The first thing most quilters think of when you mention The Dairy Barn Arts Center is Quilt National, the impressive biennial art quilt show. However, this venue hosts fantastic exhibitions year-round, and right now all three galleries are hosting quilt and fiber-based work.
Today, I’m sharing some highlights from the two smaller galleries, and next week we’ll look at pieces from the main show, Fibers of Appalachia.
In the front gallery, Avant Garde includes quilts from the Carrefour European Quilt Show, featuring a wide range of techniques. The smaller gallery is a solo show of Kim Eichler-Messmer’s work.
Avant Garde: Carrefour Européen Patchwork
Makers from around the world are represented in this carefully curated show of quilts made with traditional techniques and those that push the limits. I wish I could share the entire exhibit with you because each quilt showed a truly unique vision for the future of quilting. Ultimately, I decided to share five quilts that caught my attention and made me want to circle back to look at them again.
Deviance
By Betty Busby
This wholecloth quilt combines math, AI, and human artistry in a way that strikes me as the best possible way to incorporate new technologies into a traditional art form.
Monet’s Pond
By Olga Stang
The folding technique and color choices immediately evoke the feeling of Monet’s water lilies while allowing the contemporary artist’s voice to shine through.
The Third Hand
By Aeran Kim
The layers of texture pulled me into this composition. I was particularly intrigued by the rounds of thread embroidered on the surface- they remind me of the machine I learned to sew on that had bobbins which unscrewed to allow you to remove the extra bobbin thread, leaving perfect little rings of thread.
Wall of Flame
By Marijke Van Lamoen
This piece pushes the boundaries of what we traditionally consider a quilt by using safety pins as the permanent method for joining the quilt’s layers.
Zeitgeist of the Dream
By Irina Malyukova
The forced perspective of the quilt enhances the surrealist feel and makes me want to move around the piece in a futile effort to see it from the “front.”
Tender Machines and Soft Structures
This solo exhibition of work by Kim Eichler-Messler combines highly textured hand quilting, the shine of mirrors and sequins, and the hard surfaces of pottery into a cohesive body of work in which the components visually play with one another across the space through color, texture, and shape.
Tower For Passage
Subdued versions of primary colors on heavily textured linen form the backdrop for large-stitch hand quilting and the shiny surfaces of judiciously positioned mirrors and sequins, juxtaposing natural fibers against manufactured elements.
Bearing, Threshold, and Voids
These stoneware pieces draw on similar shapes and colors from the surrounding textile pieces. Both the hardness of the pottery surfaces and the softness of the textiles are enhanced by the presence of the other element.
Tender Machines for Unstable Ground
This collection of identically sized works allows each piece to stand on its own while interacting beautifully with the other canvases. The diversity of hand-stitching techniques allows the thread to create both line and shape on the fabric’s surface.
See the Exhibits
If you are interested in seeing these exhibits in person at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, you can see Avant Garde through August 23 and the other exhibits through August 30.
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