Rena Wood, the juror for this exhibition, received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in the Department of Craft/Material Studies. From 214 entries, Ms Wood selected works from these 50 artists:
* Patricia Armour * Elizabeth Buckley * Nicole Bunting * Barbara Burns
* Martha Christian * Deborah Corsini * Liliana Crespi * Deborah Davis * Molly Elkind * Alex Friedman * Joan Griffin * Judy Harcus * Joyce Hayes * Barbara Heller * Susan Iverson
* Laura Kamian McDermott * Cameron Kashani * Maureen Kenney * Lialia Kuchma * Annie Landry * Mary Lane * Sally Larrick * Heather Larsen * Fannie Lee * Mary Jane Lord * Lindsey Marshall
* Susan Martin Maffei * Cynthia Martinez * Ulrikka Mokdad * Judy Ness * Anna Olsson * Linda Porte *Candace Pratt * Ellen Ramsey * Millicent Reed * Michael Rohde * Minna Rothman * Jennifer Sargent
* Tommye Scanlin * Rowen Schussheim-Anderson * Lena Ruth Schwartz * Kathy Spoering
* Care Standley * Nancy Taylor * Kathe Todd-Hooker * David van Buskirk * Jeane Vogel * Sue Weil
* Jay Yan * Mary Zicafoose
With 50 works through three gallery spaces, it’s a wonderful exhibition of current work by tapestry artists from across the USA as well as from other countries including Canada and Australia. I was also delighted to see three dimensional works as well as the reference to the silhouettes of pottery shapes. I have an equal passion for working with clay as well as a variety of textile techniques. This made for a wonderful afternoon with my partner Gary, best friend Nancie and my golden retriever Hayden.
Many thanks to Bradley Silk for their advise and expertise with installing this exhibition. And many thanks to Charlene Lachicotte, Gallery Operations Coordinator, for all the “nuts and bolts” work around the exhibition.
Many people may think of the large scale tapestries along the interior walls of European castles. I was recently in London and able to see the tapestries at Windsor Castle and Hampton Court. They are totally impressive and also mind boggling when thinking of the amount of time they took to weave. Quite often, these works for castle walls were commissioned by one king and completed/delivered to the castle to his successor. Time is still a key factor in weaving a tapestry, but in contemporary tapestry artists are exploring scale, finding their own voice as well as innovative techniques and ways to present tapestry to audiences around the world.
These images and the video allows you to see the diverse approaches to tapestry weaving. Many of these artists have been committed to weaving through their entire art career and others are newer to the medium. It’s my pleasure and honor to share this exhibit with you through this blog post.
The American Tapestry Alliance publishes a printed color catalog for the Biennial Exhibitions and you can order one from their website at https://americantapestryalliance.org. I did not go through every image and identify each artist, title, etc here in this post. My intention is to share with you this experience of seeing the exhibition on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in middle Tennessee.
