March 5, 2015

Skunk and Garlic Mustard in Process and Product: Quilting Redefined

Skunk and Garlic Mustard, by Sue Reno I am delighted that a piece from my Flora and Fauna series, Skunk and Garlic Mustard, is included in an invitational exhibit opening tomorrow evening, 3/6/15, at the Sunshine Art+Design Gallery in Lancaster, PA.

The exhibit is curated by Tim Roda, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and gallery owner Annie Kerekgyarto.  Here’s the intriguing statement about the concept:

“As contemporary art continually becomes more interdisciplinary, fine art and craft are beginning to overlap.   We wanted to choose a topic to examine this overlap, and felt that Quilting would be perfect for many reasons.  Although quilting is recognized worldwide, Lancaster County's history and appreciation of Amish quilting runs deep.  The American Quilt Society's Quilt Show and Contest is held one block away from Sunshine Art+Design each year, so hosting our exhibition in March was very important to us.  Our vision or goal for the show is to create a conversation amongst the new and old guard while also developing and fostering a larger conversation within the local art community.   
The exhibition will include seasoned artists both locally (Jerome Hershey, Heidi Lietzke, Sue Reno, Joe Hicks, Salina Almanzar, Jessie Gray, Jason Herr and more) and regionally known(Catherine O'Connell, Kristen Morgin, Laura Alexander, Helen O'Leary and more).  We hope Quilting Redefined will become a yearly exhibition, with the goal of continuing to broaden the definition and expectation of art, craft and quilting.  We looked for artists who went a step further than their originally planned design, making intuitive decisions while using a similar process. Additionally, we looked for work that was directly confronting the ideal of a traditional quilt. We do recognize that we left out many traditional quilts. This was intentional, out of respect for the American Quilt Convention.  With the wealth of traditional quilts on display up the street March 11-14th, we wanted to offer a different perspective."


Skunk and Garlic Mustard, by Sue Reno, detail
To me, one of the interesting aspects here is that I also have work in the AQS show, Jack in the Pulpit.  Read about it here. I feel like this is a golden age for fiber artists, we have so many opportunities and venues to display our work!  The gallery is one block down from the convention center where the AQS show is held, so it is easily accessible if you are planning on coming to Lancaster.  The exhibits runs through 3/28/15.

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