Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/02 - 08/31
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location
Marilyn Citron O’Rourke Art Gallery at the Benicia Public Library
Address
150 East L St
Benicia, C
The Marilyn Citron O’Rourke Gallery at the Benicia Public Library is proud to present an
exhibition of stitched compositions on paper and fabric by Deborah Benioff Friedman and a
collection of wire & paper mobiles made in collaboration with her husband Tom Russell.
Suspended/Mended draws from the language of textile and repair — hand-stitching, layering,
cutting, and mending — to build abstract compositions that explore memory as a fragmented,
physical entity. Benioff Friedman works with scraps, found materials, and thread, treating each
stitch as both mark and act of restoration. The resulting pieces resist narrative while insisting on
presence: worn, torn, and nonetheless held together.
The mobiles, created in collaboration with Russell, extend the show’s themes into three
dimensions. Suspended from above, they incorporate found objects whose weight and wear
carry their own quiet histories — materials chosen, like the stitched works, for what persists in
them rather than what they once were.
“Fragments hold more than their origin story,” says Benioff Friedman. “I let scraps and thread
suggest their own fractured language — pieces that feel like murmurs from something half-
recalled, half-erased. It’s not about nostalgia, but about what survives in the leavings.”
Deborah Benioff Friedman is a retired veterinary ophthalmologist and mixed-media artist living
in the San Francisco Bay Area. From her experience as a microsurgeon she cultivated attention
to detail and precise sewing skills, now utilized in her art practice. She works with paper, thread,
glue, paint, and wire — drawn to materials that are worn, rusted, torn, or otherwise touched by
time. More of her work can be found at www.deborahbeniofffriedman.com.
Tom Russell is a San Francisco Bay Area designer and builder with a lifelong affinity for working
with his hands. Raised in Los Angeles, he brings a maker’s sensibility to the collaborative
mobiles he creates with Benioff Friedman.
The exhibit will be on view from August 2-31st, in The Marilyn Citron O’Rourke Gallery at the Benicia Public Library. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday 10 am to 9 pm | Friday-Sunday Noon to 6 pm
There will be a reception for the artist at 3-5 pm on August 2, to which the public is invited.
