Gary TylerGary TylerGary Tyler

Gary Tyler is a fiber artist, living and working in Los Angeles, California. For over four decades, Tyler has been working at the intersection of art and social justice, teaching himself how to quilt to support the Angola Prison Hospice program, where he was a volunteer. For three decades, Tyler was the President of the Angola Prison drama program, using the position to promote a culture of community, civic responsibility, and optimism. At the age of 16, Tyler was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. Though his case was the subject of international outcry, the artist spent 42 years in Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana before being released at the age of 57. Although his artistic practice was born out of injustice, it eminently generates hope. Tyler is a 2019 and 2020 Art Matters Awardee, and his work is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

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Installation view of Gary Tyler: We are the Willing, curated by Allison Glenn at Library Street Collective (July 2023)

“Doing textile work gives me an opportunity to be able to utilize fabric in a most creative way that I never thought really existed. It’s something that I feel that’s empowering. It tends to really manifest who I am as an individual.”

— Gary Tyler

Selected Work

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Gary Tyler

Detail of Cousin, 2024
Quilting Fabric, Thread, Paint and Batting
58h x 49w in

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Gary Tyler

One of World's Wonders: African Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, 2023
Quilting Fabric, Burlap, Thread, and Batting
51.5h x 71.5w in

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Gary Tyler

Remembrance, 2023
Quilting Fabric, Thread, and Batting
96h x 108w in

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Gary Tyler

Rebirth, 2023
Quilting Fabric, Thread, and Batting
36h x 48w in

Exhibitions

Press

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