August 28 – October 25, 2014 • Joan Mondale Gallery
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 28
5:30 pm • Gather at the Community Dye Garden on 4th & 29th St.
6:00 pm • Opening Reception at Textile Center
GO GREEN! At the opening reception, show your METRO Green Line light rail ticket stub or your bike helmet and enter to win a free yard of Textile Center birthday fabric or 20% off at the Shop!
20 for 20 brings together 20 artists to celebrate 20 years of connections, conversations, and collaborations. Reaching across fiber art disciplines and beyond geographic boundaries, Textile Center’s community includes students, teachers, emerging and master artists in fields ranging from basketmaking to art cloth. Each artist featured in this exhibition has intersected with Textile Center and our community at some point over the past 20 years. Their pieces express their own celebration of fiber art and Textile Center’s 20th birthday.
These 20 artists represent the broad range of artists, jurors, instructors, and others who, over the past 20 years, have brought Textile Center’s mission to life. They have innovated and elevated a vast variety of fiber art forms and techniques.
Susan Antell (MN) is one of Textile Center’s most popular instructors, a master dyer, a member of several Member Organizations, and a longtime Library volunteer.
Julie Branch (NY) is an art doll maker whose piece in the Textile Center exhibition Figuratively Fiber won the People’s Choice award.
Jane Dunnewold (TX) designs art cloth, was on the advisory board at the time of Textile Center’s founding, and is the past president of the Surface Design Association.
Catharine Ellis (NC) is a natural dyer and weaver and taught a featured workshop at the Shibori Symposium (2009).
Sandra Ericson (CA) is the director of the Center for Pattern Design, has taught a number of workshops on draping at Textile Center, and was a featured artist at the Artwear Symposium (2010).
Robbin Firth (MN) is a talented felt maker and innovator in the felt making field, a popular instructor and Shop artist, and has worked with our youth programs.
Joshua Homic (NY) is a summer camp alum, won Textile Center’s Project Beltway Fashion Show, and is now an award winning student designer at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Uosis Juodvaliks & Jacquelyn Rice (AZ) are pioneers in the field of digital printing on fabric. They were the keynote speakers at the Artwear Symposium and have been featured at Textile Center’s Artwear in Motion Runway show.
Donna Kallner (WI) is a basket maker and master in the ancient art of looping. Donna is a popular visiting artist to Textile Center and has been a juror for the Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grants program.
Ed Bing Lee (PA) creates macramé food sculptures that are famous in the field. He was invited to show his work in the Textile Center exhibition, Freedom: the Fiber of our Nation.
Rebecca McEntee (MO) is a basket maker who was the featured artist on the postcard for the Web & Flow exhibition, a partnership with the National Basketry Organization. Her fiber jewelry is popular in the Textile Center Shop.
Kelly Marshall (MN) is a weaver and is one of the founders of Textile Center’s Mentor Program. She has been a teacher, board member and active volunteer.
Jean Matzke (MN) was an accomplished hand-embroiderer, teacher, and mentor who passed away suddenly in 2009. (Piece on loan from Carol Olig.)
Barbara Setsu Pickett (OR) makes sculptural shibori work that was featured in Shibori Cut Loose.
Ingrid Restemayer (MN) makes work that combines handmade paper, printmaking, and hand embroidery. Ingrid was one of the first recipients of the Jerome Fiber Artist Project grants, and her work will be featured in Textile Center’s forthcoming exhibition Perpetual Detail in the Hennepin Gallery.
Karen Searle (MN) makes sculptural objects from knitting and lacemaking techniques. She was on the Board of Directors when Textile Center purchased the building, has been a mentor for the Mentor Program, and an active volunteer.
Adrienne Sloane (MA) is a sculptural knitter. She was the juror and visiting artist for Metaphoric Fibers: Untamed Knitting & Crochet.
Jo Stealey (MO) specializes in 3-D sculptural pieces made from unusual and recycled materials. She was the juror and featured artist for Nothing New: Fiber Art from Recycled Materials.
Jo Wood‘s (MN) bead embroidered pieces traveled with Textile Center’s exhibition Land By Hand around the state via a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She also teaches bead embroidery techniques and has had work on display in the Shop.
Rebecca Yaker (MN) is a machine knitter, the co-author of the popular One Yard Wonders book series, and has been active in several Textile Center Member Organizations.
Also featuring the debut of our “birthday fabric,” created collaboratively by dozens of artists at our birthday party in January 2014.
Curator’s Statement
Becka Rahn
We started 2014 with a big birthday party for Textile Center’s 20th birthday, complete with balloons and birthday cake. When we had an open slot in the gallery at the end of the year, it seemed only fitting that we bookend this celebratory year with a show to celebrate what all of you have meant to Textile Center. 20 for 20 is about the artists.
The theme for the show started as a brainstorm: Who would we like to see in the gallery? Our list wasn’t small. We wanted to see all of the different disciplines and media – quilting, knitting, beadwork, basketry. We wanted to see teachers and students and professors. We wanted to see artists and crafters and everything in between. We wanted young and experienced, mentors and award winners. Local and national. Artists who are no longer with us, but remembered fondly.
But most importantly we discovered as we were brainstorming this list of things, what we really wanted to represent were the stories. The ways that all of these artists have intersected with Textile Center over those 20 years. This isn’t a “best of” show – we would have to fill 10 galleries to do that – this is a show about drops and ripples. How each artist contributes a drop, and the ripples continue to spread and touch more people over the years. Each of these artists contributed a drop – an image from an exhibition or a workshop that students still talk about – and that drop still ripples for us.
I want to share one story about just one of these artists – we have stories for each one of them. Josh Homic came to Textile Center when he was about 13. He registered for a summer camp where we were teaching draping on Barbie dolls. I remember his sketches and his vision – what he drew came to life. Josh took his first pattern drafting class at Textile Center from Lynn Cooper when he was in high school. This year, Josh was a featured artist in a fashion competition between FIT and Parsons. He won that competition, and Lady Gaga purchased one of his pieces. In fact just last week, she posted a picture of herself on Instagram wearing that piece. Talk about ripples.
I think it is only fitting to close with a remark from Lady Gaga herself, which I think summarizes the wish I have for Textile Center in the next 20 years. “And now I am just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time.”
Support for Textile Center’s anniversary celebration:
(Top image, from left)
Ripple Effect by Donna Kallner
Custom Oxford Shoe by Rebecca Yaker
Celebration by Barbara Setsu Pickett and Michael Pickett
Surf by Rebecca McEntee