The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry

Now on view at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry presents the largest exhibition of the Swedish artist's work ever staged in the United States, and it unfurls like one of her expansive appliqué works: vivid, layered, and brimming with life.

Moki and Neneh Cherry in their home in Gamla Stan, Stockholm, 1967. Photo: Sven Åsberg. Courtesy of the Estate of Moki Cherry.

Born Monica Karlsson in Norbotten, Moki Cherry (1943-2009), built a career that dissolved the boundaries between art, family, and everyday ritual. Her guiding mantra—"home as stage, stage as home"—infused every textile, painting, and costume she made. These were not static works, destined to hang untouched in galleries. They were backdrops to music, banners of protest and celebration, clothes for musicians, and wall hangings that transformed ordinary domestic rooms into radiant spaces of performance.

Visitors will encounter her large, hand-stitched works, once pinned across schoolhouse walls and loft apartments, now vibrating with the same energy that framed concerts, plays, and family gatherings. Moving through the galleries offers a glimpse of how fabric functioned for Moki as both shelter and stage-light, simultaneously practical and transcendent...

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Image Credits:

Lead: Moki Cherry, Title Unknown (Dragon) (Detail), 1975. Textile appliqué tapestry (silk, cotton, mixed fabrics). 78.75 x 137.75 inches. Photo credit: Anders Sune Berg, Galleri Nicolai Wallner.

All other images as credited in photo captions.