Fri 9/15 @ 5:30-8PM
The range of what can be done using textiles as raw material is vast. Since the ’60s especially, so-called “fiber art” has attracted artists who have pushed the practice, finding new shapes, textures and ways of using fiber expressively.
The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve’s next show, In the Details, looks at how 10 area artists made textiles speak, ranging from young artists like Jessica Pinski, founder of Praxis Fiber Workshop on Waterloo to an established artist like Libby Chaney. They also include Juli Edberg, Sandy Miller, Gayle Vickery Pritchard, Susan Shie, Deborah Silver, Lilian Tyrrell, Evelyn Ward and Jennifer Whitten. The show was curated by Lakeland Gallery coordinator and independent curator Mary Urbas, who has a BFA in textiles from the Cleveland Institute of Art.
“I chose artists who incorporate the many different techniques of surface embellishments; the ‘details’ that were included into each piece,” she says. “I invite the viewer to notice the contrast in sizes and scale of the works, to see how each artist approached the surfaces on a flat plain or a 3-dimensional sculpture. says. Some include and introduce other materials such as clay and glass into the work. These are works that beckon you to examine them more closely, to discover the subtle enhancements of the imagery, to see the woven intricacies of the fabrics, and experience the tactile quality of the surfaces.”
As part of the campus-wide opening, taking place at both the Artists Archives and the sculpture Center, a set of wall hangings called The Disaster Blankets by the late Lilian Tyrrell will go on display. They depict her response to the world events of the time, including 9/11, the KKK, famine, international terrorism, environmental degradation and American military aggression, and the rise of Islamist militancy.
“Rather than diminishing in importance, they have magnified,” says Urbas. “I felt it incumbent upon the Sculpture Center to show a selection of eight of these magnificent tapestries to a new generation and to remind all of us of their prescience and currency.” They were last seen at SPACES Gallery in 2004. The shows are the first time her work will be seen again in the area since her death in 2007.
There will be an artists’ talk in the Euclid Avenue Gallery at 6:15; Tyrrell’s husband Brinsley Tyrrell, who is also an artist, will speak about her work at 7pm in the Main Gallery.
The shows run through Sat 11/4.
Cleveland, OH 44106
Cleveland, OH 44106