Morristown, NJ - A new exhibition at Morris Museum brings together the work of two avant-garde photographers who remarkably mend portraits. Each artist describes their tearing and repairing methods as crucial to their common mission of healing and caring for marginalized communities. Interwoven: Rupture and Repair features over 60 pieces by photographers Kyle Meyer and Donna Bassin, which recently opened to the public on May 29, 2025.  
 
“Our Museum is committed to presenting bold, socially relevant art that sparks dialogue and fosters empathy,” said Thomas J. Loughman, President and CEO of the Morris Museum. “The powerful works of Kyle Meyer and Donna Bassin confront complex truths and their vulnerability, resilience, and artistic creativity are ours to marvel.” 

Kyle Meyer’s Interwoven series presents hand-woven photographic portraits of gay men in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), a country where LGBTQIA+ identities are criminalized and HIV rates are among the highest globally. Each subject selects a bold wax-print fabric-traditionally worn as a woman’s headwrap-which becomes integral to their portrait. Meyer photographs the individual adorned in the fabric, then shreds both the image and textile before intricately weaving them together. The result is a richly layered, three-dimensional portrait that protects identity while asserting presence. 

“This meticulous process does more than protect the anonymity of his subjects,” says Bryant Small, curator of the exhibition. “It weaves together threads of personal identity and cultural heritage in an act of defiance and beauty.” 

Donna Bassin’s My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair uses photography to explore emotional rupture and the act of healing. A clinical psychologist as well as an artist, Bassin literally tears her photographic prints, creating visible “wounds” in each image. Inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, she then carefully mends the torn pieces with gold rice paper and embroidery thread. These acts of repair transform pain into power, rendering each scar a mark of strength rather than weakness.  

Together, Meyer and Bassin present profound visual narratives of rupture, resilience, and restoration-offering audiences an opportunity to reflect on both personal and collective journeys of healing. 

About the Artists 
Kyle Meyer (b. 1985) is a multidisciplinary visual artist. He graduated in 2009 with a BA in Photography from The City College of New York and an MFA from Parsons the New School for Design in 2016. Meyer is a multidisciplinary visual artist. He was awarded the Mortimer B. Hayes Brandeis traveling fellowship in 2009, which led him to Southern Africa where he has been working on several long-term projects focusing on LGBT rights, HIV awareness, and ritualistic religious practices. Currently he has taken what he has experienced throughout the culture and through sculpture, performance, and photography has created a diverse body of work dealing around gender, sexuality, life and death. 
 
Donna Bassin (b. 1950) is a photo-based artist, filmmaker, clinical psychologist, educator, and published author. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, she currently resides in New Jersey. Her long-term projects address the painful aspects of contemporary life, such as post-traumatic stress, racism, social injustice, and environmental destruction.