Natalya Khorover

For nearly 20 years, Natalya Khorover has been reclaiming and repurposing materials for her art, subjecting them to a process of transformation that renders them unrecognizable. Using a combination of meditative hand stitching and an industrial sewing machine, Khorover stitches and collages layers of translucent single-use plastics that would otherwise contribute to the pollution of our planet. During her residency, which is inspired by Order / Reorder: Experiments with Collections, Khorover will conduct unique, hands-on, upcycling workshops that spark creativity while contributing to the health of the planet. Khorover states:

“I create art for earth’s sake, and I am motivated by plastic pollution, overconsumption, and the urban environment. I strive to use materials that would be condemned to the landfill and choose to use the unusual techniques of stitching and sewing to bring my artwork to life. I hope to help visitors develop a vocabulary around plastics, waste, waste management, and even solutions. To create an opportunity for visitors to engage in informed conversations and empower them to see themselves as part of the solution.”

In fall 2022, Khorover created a site-specific installation from single-use plastic waste for The Social Fabric, an exhibition at ArtsWestchester in White Plains, NY. Her work has also been exhibited at the Dairy Barn’s biennial Quilt National (2021, 2017, 2013); the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center; The Visions Art Museum in San Diego; The Other Art Fair in Brooklyn, NY; and The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. She has taught at Hudson Valley Fiber Art Workshops, Craft Napa Uncorked At Home, and Create with Cloth Paper Scissors Mixed Media Retreats.

Khorover’s work has been featured in periodicals and books including Surface Design Magazine, Fiber Art Now, SAQA Journal, Art Quilt Collector, Quilting Arts Magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine, Art Quilting Studio, and Artful Adventures in Mixed Media by Nathalie Kalbach, from North Light Books. Khorover, who earned her BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), Surface Design Association (SDA), the Katonah Museum Artist Association (KMAA) and the Silvermine Guild of Artists.

Public Workshops

Upcycled Community Collage: The View Outside
Saturday & Sunday, April 8 & 9, 1–4pm
Saturday & Sunday, April 22 & 23, 1–4pm
Saturday & Sunday, May 6 & 7, 1–4pm
Saturday & Sunday, May 20 & 21, 1–4pm
Drop in and join this upcycling workshop offered over the course of four weekends, led by Teaching Artist-in-Residence Natalya Khorover and inspired by Order / Reorder. Together, create a large-scale, mixed-media art quilt of the Palisades that is made entirely from recycled single-use plastics. We invite you to collect rinsed and cleaned shopping bags and any other colorful, soft, and pliable fabric-like single-use plastics from your home and bring them to the Greene Education Center to be used in the artwork. Work with this eco-artist to attain your creative vision while contributing to the health of the planet! Recommended for ages 8+.

Expressing Identity
Sunday, June 11, 1–4pm
What defines you? What is your beauty? What is your secret power? How would you represent your identity? What is the setting where you feel most empowered, the most you? Create a portrait with fabric and found materials based on Alvin C. Hollingsworth’s painting Aspects of Women. We will also take inspiration from RIDIKKULUZ’s Keffiyeh Kurlz and Anna Walinska’s Self-Portrait: Flamenco.

Cosmic Energy
Sunday, July 9, 1–4pm
Take inspiration from Arlé Sklar-Weinstein’s painting Portal and Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz’s Op art Untitled, and create an intuitive expression of your own cosmic energy. Use paint, paper, and repurposed materials, and arrange them in a collage of overlapping circles, half circles, squares, and triangles.

Vibrant Lens
Sunday, August 13, 1–4pm
Create a layered, stained glass–like artwork made of brightly colored translucent single-use plastics, transparent tissue paper, and clear tracing papers tinged with colored pencils or pastels. Add collage components from magazines, plastic packaging, or other ephemera. Be inspired by the vibrant colors and translucent layers of Therman Statom’s mixed-media artwork and Louis Comfort Tiffany’s glass vessels on view in Order / Reorder.

Family Art Workshops

Floral Wheels
Saturdays & Sundays in April, 1–4pm
Make simple three-dimensional flower collages in this workshop inspired by Borinquen Gallo’s Heaven Wheels Above You, on view in Order / Reorder. Use recycled single-use plastic to create lovely compositions of flowers that will last forever. Recommended for ages 5+.

Kinship Networks
Saturdays & Sundays in May, 1–4pm
Draw a map of your family’s neighborhood and add in the homes, parks, and stores that make it up. Create a landscape or cityscape collage informed by the vivid colors of works in Order / Reorder, such as Susan Hall’s Moving Home, Richard Hayley Lever’s Train Station-Yonkers, Ralph Fasanella’s Grand Union, and Leonardo Ilianov De La Cruz’s Charlie’s bodega. Recommended for ages 5+.

Cabinet of Curiosities
Saturdays & Sundays in June & August, 1–4pm
Abstraction is a practice of exploring shapes, lines, and color. Explore it on a miniature scale by combining elements inside a small, clear plastic clamshell box. We will make 2D and 3D shapes by repurposing single-use plastic packaging and arranging it in various combinations inside the box. Take it home and open it every now and then to rearrange the treasures inside or add to them. We will take inspiration from Therman Statom’s mixed-media artwork, Louise Nevelson’s sculpture Sky Enclosure, and Joseph Cornell’s sculptural vignette. Recommended for ages 5+.

Support provided by Art Bridges.