A Kansas City Gallery Celebrating Women Artists: Rhiannon Griego — Threads of Her Own
Celebrating Women Artists At Our Kansas City Gallery
Blackbird has always been a space for conversation: between object and story, between maker and material. As we expand our creative dialogue, we’re opening our Kansas City gallery to hold space for female artists whose work embodies depth, intuition, and the handmade.
This ongoing series will celebrate women artists who translate feeling into form - artists who move between tradition and innovation to create works that live, breathe, and transform, artists who value sustainability in their craft.
As a Kansas City gallery rooted in design, sustainability, and storytelling, we’re honored to create a platform where female artists can be seen, supported, and celebrated.
Who Is Rhiannon Griego?
We begin with Rhiannon Griego, a female New Mexico–based textile artist whose woven pieces are more than art objects. They’re meditations on ancestry, intuition, and place. Her artwork merges the ancient and the contemporary, the geometric and the spiritual, each piece a layered reflection of landscape and lineage with sustainable materials and natural fibers.
A Journey Rooted in Heritage and Intuition
Rhiannon’s path to weaving didn’t follow a map. It began as curiosity, a fascination with the histories held in Indigenous textiles, that evolved into something almost fated. After meeting a weaving teacher by chance, she began studying the language of the loom. “Once I had my own loom, a communication began,” she recalls. That conversation has never stopped.
Her approach aligns seamlessly with Blackbird’s belief that meaningful design begins with material, memory, and intention. By inviting Rhiannon’s work into our space, we continue building a bridge between sustainable craftsmanship and contemporary fiber art, a dialogue that sits at the heart of our Kansas City gallery.
Weaving as Meditation and Memory
For Rhiannon, weaving became both meditation and mirror, a way to translate chaos into peace, to understand how every thread, like every experience, holds its place in the larger whole. “Weaving informs me that all threads of life are woven into the tapestry of who we are,” she says.
Rooted in her New Mexican lineage, Rhiannon’s textile artwork draws deeply from the desert - the copper soil, the changing light, the wild contrast between silence and color. Her palettes are born from place, shifting with the sun. “The colors of the landscape are unreal,” she says, “often changing with the natural light that befalls this place.” In her hands, that shifting spectrum becomes fabric…a living record of her surroundings.
Working With Sustainable Materials and Plant-Dyed Threads
Working mostly with natural and sustainable fibers, Rhiannon approaches her materials as collaborators rather than tools. She listens to them - the way they stretch, resist, shimmer. “There’s a voice within the fibers that instructs me,” she explains. The result is tactile poetry: metallic threads that catch light like water, sustainable plant-dyed yarns that feel sun-soaked and alive.
At Blackbird Collection, this attention to material integrity mirrors our own approach. Sustainability isn’t a trend for us. It’s a foundation. By choosing artists like Rhiannon, who honor natural fibers, sustainability, and slow creation, we’re able to bring conversations about sustainable interiors into our gallery through the lens of fine art.
Weaving As An Intuitive Process
Rhiannon’s process is intuitive - more emotion than plan, more sensation than sketch. Sometimes she weaves to the rhythm of a song; sometimes she imagines how a landscape might feel if it could be worn. Her wearable works hold this spirit - garments that blur the line between art and adornment, grounding the body in memory.
This connection between process and emotion is what makes Rhiannon’s practice so compelling. Contemporary textile art is often defined by technique, but her artwork reminds us that intuition is an equally powerful tool. One that transforms weaving into a living, breathing form of storytelling.
Influenced by artists like Olga de Amaral and Helen Frankenthaler, Rhiannon’s visual language moves between abstraction and reverence - fields of color that breathe, textures that recall terrain. Yet at its core, her work is about relationship: between maker and sustainable material, past and present, earth and hand.
Women Artists at Blackbird Collection
Showcasing Rhiannon’s work marks the beginning of a new era for Blackbird where art, design, and sustainability come together in a more intentional way through female artists. Through this series, we hope to deepen the connection between our Kansas City community and the women artists whose practices shape the evolving world of contemporary craft and sustainable artwork.
As we begin this new series, Blackbird celebrates women like Rhiannon Griego. Through her loom, she reminds us that creativity isn’t just built, it’s remembered. It’s listening. It’s allowing the world around us to weave through us, until what we make begins to hum with something ancient and alive.
About Blackbird Collection
A consciously curated lifestyle brand, Blackbird Collection blends sustainable fashion with thoughtfully selected luxe interiors, offering timeless pieces that embody quiet luxury. Founded by Amy Appleton Dreyer, the concept honors her Sicilian heritage and passion for exploration while championing sustainability and intentional living. With a mix of international designers, vintage finds, and small-batch brands, Blackbird invites you to experience sustainable fashion and luxury interiors in Kansas City.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Rhiannon Griego and Women Artists At Blackbird Collection
Who is Rhiannon Griego?
Rhiannon Griego is a New Mexico–based textile artist whose work explores the intersection of heritage, intuition, and sustainability. Her weavings merge ancient techniques with contemporary design to create tactile meditations on memory and landscape.
What materials does Rhiannon Griego use in her textiles?
Rhiannon works primarily with natural and sustainable fibers, including plant-dyed yarns and metallic threads. Her materials are chosen for their texture, movement, and connection to the desert landscape that inspires her work.
How does Rhiannon Griego’s art embody sustainability?
Her art practice centers on respect for natural materials and slow creation. By using hand-dyed, ethically sourced fibers, she promotes a form of sustainable weaving that values longevity, mindfulness, and ecological balance.
Why is Blackbird Collection featuring Rhiannon Griego and other female artists?
Blackbird Collection celebrates female artists who embody depth, intuition, and craftsmanship. Rhiannon’s work aligns with the gallery’s mission to bridge art, design, and sustainable practice through meaningful dialogue.
Where can I view Rhiannon Griego’s work?
Her woven works are currently on view at Blackbird Collection, alongside pieces that explore the connection between craft, material, and storytelling. Visitors can experience her art in person or learn more online at BlackbirdCollection.com.
What is the “Women in Art” series at Blackbird Collection?
The ongoing series highlights women whose work merges tradition with innovation. Each exhibition focuses on artists who bring emotional resonance and craftsmanship to contemporary design.