the artist
Zoë Barbano Grinder(she/her) is a seamster, quilter and mender based in Providence, RI.
Born in New York, Zoë grew up in southern Connecticut, learning to sew with her mother. As a teenager, she sewed most of her own clothes from lack of access and o plus size clothing and frustration to body discrimination within the fashion world.
She graduated with a BFA in Fibers from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In her time there, she focused on the history of color theory and heading the campus Restore. The Restore was and still is a “free store” that collects used art supplies and material for redistribution to students and the general public.
After graduation, Zoë moved to Rhode Island on a whim where she continues to sew personally and professionally from her home studio. While not sewing, Zoë is a nanny, baker, and avid dreamer.
To see the artist’s complete CV, please click here.
the practice
Zoë Barbano Grinder (ZBG) is a practice dedicated to making lovely space - the home, the body, the familial dinner party. ZBG calls itself a practice, because at its core, it exists to show up everyday, be gentle, and live life as well as possible. While its creator came from a familiar, “my mother sewed” and “my grandmother crocheted” route, the practice only became what it is from a need to be at peace with one’s own body and home.
ZBG makes pillows, quilts, tote bags, festive bunting, clothing, etc from dead stock and thrifted vintage fabrics. There is joy in finding something old and lovely. There is need to preserve and use what is for well-being of the planet.
The work is inspired by the history of color theory. The artist considers every piece big or small to be a color study (the object) within a color study (the greater world). Every color theory has come from some greater cultural, social, or historical movement. Sir Issac Newton added the color “indigo” for the booming indigo trade of his time, while Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the romantic poet, believed purple to be a vain and unnecessary color. If all of history has been changing the rules, cannot the future too?
