First Survey on Marilou Schultz Charts Her Innovation at Intersection of Navajo Weaving and Digital Technology

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY (February 2, 2026)—Opening June 27, Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College’s (CCS Bard) Hessel Museum of Art marks the first survey of acclaimed Navajo/Diné weaver and mathematics educator Marilou Schultz. On view through November 29, 2026, the exhibition positions Schultz as an innovator whose work across culture and industry has influenced the practices of art, Navajo weaving, and computer architecture over a 65-year career. Replica of a Chip traces the full arc of Schultz’s artistic practice, demonstrating how she has consistently pushed the boundaries of experimentation within Navajo weaving, first through teaching herself new weaving styles, dyes, and techniques and later, using it as a means to reflect on the digital technologies shaping contemporary culture and society—from early computer microprocessors to stock market tickers and other digital data.

The exhibition is curated by Candice Hopkins (citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, CCS Bard ‘03), Executive Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project and Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies at CCS Bard.

“Whether it be her early storm patterns or her microchip designs, Marilou is a singular figure in Navajo weaving, and one who has always pushed the bounds of her medium,” said curator Candice Hopkins “It is a privilege to extend my collaboration with Marilou to highlight her remarkable  practice and how it intersects with Navajo Nation’s contributions to pivotal technological advances of the 20^th century.”

"Marilou Schultz is one of the most technically inventive artists of her generation and is long overdue for a solo presentation of this scale and depth,” said Lauren Cornell, Artistic Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. “It has been rewarding to build on Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969—CCS Bard’s acclaimed 2023 exhibition also curated by Candice Hopkins—with this focused examination of Marilou’s work.”

Schultz began weaving at age seven, observing her mother and grandmother at the loom as part of a family tradition spanning four generations. She trained in traditional techniques grounded in symmetry and cultural symbolism, key characteristics of Navajo weaving. By the 1980s, she was experimenting with new techniques, designs, and dyes while pursuing a career as a math teacher, the stability of which allowed her to focus on weaving as an art rather than solely a means of financial support.

Schultz was commissioned by the Intel Corporation in 1994 to create a woven replica of its Pentium chip, a brand of microprocessors produced from the 1990s into the 2000s. The resulting work, Replica of a Chip (1994), reflects Schultz’s adaptation to new forms of weaving, while pointing to the deeply intertwined history of Navajo women and semiconductor manufacturing.

The Intel commission marked the launch of a new body of chip-inspired weavings by Schultz, including Popular Chip (2025) and Integrated Circuit Chip & AI Diné Weaving (2024), which further illustrate the aesthetic and technical relationship between weaving and computer chip design. Forming a centerpiece of the exhibition, a selection of these computer chip weavings highlights Schultz’s sustained engagement with technology and the digital world throughout her career.

The exhibition will also feature a selection of works from the 1980s to the present, including weavings created by her mother, Martha Schultz, grandmother, and niece, Melissa Cody that situate her practice as being informed by intergenerational mentorship, and traditional weaving styles such as doubletwill, and Two Grey Hills. The Germantown style, which emerged from the Navajo Long Walk, is another example of intergenerational exchange within Schultz’s family: one of the last weavings her mother made was in this style, from wool gifted from Melissa Cody. Throughout, the works demonstrate Schultz’s technical innovation, such as her use of the wedge weave—a method that allows for asymmetric and three-dimensional designs—her incorporation of metallic thread to represent the aluminum and copper found in microchips, and her novel use of natural and chemical dyes. 

The presentation also includes archival materials related to Fairchild Industries’ manufacturing plant in Shiprock on Navajo Nation that invite viewers to consider the complex intersection of Navajo textiles and technology. In the 1960s and 1970s, Fairchild Semiconductors operated a plant on the outskirts of the Navajo Nation, employing primarily Navajo women. The plant closed in 1975 following reports of poor working conditions and a peaceful standoff between Navajo workers and local law enforcement, resulting in widespread layoffs of Navajo workers. Schultz’s chip-inspired weavings give visibility to this history and to the technical achievements of Indigenous communities that have gone unrecognized.

About Marilou Schultz
Marilou Schultz is an artist and educator whose practice is rooted in honoring ancestral traditions, embracing innovation, and nurturing the next generation. Her weaving is a living art that goes beyond the studio and into the classroom, where she emphasizes it as a tool for learning and cultural preservation, with real applications in math.

Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Once Within a Time: 12th SITE SANTA FE International at SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (2025); Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2024) and Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (2025); Key Operators: Weaving and Coding as Languages of Feminist Historiography at Kunstverein München, Germany (2024); Unweaving the Binary Code – Hannah Ryggen Triennale at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway (2022); Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (2019); and documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany (2017), which marked Schultz’s first collaboration with curator Candice Hopkins.

Schultz’s work is held in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Heard Museum, the Thoma Foundation, the School for Advanced Research, and Gochman Family Collection.


Also on View
Replica of a Chip is part of a broader spotlight on artists pushing the possibilities of abstraction and color, and will be complemented by the concurrent presentations of a major retrospective examining the intertwined legacies of Betty Parsons (1900-1982) as a trailblazing abstract artist and gallerist, alongside the first institutional survey of groundbreaking contemporary painter Uman.

Exhibition Catalogue
Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue co-published by CCS Bard and Forge Project. Featuring essays by Hopkins and guest authors, the publication will also include documentation of an oral history with Marilou Schultz on the occasion of this exhibition.

Exhibition Organization and Credits
Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz is organized by CCS Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art and curated by Candice Hopkins (citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, CCS Bard ‘03), Executive Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project and Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies at CCS Bard.

Major support for Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Gochman Family Collection, and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

Exhibitions at CCS Bard and the Hessel Museum of Art are made possible with generous support from Lonti Ebers, the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the Board of Governors of the Center for Curatorial Studies, and the Center’s Patrons, Supporters, and Friends.

About the Hessel Museum of Art  
CCS Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art advances experimentation and innovation in contemporary art through its dynamic exhibitions and programs. Located on the campus of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, the Hessel organizes and presents group exhibitions and thematic surveys, monographic presentations, traveling exhibitions, and student-curated shows that are free and open to the public. The museum’s program draws inspiration from its unparalleled collection of contemporary art, which features the Marieluise Hessel Collection at its core and comprises more than 4,000 objects collected contemporaneously from the 1960s through the present day.  

The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College  
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is the leading institution dedicated to curatorial studies, a field exploring the conditions that inform contemporary exhibition-making and artistic practice. Through its Graduate Program, Library and Archives, and the Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard serves as an incubator for interdisciplinary practices, advances new and underrepresented perspectives in contemporary art, and cultivates a student body from diverse backgrounds in a broad effort to transform the curatorial field. CCS Bard’s dynamic and multifaceted program includes exhibitions, symposia, publications, and public events, which explore the critical potential of the practice of exhibition-making.  

MEDIA CONTACTS: 
Resnicow and Associates 
Juliet Sorce / Chelsea Beroza / Emma Gold / Onnie Woods
Tel: +1 212-671-5158 / 5165 / 5186 / 5170
Email: [email protected]   
 

This event was last updated on 02-02-2026

Back to Top