EXCELLENCE IN FIBERS
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
September 15, 2023 - January 7, 2024
Excellence in Fibers is an annual juried exhibition from Fiber Art Now magazine. Out of the exhibition’s 40 artists featured in the magazine’s Winter 2023 issue, 16 artists selected by guest curator Demetri Broxton are exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Featuring works from the past four years, these artists showcase contemporary innovation through their techniques while working to address the most pressing issues of present-day society.
From abstract to representational, many works are created through the traditional processes of quilting, embroidery, crocheting, and sewing while interacting with plants, ceramics, photography, and aluminum. Through their unique approaches, these artists demonstrate different ways that personal messages and voices- especially those representing immigrant, underrepresented, and marginalized identities- can be translated through fiber art into something that can be seen, felt, and understood by people of all ages and backgrounds.
Dating from 2019 to 2023, the selected artists come from diverse backgrounds, representing a variety of races, cultures, ethnicities, ages, genders, and geographic locations. These artists push the boundaries of fiber art as a medium while engaging with their own challenges. Many personal and intimate, nuanced narratives are placed within the broader themes of feminism, war, diaspora, immigrant identity, mental health, death, disability, and nature. Thus, the boundaries between self and society, individual and community, public and private are blurred in order to reveal the many ways in which individuals are affected by their society, and in turn, the ways individuals can affect society, most notably through the fiber arts.
Gallery image credits, in order of appearance: Katayoun Bahrami, Woven Journey, 2022, courtesy of the artist; Suganda Gupta, Terrain, 2022, courtesy of the artist and Iwonka Piotrowska; Hattie Lee, Corona Crazy, 2022, courtesy of the artist; Lynne Dees, Fish Trap #2: Catch O' the Day, 2020, courtesy of the artist; Kerstin Bruchhaeuser, You May Recognize Yourself, 2022, courtesy of the artist.
Excellence in Fibers VII Exhibiting Artists:
Artist names are hyperlinked to their websites
Andi Arnovitz | @andi_arnovitz
Katayoun Bahrami | @katayounbahrami_
Kerstin Bruchhaeuser | @kerstin.bruchhaeuser
Robert Forman | @robertjforman
Sugandha Gupta | @sensory_textiles
Cynthia Innis | @cynthiaonainnis
Terrie Mangat | @terriehancockmangat
Tina Marais Struthers | @tina.marais
August 14, 2023 (SAN JOSE, CA)— Excellence in Fibers VIII, an annual juried exhibition featuring the best in contemporary textile craftsmanship, opens on September 15, 2023 at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Gallery hours on Opening Day are 11 am to 5 pm, with a free public reception from 5:30 pm - 7pm.
The new exhibition, which follows the Museum’s successful Queer Threads run, features works by 16 leading local, national, and international contemporary fiber artists. Each of the artists selected expands the boundaries of fiber art as a medium, deploying it to address some of today's most urgent social issues. Broader themes of feminism, war, diaspora, immigrant identity, mental health, death, disability, and climate are present throughout. The exhibition is guest curated by Mr. Demetri Broxton, an independent curator and practicing artist, who also serves as Senior Director of Education at Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco.
“Demetri has assembled such an incredible array of textile techniques. There’s sewing, weaving, crocheting, quilting, embroidery, basket weaving, knotting, papermaking, felting, beading, dressmaking, and upholstery - indeed, there’s something for everyone,” said Museum Board Chair, Melissa Leventon. The exhibition is sure to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds who are interested in fiber arts, especially school-aged children and seniors, those with sensory or other differently-abled people because of the bright colors, the textures, and the subject matter.
Excellence in Fibers VIII is on view through January 7, 2024. The public is encouraged to check the Museum website for upcoming events including artist-led workshops and community programming. Memberships to the Museum are available at various levels. Donations to the Museum can be made at www.sjquitmuseum.org/donate.
About San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles: The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles’ mission is to preserve, celebrate, and promote knowledge about quilts and textiles, their creation, beauty, and their relationship to human culture and expression. During its nearly 46-year history, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles has touched the lives of more than 100,00 visitors, demonstrated fabrics’ innate power to connect people of varied backgrounds, provided opportunities for cultural art engagement, and built civic connections. www.sjquiltmuseum.org and @sjmqt on Instagram.