Follow us and artist update

Last year we were lucky enough to feature french tapestry artist Marie-Thumette Brichard in our first online exhibition. We recently caught up with her to see what she had been working on. As well as a solo show exhibiting all of her tapestries and collages from the last ten years, she has been weaving several mini-tapestries something she describes as “fun and interesting,  like drawing.” One of her latest pieces is the large Triptich (featured above), each tapestry measures 1 m x 1.3m. Marie deliberately didn’t give it a title, “this way everyone can see what they want. They are about drawings and links made by the waves when they hit the rocks.”

You can see this image on our brand new Instagram account which we will update each Monday and when we see something worth posting. We update our blog and Facebook  page every Monday for our ‘Inspirational Monday,’ post and we aim to have an exhibition of three textile artists at the beginning of each month. Check out our new Instagram account here, and please  follow us as the more people who know about us the more we can ‘wake up the world to contemporary textile art.’

 

Video of amazing tapestry from start to finish

We were lucky enough to interview tapestry artist Kristin Saeterdal recently and although everyone realises the amount of talent and commitment it takes to weave a huge tapestry, this three minute video proves it.  ‘Remembrance of the Sun, How it was Made’ condenses 400 hours of tapestry weaving into under three minutes and also shows the whole process including drawing the sketch, dying the yarn and cutting the finished piece from the loom. Check out our Facebook Page or Kristin’s website to see the video.

50 amazing quilts on a theme

Quilter Luke Haynes first told us about his ‘Log Cabins of Donald Judd,’ exhibition plans almost six months ago when we featured him. Making 50, 90 inch square original quilts is not an easy task and we’re thrilled to say he’s done it!

The log cabin is the first repeatable quilt block and the theme was inspired by the Donald Judd installation in Marfa at the Chinati foundation ‘100 untitled works in mill aluminum, 1982-1986.’ “The basic idea is that I have made 50 quilts iterations of the ‘log cabin’. All different variations with the same language, all red centres with white and black fabric,” Luke explains. “All the fabric is used textiles. so the patterns and language of the details are dictated by the range of ‘black,’ ‘white’ or ‘red’ that I have access to in the form of used garment/textiles. But will all read as graphic compositions in black and white.”

The exhibition has just finished at Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles in L.A but here are some images. Also the quilts are for sale through Luke. The plan is to take the exhibition around the world so we’ll keep you posted. Happy quilting.

 

           

 

Cool Collaborations

 

Collaborations between artists and fashion companies have been the norm for a while now, but it’s unusual to see artists who use textiles

which is what makes Ben Venom’s work with Obey Clothing all the more noticeable. Check out his range of t-shirts at www.obeyclothing.com/collections/ben-venom-artist-series.

There is also a great video to go with it explaining his inspiration and Ben working on one of his epic quits, take a look at our FB page.

Grayson Perry exhibition at Sydney’s MCA

If you are anywhere near Sydney it is well worth a visit to the MCA to see ‘Grayson Perry – My Pretty Little Art Career.’It is the artists’ first major exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere and is a colourful collection of his ceramics, prints, paintings, sculptures, sketchbooks and of course his tapestries.Each of the nine tapestries is a visual feast of cultural, political and artistic references. If you missed his ‘The Vanity of Small Differences,’ exhibition, they are all here, as is the astonishingly huge 15 m ‘The Walthamstow Tapestry.’ It was also lovely to see the quirky ‘Britain is Best,’ which stood out to me as it is hand embroidered. It is a real treat to see textiles on such a large scale both physically and popularity wise. For more images visit our Pinterest page.

Grayson Perry – My Pretty Little Art Career runs until 1st May 2016.

February exhibition showcases three dynamic textile artists

    

(Top image: Ben Venom in Kimball Gallery, photo by Randy Dodson)

 

Two of our artists this month take a look at popular culture. Quilter Ben Venom takes inspiration from music, tattoos and the occult, while Norwegian tapestry artist Kristin Saeterdal cites Science Fiction and computer games as part of her visual references. Using these as the foundation for their work brings textiles bang up-to-date and the vibrancy of their art leaves no question that the medium of textiles can have far more impact that just paint and a canvas.

 

Speaking of canvases, Philadelphia-based Matthew Cox uses the unlikely material of x-rays as his starting point. Proving that less is more, his careful stitching highlights the fast pace of technology and photography against the slow hand-made. We’ll be taking a further look at his new range of work ‘Fragmented Hosts,’ in an upcoming blog.