Liz Collins

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Liz Collins (born 1968) is an American contemporary artist and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for her art using fabric, knitwear, and textiles, turning these materials into large, multi-dimensional works that feel architectural and welcoming.

She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, earning a BFA in 1991 and an MFA in 1999. In 1999, as her MFA thesis, she started a knitwear label and ran it until 2004. She also patent­ed a method for interweaving different materials to make garments. She joined the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1999.

After the label closed, Collins returned to teaching. She was a textiles professor at RISD from 2003 to 2013 and has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Moore College of Art, Pratt Institute, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Parsons. In 2017, she mentored Marco DaSilva in Queer Art’s Fellowship.

Collins uses a process she calls “Knit-Grafting,” which means reconstructing garments by weaving together different fabrics and materials such as lace and metal. Her work blends textiles with sculpture and performance to create immersive, interactive pieces. The Knitting Nation project, a long-running installation and performance, explored fashion labor, sexuality, gender, and sustainability. Phase 4, titled “Pride,” displayed a hand-knit rainbow flag in Providence for six hours to honor the LGBTQ+ community.

Her art often recycles textiles, uses bold color, and includes structures like poles or fences. It invites viewers to experience different textures, scents, and colors, spanning intimate wall hangings to large installations.

Key collaborations and exhibitions include a 2005 project with 18 RISD students and Donna Karan to reimagine DKNY’s cozy sweater, shown at DKNY’s Madison Avenue flagship. In 2018 she contributed to Between Inside and Outside in Slovenia, and in 2019 she participated in Chris Dawson’s Flutter in Los Angeles. In 2022 she created Every Which Way for Meta’s Manhattan office in the Farley Building. In 2024 she had two works in Venice, in an exhibition curated by Adriano Pedrosa.

Her work is in several public collections, including the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), the FIT Museum (New York), the RISD Museum (Providence), the Tang Museum (Saratoga Springs), the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Fashion Resource Center.