Panda Landa "Vessel Ii" Hand-Dyed Fabric, Checkered Triangle Textile Art in Coral and Lime, California Desert Art, Original 20 X 20 Inches, 2023

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In this textile wall art of hand-dyed fabric by California desert artist Panda Landa, a coral-pink field marbled with white … Read more In this textile wall art of hand-dyed fabric by California desert artist Panda Landa, a coral-pink field marbled with white and pale rose, where the dye has pooled and bleached in cloudy patches, holds a triangle of acid-lime and pale yellow checks, apex up. The contrast is loud, hot coral against neon lime, but the soft clouds keep it from feeling harsh. The squares of the checkerboard are slightly irregular, cut by hand and joined with small seams. Panda Landa dyes second-hand fabric by hand, and the way the color varies across this large coral cloth shows it. At twenty inches square it has the scale to anchor a wall without any help.

A bold, joyful square for a living room, a studio, a kids' space or a bright entry. The coral and lime combination suits white walls, rattan, natural wood and tropical greens, and holds its own against patterned rugs and bold upholstery. Hang it above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, where its energy can set the tone for the room.

Hand-dyed fabric on stretcher bars, 20 x 20 x 0.75 in (50.8 x 50.8 x 1.9 cm). Unframed.

Panda Landa builds each piece from second-hand fabric that is dyed by hand, then cut and sewn together by instinct and improvisation, letting the composition develop naturally. Seams join the cloths into bands, arches, triangles and spirals, and the dye is left to pool and bloom, so the mottling in each cloth stays part of the surface. The sewn panel is stretched over wooden stretcher bars about three quarters of an inch deep and is unframed.

Panda Landa (b. 1982) is a queer, non-binary visual artist and filmmaker raised in the Nevada desert and now based in Joshua Tree, California. Self-taught, they work through instinct and improvisation, making mixed-media textile pieces from second-hand fabrics that are dyed by hand, stitched and stretched over frames. Sustainability is central to the practice, and every cloth arrives with its own history.

Their ongoing series, including PORTAL, ALTAR, ECLIPSE, VESSEL and RITUAL, touch on queerness, identity, ancestral narrative, healing and transformation, and more recent beaded panels carry short, tender phrases in color. Landa made the 2022 film In the Middle of Everywhere and has offered a workshop on giving new life to clothes at the Joshua Tree Music Festival. See less