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Plexus no. 44
Plexus no. 44

Plexus no. 44

Primary (Mexico City, Mexico, 1973–Dallas, Texas, present)
NationalityNorth American
Place MadeUnited States, North America
Date2023
MediumThread, painted wood, and hooks
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Commission through generous funds provided by Sally and Tom Dunning, with additional support from Mary Beth and Phil Canfield, Suzanne McFayden, Janet and Wilson Allen, Aubrey and Bobby Epstein, and Zarmeena Vendal. Support is also provided by Clayton and Andrew Maebius, 2023.6
Rights Statement
Collection AreaModern and Contemporary Art
Object number2023.6
On View
On view
Collection Highlight
Label Text

“This color mist alludes to a symbolic quest to materialize light, to give it density, so that I can offer the viewer an approximation of things otherwise inaccessible to us—a glimmer of hope that brings us closer to the transcendent” - Gabriel Dawe 


Gabriel Dawe’s love for the vast, dramatic Texas sky began after he moved to Dallas to attend graduate school. Combined with an enduring interest in architecture and fashion, this celestial fascination spurred Dawe’s Plexus series, of which this work is number 44. Each Plexus installation is designed specifically for the architecture of a space, crafted with miles of embroidery thread in a spectrum of colors. As a viewer moves around the installation, the colored threads shift and shimmer, as though Dawe has captured and preserved a beam of sunlight. While the material qualities of embroidery thread imbue the Plexus installations with a feeling of hazy weightlessness, Dawe specifically chose to work with fiber and textiles to contradict traditional notions of gender enforced during his childhood in Mexico City. For Dawe, the transcendent appears not only in impermanent natural beauty, but also the ability to exist beyond superimposed boundaries.