NASA would appreciate San Francisco’s new show of velvet artworks

Velvet as an artist material is perhaps most often associated with those chintzy black-velvet paintings of classic Cadillacs and Elvis. In the deft hand of Bermudian-Californian artist Soleé Darrell, though, the fabric soaks in new resonance and depth – literally, as it invites you to peer into the mind-bending stretches of space and time that define our very universe.

Darrell’s work with silk velvet, enhanced with vivid dyes and oddments like boat rope and found trimmings, is the subject...