Kaneko: The tapestry of ATB10

Nebraska is almost 500 miles wide. I know because I drove from northern Colorado to see the fiber shows currently up at Kaneko in Omaha. I wanted to see American Tapestry Biennial 10 again and I decided to go when Dr. Jessica Hemmings who juried the show was giving a lecture. 

I visited this show in San Diego last May and you can see how Visions Art Museum displayed the show

HERE. The show in Omaha looks very different. The huge space dwarfs the tapestries but does help you feel like they aren't hung quite as close together as they actually are. I posted many detailed photographs of some of the tapestries in the post from Visions.

Here are a few shots of the Kaneko installation and some images of tapestries I didn't show in San Diego as well as a short video. The video was done with a hand-held video camera. Please don't yell at me because it is shaky. It is only intended to give you a feel for the space.

I have enjoyed all of these pieces over the last year and a half. Because I am one of the co-chairs for ATB10, I had the great pleasure of being the first person to see them as they were submitted by the artists, and now I have seen the show twice.

I was unable to get a good shot of Clare Coyle's piece in San Diego. Here is a little bit better photo of this marvelous piece plus a detail.

Clare Coyle, The Land Gives Us....

4.25 x 22.25 x 0.5 inches, cotton, silk, linen, wool

Clare Coyle, The Land Gives Us.... (detail)

Deborah Corsini, Disconnect; Connie Lippert, Wakulla (red line series); Rebecca Mezoff, Emergence VII; Clare Coyle, The Land Gives Us....; Mary Lane, Untitled #140; Kaneko displayed Cecilia Blomberg's Birch Rolls piece differently than Visions did.

Cecilia Blomberg, Birch Rolls, Each of 10: 118 x 5.5 inches, cotton warp, cotton fabric strips

Ann Booth's piece was much easier to appreciate in this show as it was hung in a spot I could look at it from both sides easily. This piece plays with you a little bit. This photo shows it from the right side and straight on. I believe she made this happen with soumak.

Ann Booth, Tahirih (two views), 32 x 21 inches, wool weft, cotton warp

Ann Booth, Tahirih (detail)

Sarah Warren, October Rain, 23.5 X 12.5 inches, hand-dyed wool weft on cotton warp

Barbara Brophy, Inspired by Rothko, 19 x 20.25 inches, wool weft, cotton warp

Kristin Saeterdal, Scared of the dark; Linda Giesen, White Sand; Anna Byrd Mays, BigPair

Dorthe Herup, Gundrun Elise and Burmann the ram II; Susan Iverson, Slow Passage

Susan Iverson, Slow Passage (detail)

Verona Szabo, Moment 1. 2. 3., Three panels each 23.6 x 19.7 inches, wool, silk

Joanne Sanburg, Home Sweet Home, 35 x 23 x 2 inches, wool, silk, cotton, and synthetic fiber on cotton warp, embellished with Japanese vintage bees, jewelry, crochet flowers, an old fly swatter, painted weft and woven (hat) straw

Joanne Sanburg, Home Sweet Home (detail)

Cornelia Theimer Gardella, Untitled #2 (Red, Blue), 26.5 x 40 inches, hand-dyed wool weft, cotton warp

Cheri White, R.I.P, 9.75 x 4 x 3/8 inches, cotton weft, cotton polyester warp

Don Burns, Autumn, 67 x 38 x 1 inch, wool, linen, silk, cotton

Sanda Bucur, Magic Carpet 2, 25.59 x 64.96 inches, wool, cotton

I took some photos of the show in the morning, sunlight streaming in through the clerestory and the glass brick walls. Then I went back after dark for Dr. Jessica Hemmings' lecture and I was take aback by how the yellow yarn in Lialia Kuchma's piece BlueRose looked like it was glowing neon. You can see it to some extent in the two photos below. In person the glow was striking.

Lialia Kuchma, BluRose, 64 x 71 inches, wool weft, cotton warp, Photographed in the morning with daylight in gallery.

Lialia Kuchma, BluRose, 64 x 71 inches, wool weft, cotton warp, Photographed after dark with entirely artificial light.

There was one piece that was accepted to the show but was damaged in international transport. Unfortunately it was not able to be returned to the USA in time for the show at the Kaneko. Here is that image.

Misako Wakamatsu, Complications, 112 x 52 x 2 inches, silk cloth & linen yarn

Please review my prior post about ATB10 for more photographs of the tapestries.

American Tapestry Biennial 10, San Diego.

Some of my favorites are shown there. The catalog for ATB10 is available through the American Tapestry Alliance HERE. Cornelia Theimer Gardella put the catalog together and she did a marvelous job.

Here is a very short video of the show.

I drove out to the college where Mary Zicafoose's solo show was... many miles and a Chipotle stop from downtown Omaha. The gallery was locked up, lights off. A kind office manager helped me realize that the postcard I was clutching hopefully in my hand which advertised the show did indeed state that it opens March 6th. Today is, after all, March 5th. It looked great through the windows though. I'll stop back tomorrow on my way out of town when hopefully it really will be March 6th.

Stay tuned for some images from the other fiber shows at Kaneko right now. Jon Eric Riis's work was the most inspiring--all nine large-scale tapestries.

A Chief Blanket-inspired tapestry of James Koehler's at the Denver Art Museum

It has been four years today since my teacher, James Koehler passed away unexpectedly at 58 years of age. I started a tradition of posting on the day he died and I think I shall keep it up. You can find the links for the last 4 years below including the post I wrote just after he died. I also wrote an article about him for the newsletter of the American Tapestry Alliance, Tapestry Topics. It is in the Summer 2011 issue which is now available for free on their website

HERE

Perhaps the best part of that article is all the voices of his students, apprentices, and friends.

I had the opportunity to visit the conservation department at the Denver Art Museum last month. We looked at some large 16th century tapestries that are being stabilized for the upcoming tapestry exhibition and then, when the class had dispersed, textile conservator Allison McCloskey pulled out the James Koehler piece that is in their collection.

James Koehler, Chief Blanket piece, in the collection of the Denver Art Museum

He wove these chief blanket-inspired pieces before I knew him and I had never seen this piece before. But as soon as she unrolled it it was clear it was a James Koehler. His signature weft interlock join was there along with precise, unwavering craftsmanship. And the thing that made me chuckle and convinced me no one else could have woven this piece was something my camera was just able to capture.

James Koehler, Chief Blanket detail

He loved to put things together that you couldn't really see in every light. See the purple square in the diamond? From him I learned to tag my butterflies because the colors are too close to reliably decipher. But when you stand back and look at the finished weaving, you can tell the difference. I think life is like that a lot of the time. We can't see things up close that if we just got some distance from, would be obvious.

If you'd like to see what I wrote in years past, here are the links.

2014  

Three Years Passes in a Flash

2013  

James Koehler, 2 years gone

2012

 James and the cranes

2011  

James

You can now buy James Koehler's autobiography,

Woven Color,

on Amazon. It is a beautiful book and a well-told story of a journey lived in tapestry. 

http://amzn.to/1GKrNbT

 The book is self-published through Blurb Publications and you can also buy it directly from them.

James loved teaching. In his book he had this to say about that part of his career:

I want to continue to teach because the world of tapestry has enriched my life in so many ways. I want to pass on that gift to a new generation of weavers who are willing to learn from me. Tapestry weaving is an art form that does not get a lot of attention from the mainstream art world. I hope my work will help to change that…. [Tapestry] is an art form that enables people to enter into their own creative process where they can explore the medium and expand the possibilities that are inherent in it… I like to live my life from the vantage point of considering unexplored possibilities, and I am passionate about approaching my work in the same way. (Koehler 253)

I also love teaching. I didn't learn this from James, but I do understand it. I have been teaching various things since I was a kid playing school with my little sister, but teaching tapestry is the best thing I have ever done. When I look back at the last four years of my studio career, I sometimes indulge myself a little bit and think, "James would be proud."

Reference

Koehler, James, & Carole Greene.

Woven Color: The Tapestry Art of James Koehler.

Blurb Publications, 2010.