First exhibition of 2016

Happy New Year. To start 2016 we have a colourful collection of contemporary textile artists. Two quilters from the USA, Sidnee Snell and Ann Brauer illustrate how two artists can treat the medium of quilting very differently both in their technique and subject matter. It’s fascinating to see the depth and variation that can be achieved through colour and fabric. Check out a great clip of Sidnee at work on Oregon Art Beat  www.opb.org/television/programs/artbeat/segment/quilter-sidnee-snell

Australian tapestry artist Diana Wood Conroy incorporates her love and study of history into her work. Her long career links, weaving, writing and teaching and her experience and knowledge is evident in both her tapestries and her recent collaboration on the recently published Handbook of Textile Culture by Bloomsbury.

FINE CELL WORK

Our last post for 2015 has a festive touch with these beautiful decorations from Fine Cell Work.

If you’re unfamiliar with Fine Cell Work, it teaches embroidery to inmates in UK prisons who can sell their work to support their families.  The prisoners are taught by volunteers from the ‘Embroiderers and Quilters Guild,’  and they make high quality bags, cushions, pictures, quilts and Christmas decorations, all with a modern aesthetic. Started by Lady Anne Tree in 1997 the aim was to ‘broaden horizons beyond the prison walls and [give prisoners] a brighter outlook on their future.’ With patrons including Kaffe Fassett and Gavin Turk, 60 volunteers train over 400 prisoners. For more information and to see their range of colourful textiles, visit www.finecellwork.co.uk

Online journal quilt courses and competition

 

Learning new skills or even brushing up on existing knowledge can become tricky with day-to-day commitments so when we came across textile artist Ineke Berlyn’s on-line courses we wanted to tell you about them. She offers three different courses including a 12 month course ‘Exploring Landscapes,’ and one about making your own Art Textile books, but our favourite is the ‘Shape to Stitch Course.’ This 12 month course gives monthly instructions with tips and suggestions on how to make a small art quilt each month. It is quite print orientated, encouraging different ways to print and create fabrics. Over the course of the year you should be able to develop your theme while learning new techniques. For more information visit www.inekeberlyn.com

Ineke has donated one ‘Shape to Stitch Course,’ for our competition so if you are looking for a new project for 2016, email your name, country and email address to info@textilecurator.com by January 4th and the winner will be announced on January 11th.

Christmas inspiration

Christmas is the one time of the year where we can feature smaller, textile related items and this fun Christmas wreath (measuring 30cms) made from galvanised wire, wool and thread by artist and jewellery maker Yuka Jourdain, caught our attention with it’s simple design and originality www.yukajourdain.com 

It can be a struggle to find gifts for textile enthusiasts so if you are an artist with smaller pieces that are suitable for presents let us know and we can try and add you to our December posts.

Artists for the December exhibition

This month’s exhibition features textile artist Alice Fox and two well established tapestry artists, Norwegian, Brita Been and Hungarian, Ibolya Hegyi.

Brita Been’s work focuses on the bold use of colour and pattern where repetition makes her pieces simultaneously intricate yet simple. Her tapestries can also be used as rugs. Historically tapestries were used for both walls and floors and seeing them in the Soft Gallery in Oslo (above) shows that maybe it is time more artists made their work this versatile. As well as her main pieces, Brita also weaves delicate shawls in a variety of yarns including silk.

Ibolya’s Hegyi weaves using very dense warping allowing her to incorporate incredible detail into her work. Using universal themes such as space and weather forecasts, makes her pieces mood inspiring as well as technically interesting. The use of fibre optics also adds another dimension to her art.

Alice Fox has only been a professional artist since 2011 yet her recognisable style, talent and work ethic has already made her an established part of the textile scene. Her love of natures translates to organic tactile pieces where her light touch on natural materials enhances their beauty.

New selection of artists

As always Textile Curator aims to show the depth and variety of contemporary textile art world wide, and this exhibition is no exception. The three featured artists this month all use vastly different techniques and subjects as their inspirations yet all three show a richness of colour, texture and knowledge. The intensity of imagery and colours combined with their complexity and combinations of stitches makes the work of South American’s Chiachio & Giannone (Leo Chiachio and Ganiel Giannone) truly unique. We’re thrilled to have an exclusive interview with this duo who to date have a relatively low internet presence. Alaskan based artist Keren Lowell’s art uses texture, pattern and often illumination to create thought inspiring atmospheric pieces often in muted tones. In her interview she details some of the concepts behind her images as well as why textiles is her favoured medium. Finally, Australian Lucy Carroll’s quilts cover a topic rarely depicted with such sensitivity – the military. Her description of how she makes a quilt is well worth a read to those who are new to quilting or looking for a different technique as she often paints the fabric which gives her work such an artistic quality.

Stitch Draw by Rosie James

It has been quite a struggle finding books to review that are both informative and inspiring so we were thrilled when we came across ‘Stitch Draw, Designing Technique for Figurative Stitching,’ by Rosie James. It always seems that those who are best at what they do are happy to share their knowledge and textile artist Rosie James is no exception.

Demonstrating how to use machine stitching to draw with thread, the book is ideal for all levels of expertise taking the reader through drawing exercises, to which surfaces to use, what subjects to choose and how to present your work. If you’re already familiar with machine embroidery you should still find some useful gems that will help expand your stitching repertoire. Or if machine embroidery isn’t your preference, details on how to make inexpensive screen prints and creating a cloth book are skills that can transfer to most types of art.

Rosie’s work is scattered throughout so it doesn’t become a dry lesson in textile D.I.Y. and it also showcases other stitch artists making it an attractive and inspiring book to browse through and have on your bookshelf.

Stitch Draw, Designing Technique for Figurative Stitching by Rosie James is published by Batsford Books. RRP £19.99 (www.batsford.com) and is available on Amazon internationally.

Textile Curator’s First Newsletter

We just wanted to let you all know that Textile Curator’s first newsletter has just been sent out to our subscribers. Thank you for your patience to those of you who have already signed up. It will be written in conjunction with each new online exhibition and has additional images and information about our featured artists. If you are interested in receiving a copy please sign up on the Home Page or our Facebook page.

New featured artists

We aren’t gender focused at Textile Curator, but purely by co-incidence this month we are featuring three male textile artists. Aiming to show the diversity of textile art internationally it’s incredible to see the range of creativity from all corners of the globe. American quilter Luke Haynes is based in L.A, Japanese born Takashi Iwasaki lives in Canada and Faig Ahmed lives and works in Azerbaijan.

Luke Haynes is currently working on an incredibly ambitious project ‘The Log cabins of Donald Judd,’ and is producing 50 quilts all 90″ square. The theme is taken from the Donald Judd installation at the Chinati foundation ‘100 untitled works in mill aluminium, 1982 – 1986.’  As he explains, “in learning my trade and the vernacular of quilting I have been practicing block types and learning history of piecing.  The log cabin is arguably the first repeatable quilting block and therefore that is where I started. The reason it’s alluding to Judd is the material and iteration and to suggest that the show is objects in space and sculpture and remove the ‘Quilt’ pre-conception of bed and private and valueless.”

In neighbouring Canada Takashi Iwasaki is continuing his hand embroideries, that are so immaculate at first they appear to have been machine stitched.

Finally, we are thrilled to featured Faig Ahmed, who’s diverse work continues to inspire. It’s fascinating to see his reinterpretation of classic rugs from his native Azerbaijan that he exhibits worldwide.