DVA Gallery - Ladies First: Tonight Only!

Group show opening tonight in Chicago with the above work on display. This is a primarily a traveling show from Toronto, curated by Nicole Steen of Tart Gallery. I believe it's at DVA gallery today and tonight only. Go look at art!

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Practical to Poetic - Group Show

I wasn't kidding when I said there were a lot of group shows happening this month. Tonight is the opening of a three-person show exhibiting several of my works (including Marianne above):

Practical to Poetic
Women's Handcraft Revisited
works by: Tamar Stone, Jenny Hart and Olek
curated by Sangoyemi Ogunsanya
@ The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, Florida

Opening Reception: Friday, May 23, 2008 5:30-7:30pm

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Isolated Chain Stitch

Since the show has opened and the piece has sold, I'll go ahead and post my contribution to Arthouse's 5x7 show, which is up until June 1st. This is a prelim for a larger sculptural work I've long wanted to do. It's an isolated chain stitch, worked exactly as it would be on fabric, secured by its own tail. Very special thanks to Justin Goldwater who helped me source the metal and cut the holes and Nathan Green who granted my wishes on how to display the piece. I've provided a front and back view of the work on Flickr.

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Annette Messager

Annette Messager's work was on display at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris last summer. I'd never seen her works in embroidery, paper, fabric and soft sculpture before. One installation, “Gonflés/Dégonflés”, was a large room filled with soft-sculptured human organs, constructed as bladders filling with air and emptying over and over as if they were breathing- or coming to life and dying again and again.

Far more subtle than her large-scale installations is "Ma Collection de Proverbes" (1974), a wall of sexist and misogynistic proverbs from different countries, embroidered deliberately without regard to precision or care on simple squares of fabric:

"What's worse than one woman? Two women."
"Women are like spices, the more you beat them the better they smell."
"There are no ugly women at night."

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Devotion to Thread Group Show

If you're in Milwaukee and would like to see Pink Forest up close and personal along with many other fine works of stitching, then don't miss this show.

Woodland Pattern with the support of the Milwaukee Arts Board presents:

Devotion To Thread
May 17- June 14, 2008
@ Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, WI

Reception May 31st, 5-9pm
Visiting artist Garth Johnson will give his "Extreme Craft" talk at 7pm

Curated by Faythe Levine

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5 x 7 Arthouse 2008

Every year artists are invited to donate works for an 'art splurge' to benefit Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin. All works are a 5" x 7" format and the works are displayed and sold anonymously (they're signed on the back, but buyers don't know what artist did what) and sold for $100 each. This is my fourth year participating in the 5x7 show, and the first year my work deals with embroidery. I'll post a picture of the work toward the close of the exhibit.


This is my card from last year's show, based on the Girl With Japanese Clouds embroidery. If you'll be attending the benefit this weekend I'll give you a hint which card is mine: metal and rope.

There are numerous group exhibitions with my work coming up, so keep your eye on the exhibitions page.

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Ulrika Erdes

My good friend Jessica V. told me about Swedish artist Ulrika Erdes work a few years ago and it was my first introduction to the idea of public embroidering. Like stitching graffiti, but nicer. Gentler. A bus seat cushion next to you that says "Hello!" in white stitches. Lovely.

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Victionary: Illustration / Play

There's a six-page spread of my work in Victionary's Illustration / Play. This is a really nice collection of artists working in alternative media which includes Caroline Hwang, Megan Whitmarsh and Richard Saja.

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WIP

The embroidery has started on the preliminary comp I posted earlier, and here's an update. This is entirely re-worked embroidery based on the earlier, partly-embroidered sketch. I usually am working on three pieces in rotation at any given time. Eight hours of stitching and sewing sequins at this point.