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EXHIBITIONS
35 x 35
Arts Benicia
Benicia, CA
September 24 – October 30, 2022
A curated exhibition featuring work by regional master artists and emerging artists nominated by them, celebrating Arts Benicia’s 35-year history, and recognizing their decades-long commitment to nurturing the next generation of artists.
Cultural Currency: Contemporary Art from the Riemer Collection
Bedford Gallery
Walnut Creek, CA
June 30 – September 18, 2022
I am pleased to have six pieces from the 1990s and the present in this vast and varied survey of the ways artists use bills and coins in often humorous and pointedly critical of the role money plays in our society.
U.S. Embassy
Paris, France
Facilitated by Gail Severn Gallery
I am so excited to have my piece Trace on exhibit for a period of three years at the U.S. Embassy in Paris through the Art in Embassies Program. Trace is the first in what has become a series entitled Raw Edge which is based on imagery from a graveyard in Brazil for people who died of Covid. What started as a tapestry of grief has expanded in meaning to encompass domestic and worldwide issues of war and the erosion of human rights.
RECENT COMMISSION
Dorian's Rose The Dorian
Galgary, Canada
This commission, for a Victorian-themed hospitality venue,
stipulated three elements: that the piece be made from vintage
copies of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, that the
overall shape be the Alberta Rose, the provincial flower of
Alberta, and that, although a wall piece, it needed to be
sculptural. I love working within these types of limitations.
Using six different copies of the book, I made Dorian’s Rose
from both the pages and the covers of the classic novel.
Find more examples of commissions here→
Please Rate Your Experience Tikkun: for the Cosmos, the Community
and Ourselves
The Contemporary Jewish Museum
San Francisco, CA
February 17, 2021 – January 8, 2023
I was commissioned to make a work for the 12th Annual Dorothy Saxe Invitational on the theme of Tikkun, or “repair.” Please Rate Your Experience is a polyptych, and the most complex piece to date in my Raw Edge series. The exhibition features the work of more than 25 artists whose work reflects on the theme of care and interconnectedness grounded in personal action, environmental responsibility and community during this time of collective challenges and uncertainty.
Find more examples of commissions here→
PUBLICATIONS
Five Contemporary Embroidery Artists by Jo Hall
TextileArtist.org
In this article from the U.K. featuring my work, I talk about the inspiration for and making of Shooter, part of my series How the West Was Sewn, in which I stitch leaves, vines and branches from the covers of pulp cowboy novels. Read article here →
Mending money: Lisa Kokin
Essay by Maria Porges
Maria Porges has written an insightful essay about my work with money as part of a series of essays featuring, in her words, “artists for whom mending plays a significant role in their art practice.” The essays feature work in a diverse array of media and I am honored to be included. Read essay here →
VIDEO
Territory
A short video of Territory by Lia Roozendaal. Territory, part of the Raw Edge series, measures 49 x 80 inches, and is made of reclaimed fiber, scraps and failure fragments rescued from the studio floor.A commission I recently made.
Community Health Innovations (CHI)
Montage Health/Community Hospital of the
Monterey Peninsula, Monterey, CA
I received a large commission for the new Montage Health/Community Hospital in Monterey, CA. Nature Library will be viewed from both sides in a beautifully constructed Plexiglas box. The piece is the result of countless hunting and gathering forays to find discarded books at the local recycling center and is composed of dozens of book cloth covers from a wide variety of sources. It was a true pleasure to make the piece, knowing that it will contribute to a feeling of well-being and tranquility as people “read” the bits of text while waiting to see their doctor.
My photographer, Lia Roozendaal, made a video of the process from beginning to end titled Nature Library Enjoy!
MENTORING & CRITIQUE
I work one-on-one with many artists in my Coaching/Mentorship Program, an outgrowth of decades of mentoring graduate students in local colleges and universities. The program is tailored to the needs of each artist and includes six one-hour meetings or the equivalent to be completed within six months.
Artists use their coaching/mentorship sessions for critique and career development, as well as issues related to maintaining a consistent studio practice.
For artists who live outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, mentorships are available via Zoom.
Read more →