Featured artist ANA TERESA BARBOZA GUBO was born in 1981 in Lima, Peru. She studied painting at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and has since gained a reputation for her embroidered sculptures and collages. Blending graphite drawing, used clothes, and intricate, colorful needlework, Barboza creates fantastical composites anchored firmly in the surreal.

The pieces we feature in this issue come from her series titled Animales Familiares (“Familiar Animals”), which explores the boundary between affection and aggression, the feral and the familiar. How does embroidery’s inherent femininity counteract/complement the potential violence and masculinity of the wild? Here, as well as in her other series exploring fashion and the female form, Barboza dissects discomfort to reveal the secrets hidden — and stitched — beneath our skin.

Cover: [Untitled], 2011, graphite and embroidery on cloth

INTERVIEWS

ALEX RONAN (interview with Kate Durbin) is a writer and abortion doula based in New York. You can follow her on Twitter for taxi thoughts and see what she’s been writing here. 

CHRIS DUFFY (interview with Good Cop, Great Cop)  (@ChrisIDuffy) is a writer, a comedian, and the host of the new public radio show You’re the Expert.