Link About This: Web Picks Focus on 5 Online Galleries

December 17, 2011

1. Web Gallery of Contemporary Textile Artists
www.directdesign.co.uk/testDD/transition_gallery

There are so many things I like about this link to the Transition and Influence area of  Contemporary Textile Artists Web Gallery.

The gallery is the work of curator Lesley Millar, professor at University for the Creative Arts in the UK, and originator of several recent collaborative projects between European and Japanese artists. A good selection of works by these skilled textile artists is assembled here with the option of selecting “see captions” that gives you descriptions of materials as well as other details.

There are more than 50 artists represented by thumbnails. Roll your cursor over each one and the name will pop up.

Some of my favorites are Lithuanian Laima Orzekauskiene who works with digitally painted warps, Silja Puranen (Finland) who applies digital images to used domestic textiles, Ieva Krumina (Latvia) whose silk screening on plastic trash bags is fascinating and UK artist Ealish Wilson who smocks sublimation-printed sailcloth.

Most of the artists’ pages have links to their websites. Fr0m each artist’s page you have to click on “home” to get back to the artist thumbnails – which usually means scrolling up each time.

You can also see the Transition and Influence: the interface between cloth and culture projects and current exhibitions resulting fr0m them at www.transitionandinfluence.com

2. SAQA Quilts in Guilford’s Virtual Gallery
www.guilfordartcenter.org/virtualgallery/saqa09

Guilford Art Center has a virtual gallery of past exhibitions.

This link is to the Studio Art Quilt Associates 2009 show, Transformations 09: Reflections. Each piece has a description; by clicking on the image you can see a larger version. Some allow you to zoom in a bit more. There are some really great pieces.

Other textile shows in the Guilford virtual gallery include hooked art and mixed media quilts – but they show images only without descriptions of the works.

The SAQA website itself has installation shots of the Transformations 09 show in Birmingham, England, at www.saqa.com/about

3. Renwick Celebrates Craft Younger Than the Museum Itself
americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/renwick40/#40artists

40 under 40: Craft Futures won’t actually open at the Renwick Gallery in Washington DC until next summer. In the meantime, the museum has an illustrated list of the artists and representative works fr0m them, all born since 1972, which is the year Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft and decorative arts program was established at the Renwick.

The artists are not categorized by medium but it’s worth going through the whole slide show since so many makers incorporate fiber or textile techniques into their work.

Here is the list of 40; makers known for using fashion/fiber media have their name in bold.
Vivian Beer, Melanie Bilenker, Jeffrey Clancy, Dave Cole, Cristina Córdova, Gabriel Craig, Jennifer Crupi, Erik Demaine, Joshua DeMonte, Brian Dettmer, Nick Dong, Joseph Foster Ellis, Jeff Garner, Theaster Gates, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Jenny Hart, Sergey Jivetin, Lauren Kalman, Lara Knutson, Stephanie Liner, Marc Maiorana, Sebastian Martorana, Christy Matson, Cat Mazza, Daniel Michalik, Matt Moulthrop, Christy Oates, Olek, Andy Paiko, Mia Pearlman, L. J. Roberts, Laurel Roth, Shawn Smith, Jen Stark, Matthew Szösz, Uhuru (Jason Horvath and William Hilgendorf), Jamin Uticone, Anna Von Mertens, Stacey Lee Webber and Bohyun Yoon.
Here’s a YouTube video about Olek:

Search Collections: While you are on the Renwick Gallery site, click on “search collections” at the top right. Then, instead of typing anything into the search boxes, scroll down the right-hand column to “browse collections”. If you pick quilts, you will find 60 well-illustrated and described works, fr0m many decades and kinds.

4. The Multifaceted World of Complex Weaving
www.complex-weavers.org

Complex Weavers is a membership organization. I started with a link to their study group page that illustrates the breadth of interests shared by this group.

For illustrations of the range of techniques, styles and achievements of the members, click on Showcase Archive at www.complex-weavers.org/showcase.
It takes you to this year’s Complex Weavers’ Awards and also has links at the top to past years.

The study groups and sample exchanges provide lively working connections between weavers with shared concerns and similar pursuits. Among other items of interest on the site is the September 2012 Seminar.

5. Historical Needlework: What the Past Can Teach Us
wkneedle.bayrose.org/Articles/beadwork

The Needleworkers Guild of the West Kingdom states that its mission is “To promote the art and enjoyment of historical needlework; To further our knowledge and develop our skills in different needlework styles – and to have fun doing it!”

The URL above links to an article on the use of beads in historical embroidery; it’s just one item fr0m an extensive archive including several on What Stitch is Period.

Some of the illustrations are in black and white – but keep scrolling down and you’ll find many more in color. They can be enlarged by clicking.

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Mickie McCormic is a fiber artist specializing in image transfer who has been involved with SDA for over ten years. She lives in southern Oregon and teaches workshops there as well as at the Mendocino Arts Center (CA).