Embroidered Traditions from Morocco to Afghanistan

About This Event

In the textiles of SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa), embroidery was never just decoration — artists used centuries-old embellishment techniques to carry real information about identity, status, and belief, stitched into the fabric itself. This is the Art Institute's first exhibition ever devoted entirely to that tradition, and it treats the form with the same seriousness the museum usually reserves for its European-painting anchors.

Curator Janet Marion Purdy, the museum's Barbara Franke Associate Curator of Textiles, pulled together 70-plus pieces spanning the 18th through 20th centuries, most never shown publicly before — headdresses, wedding dresses, abayas worn by both men and women, and four rare Burqu' face veils on loan from a private collector in Riyadh.

Worth knowing: it's been running since May 2026 and closes Jan 25, 2027, so there's real time left, but this isn't the kind of show you want to rush — the detail work rewards slowing down in front of each piece.