/they) is a textile artist interested in ideas about queerness, desire, and consumerism. His soft-sculptural practice finds inspiration in a variety of sewing-related crafts like quilting, bag making, inflatables, puppetry, drag, and fetish wear. Adrian employs an evocative aesthetic of bold colors and tactile materials that tease expectations of pleasure. His work envisions a postmodern playscape, where bodies and objects are blurred, asking how the things humans desire impact a sense of personal identity and community building.