Japanese Temari: Hooray for Fiber Art!

Packing up three of my temari babies for the gallery in Indiana

A few weeks ago, I got a a surprise email from The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette to participate in the Making It In Crafts National Invitational exhibition beginning May 20 and running until September. Exhibiting temari as fiber art has been on my to-do list for a long time and I'm thrilled that the guys from the museum in Indiana discovered my website and sent me an invitation! I only wish it were closer to North Carolina so I could go and see all the other fiber art on display.

It seems that fiber art is headed towards acceptance into the art world of paintings, prints, photos, and sculpture. My daughter just got back from a trip to Chicago and came across a display of fiber art at The Art Institute of Chicago.

"Overview: The inaugural exhibition of the soon-to-be reopened Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Contemporary Fiber Art: A Selection from the Permanent Collection explores how fiber art has developed as an art form from the middle of the 20th century through today. During the 1950s, as a battle was waged against the hieratical distinctions between art mediums and “high” and “low” art, more and more artists began to incorporate fibrous materials and textile techniques in their works. The flexibility and variability of the medium encouraged artists to explore the potential of different fibers and methods, and, by the 1960s, fiber art had entered the international stage. Contemporary Fiber Art charts this exciting trajectory with 61 works by 52 artists including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Peter Collingwood, Lissy Funk, and Jolanta Owidzka as well as artists with strong Chicago ties such as Lenore Tawney and Claire Zeisler, who both studied under Alexander Archipenko at the Illinois Institute of Technology. "

Hooray for fiber art!

Here are my entries for The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette Making it in Crafts National Invitational. Opening Reception May 20, 6-8 p.m. "This exhibition will feature the art of invited craft artists (clay, glass, metal, wood-working and fiber) who make a living creating and selling fine art crafts. Many of the most renowned craft artists from our area will be joined by top crafts-makers from throughout the country. This will be one of the most exciting varieties of crafts ever seen in Greater Lafayette."