September 30, 2006 — January 07, 2007
SALINA, KANSAS – Salina Art Center exhibition features artists who draw upon traditional craft forms and textiles with a contemporary twist.
A Changing Fabric features new and recent works by four national artists who reclaim traditional craft forms and textiles through a contemporary vision and process. Exhibition artists Hildur Bjarnadóttir (Iceland), Jessica Rankin (NYC), Nick Cave (Chicago), and Jil Weinstock (NYC) question accepted notions of art versus craft while exploring themes of gender, race, and memory.
Recognized for her contemporary interpretations of traditional craft forms such as embroidery, needlework, and crochet, Hildur Bjarnadóttir questions traditional notions of “high” and “low” art, examining ways in which cultural traditions continue to inform contemporary values and forms of artistic expression. Another artist who reclaims these labor-intensive craft forms is Jessica Rankin. Her large-scale embroidered tapestries, or “brain maps”, weave a rich visual vocabulary of words, images, and symbols into translucent fabric landscapes. Nick Cave’s “soundsuits” are a form of fabric sculpture, comprised of metal, plastic, hair and found objects designed to rattle with the movement of the wearer. As a black male, Cave’s feelings of racial isolation are thus embodied within the multiple layers and textures of found and fabricated materials. Turning textiles into multicolored sculptures and paintings, Jil Weinstock suspends vintage dresses into circles and ovals of cast rubber that address both formalist themes and those of memory and rites of passage.
This exhibition has been organized by the Salina Art Center, and is the first show to be curated for the Art Center by its Director/Curator, Heather Ferrell.
Special thanks to the artists and Charles Cowles Gallery, NY; The Project, NY; Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, OR; and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.
Visiting Artist: Hildur Bjarnadóttir
Tuesday, October 17th through Saturday, October 21st, 2006
While in Salina, exhibition artist Bjarnadóttir will participate in the Artist at Work program, conduct a children’s workshop, and participate in a series of community activities including studio and classroom visits. For more details visit the Salina Art Center’s website at http://www.salinaartcenter.org, or call 785-827-1431.
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Both the opening reception and the visiting artist activities are free and open to the public. Admission to the galleries is also free; galleries’ hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 12-5 p.m. and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Salina Art Center programs, exhibitions and films are presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency which believes that a great nation deerves great art.