Beyond the Mirror
Beyond the Mirror: A Studio Art Quilt Associates Global Exhibition Premiere
Loveland Museum
503 N. Lincoln Avenue, Loveland, CO 80537
January 23-May 8, 2021
Admission: Adults: $7, Children 12 and Under: Free
Review by Cori Anderson
Although quilts may be an underrated fine art form, it is their makers who have been overlooked for far too long. For centuries, quilts have been made and used as purposeful crafts, following precise patterns that were passed down from generation to generation. It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that the “art quilt” emerged as a bonafide fine art modality in the United States—due to the pioneering work of Jean Ray Laury—complete with traveling exhibitions and a Whitney Museum exhibit in 1971. [1]
Art quilts deviated from traditional quilts mainly because they were not meant to be functional items, but also because the makers bypassed the conventional rules in favor of aesthetic design, use of multimedia materials, and free-form embroidery. Yet even at the height of art quilt popularity, when art quilters’ creations were in line with the fine artists du jour like Mark Rothko, many quilters’ identities, stories, and backgrounds were often obscured or glossed over. [2]
A view of the exhibition Beyond the Mirror at the Loveland Museum. Image by Cori Anderson.
That is not the case in Beyond the Mirror at the Loveland Museum, a juried exhibition organized by the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). As one of the leading authorities on art quilts, SAQA ensures that exhibitions of their members’ creations are seen all over the world. In this instance, 30 quilters (both local and international) share personal stories through their art quilts, revealing tidbits about themselves and, surprisingly, about the complicated history behind quilts being accepted as fine art.
Whether preconceptions about quilting accompany you to the exhibit or not, the showcase is spectacularly diverse and will banish any outmoded notions you might hold about quilting regardless. From one piece to the next, the variations and intricacies in texture, color, stitchwork, and layering are enough to prove that each quilt was handmade by an individual and made to represent something intensely personal to them. These variations also speak to the evolution of art quilts in general, from originating with traditional layer-and-stitch techniques to the painting, dyeing, stamping, collaging, printmaking, and other complex processes used today. Beyond the Mirror even encompasses three freestanding sculptures that were constructed with quilting techniques—a significant step away from traditional quilt construction.
Shannon Conley, Peering Out of the Darkness, 2014, synthetic fabric, latex and acrylic paint, and paint stick; screen printed, painted, cut, and free motion quilted. Image by Cori Anderson.
Cynthia D. Friedman, The Outing, 2010, silk, silk organza, and fusible web; machine pieced, hand drawn, fused, machine-stitched, and machine embroidered. Image by Cori Anderson.
Of the art quilts hanging on the walls, some are more technically brilliant, like Memory Lane #1 - Chanig in Spring by Geneviève Attinger whose freehand embroidery work could be mistaken for precise brushstrokes or penciled lines. Others might be considered closer to mixed media, like Peering Out of the Darkness by Shannon Conley, where a cutout tree is reflected onto the fabric using screen printing and paint. The Outing by Cynthia D. Friedman uses straight-line stitchwork that seems simple enough, but the hand drawn silhouettes that mirror each other provide rich detail and upset the minimalism. All of the works in the exhibit “went beyond the superficial and delved deeper into the more complicated and ambivalent thoughts and feelings that lie beneath societal roles or activities,” as the juror Andrea F. Stanton notes in the exhibition introduction. [3]
Beyond the Mirror wanted artists to ask themselves: “does our image reflect our individual identity or do we see what we are conditioned by society to see?” [4] The selected works embody various forms of self-expression, from self-portraiture to emotive displays of abstraction to reflecting on profound influences. These explorations of identity are especially evident through the framework of acceptance—acceptance of self, acceptance by those closest to us, and acceptance by society.
Elizabeth A. Bauman, Gather Up the Fragments, 2016, cotton wool, silk, netting, nylon zippers, and acrylic paint on canvas; pieced, raw edge appliquéd, painted, and free motion quilted. Image by Cori Anderson.
The artists turn the mirror (and the question) back on the art world as well, and back on the viewer. Do you see a piece of art that impresses you like a painting, or do you have biases toward the medium that limit your acceptance and awe? Our lack of valuation and validation of quilts historically is less a commentary about the art form and more a betrayal of our own shortcomings. Quilts may be one of the only art forms that is immediately associated with women—although of course there are notable men in the field—and consequently, quilts were once designated as “craft” rather than fine art. Many of us will see more quilts in our lifetimes than we will ever encounter oil paintings in Baroque frames, and yet the general understanding of the depth and insight that goes into quilting is elementary. The narratives in Beyond the Mirror may have been intended to convey intimate sentiments, but they ultimately contribute to the complicated tapestry of art quilts as a genre.
Through expert craftsmanship, soaring creativity, sobering self-awareness, and an exploration of textiles, these art quilters and those who came before them show us that their skills go far beyond the category of hobby or home decoration.
For the last five years, Cori Anderson has written about art and culture for publications around Denver such as 303 Magazine, Westword, and 5280. While much of her focus has been geared toward creating more accessibility to art from the streets to the gallery, she writes for DARIA with a renewed motivation of catering to an art-loving audience. Cori's heavy focus on street art has resulted in the formation of her own business, The Street Art Network, which curates murals across the city and county of Denver. But her passion and curiosity range from the classics to the contemporaries in all mediums of artistic expression.
[1] Carter, Hazel. Waldvogel, Marikay; Perry, Rosalind Webster; Montgomery, Marian Ann J. (eds.). "The Quilters Hall of Fame: 42 Masters Who Have Shaped Our Art | Timeline of Significant Events" (PDF). Voyageur Press. Accessed on February 2, 2021.
[2] Shaw, Robert (1997), The Art Quilt, N/A: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. page 54.
[3] Andrea F. Stanton, Juror Statement, Loveland Museum flyer.
[4] Beyond the Mirror, exhibition flyer.
Studio Art Quilt Associates website https://www.saqa.com/ Accessed February 2, 2021.
