Atlanta fiber artist Honey Pierre found punch needle on YouTube. She was stuck at home during the pandemic, dealing with respiratory issues that had sidelined her painting practice, and on a whim she searched for something new. She found it. The work that came out of that exercise is the subject of her latest solo show, “Notions,” now on view at One Contemporary Gallery in Edgewood. On Saturday, May 9, Pierre will join curator Karen Comer Lowe for an artist talk at the gallery.
Pierre’s solo show spans work from 2020 to the present, tracing her progression from early pieces to her current practice. Visitors will find her sketchbooks, her work frames, and pieces that make it clear that Pierre’s work is handmade.
“A lot of people think I do everything with a machine,” Pierre said. “It’s not. It’s all by hand. And that’s a misconception a lot of people have until they actually come to my studio.”
From oil paint to punch needle
Pierre’s path to punch needle was, as she puts it, very unconventional. She was working in oil painting when her doctor advised her to find a new medium. On YouTube, she found punch-needle, or threading yarn or thread through a backing fabric with a hollow needle to create looped, textured surfaces.
“I figured out how to make it into fine art,” Pierre said. “I was like, ‘I’m not gonna make rugs like everybody else.’ I took my painting background and placed it into punch needle.”
That evolution from a painter’s eye to a fiber artist’s hands is visible in Pierre’s “Notions” work. Retired Clark Atlanta University Art Museum Curator Tina Dunkley described Pierre, after seeing her work in a previous One Contemporary exhibition, as a true colorist, someone who knows how to map color and movement across a piece. Manuel concurred.
“She’s great with color,” Manuel said. “That’s been a common theme among visitors.”
The South’s textile tradition
Textile and fiber art carries a deep tradition in the South — quilts, tapestries, garments used across generations as vehicles for storytelling. Pierre sees her work as part of a new chapter in that story.
She pointed to artists like Bisa Butler and studio mate, Adana Tillman, as examples of how quilting has shifted from craft to art. Punch needle, Pierre said, is in the early stages of the same journey.
“It’s always been a craft until the last three years,” Pierre said. “So I’m a part of the pioneer crew where we’re putting it into fine art spaces. And we are now getting the shine and a part of the movement currently with textiles rising up to the top.”
Manuel sees the same momentum. Punch needle, he said, is relatable in a way that helps broaden the audience for contemporary textile work. “A lot of people took it early on as a hobby, but you have artists who elevated this approach to making and working with textile materials.”
He curated “Notions” to show the range of Pierre’s practice in one place, from paintings on canvas to her textile work to more recent pieces on paper.
Inspiration in community and family
Pierre’s work is rooted in the people she knows. She recruits muses among friends and fellow visual artists, then photographs them as references before beginning a piece. She started using artists as models, she explained, because creators are rarely represented in the work, too.
One piece in “Notions” stands out for Pierre. “Auntie’s Cookies,” made in 2023, documents a Christmas Eve moment: Pierre and the kids in her family making cookies together while her sister and brother-in-law wrapped presents in the next room.
“I decided to take a photo of all of us, and it’s one of those pieces for me,” Pierre said.
Pierre came to Atlanta from Cleveland, Ohio, eight years ago, and she came, as she describes it, with purpose. She has found in the city something she says larger art markets often cannot offer: room to slow down. In places like New York, Los Angeles, or Miami, she said, the pace is relentless.
“Here I can actually slow down and be in my studio for hours and not have FOMO,” she said. “I can actually relax in my work and not feel so rushed.”
The Emerging Artist Award:
Earlier this year, Pierre received the 2026 Emerging Artist Award from the City of Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. The recognition carried a specific meaning for her, beyond the honor itself: the award typically goes to painters and performers. A textile artist winning, she said, signals something about how the field is expanding.
“I was like, OK, this is a good nod,” Pierre said. “It felt good … because I’ve been here for eight years, so it’s also like a ‘yes’ to be acknowledged by the city I started the first leg of my career in.”
Honey Pierre’s “Notions” is on view now at One Contemporary Gallery through June 13.
