{"id":45325,"date":"2019-05-20T13:33:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T19:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=45325"},"modified":"2019-06-27T13:36:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T19:36:02","slug":"fiber-arts-show-in-st-george-explores-things-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/fiber-arts-show-in-st-george-explores-things-that-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiber Arts Show in St. George Explores Things That Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“From Russia with Love,” by Alice Beasley, 69″ x 64.5″<\/p><\/div>\n

Utah will be host to at least four major quilt shows in 2019. Is this the best one? <\/span><\/h4>\n

Possibly. <\/span><\/h4>\n

Technically, it\u2019s not a quilt show. <\/span>Things That Matter<\/span><\/i> is a \u201cfiber art\u201d exhibition. With one or two exceptions, however, these works are quilts, ones that, as the show\u2019s subtitle indicates, have \u201cpurpose.\u201d A traveling exhibit that began at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego, then moved to Chandler Center for the Arts in Arizona before arriving on the second floor of the St. George Art Museum (through July 6), <\/span>Things That Matter: A Fiber Art Exhibition by a Coalition of Artists with Purpose<\/span><\/i> presents a varied collection of works by 31 self-described \u201cartist-citizens\u201d who excel at but go beyond the craft of their medium to address contemporary issues.<\/span><\/h4>\n
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“When?” by Susan Else, 30″ x 17″ x 17″<\/p><\/div>\n

Some of these issues will be readily apparent: gun violence, in the case of Susan Else\u2019s soft-sculpture \u201cWhen?\u201d \u2014 one of the few non-quilt pieces \u2014 in which the barrel of a gun is also a school classroom (it\u2019s a wonderful piece, even though the transformation of cold, hard metal into fabric softens the impact of the juxtaposition somewhat); homelessness, in Dawn Williams Boyd\u2019s depiction of a family of five sleeping rough, the children reading books by flashlight; and women\u2019s rights, in one of the least forgettable pieces, Kathy Nida\u2019s \u201cNot Less Than,\u201d where a female figure with her heart and lungs visible cradles a baby, while out of her head, hydra-like, sprout five smaller female figures \u2014 each juggling an occupation \u2014 while cats, spaceships, celestial bodies, an ERA tattoo, snow-capped mountains, fiery depths and a scroll that reads \u201cI am woman \u2026 hear me roar\u201d fill out the remainder of the composition.<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Kathy Nida’s “Not Less Than,” 64\u201d x 74\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Some works are very topical, like Sandra Poteet\u2019s \u201cTruthfulness,\u201d which addresses what has been called, since 2016, the \u201cpost-truth\u201d era; or Alice Beasley\u2019s \u201cFrom Russia with Love,\u201d where the heads of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have been placed into Gustave Klimt\u2019s \u201cKiss.\u201d Others are more general, like Sandra E. Lauterbach\u2019s wonderfully detailed piece on the lessons of history, which combines the Trojan Horse and Egyptian Sphynx with the Nuremberg trials, Civil Rights marches and Ethiopia\u2019s Haile Selassie.<\/span><\/h4>\n

But in addition to these more apparent, issue-driven works \u2014 which certainly would stand out in your average quilt show \u2014 there are others that would feel more at home, like Elena Stokes\u2019 sunset over a lake, Sheila Frampton Cooper\u2019s brightly colored tropical fish or Bonnie J. Smith\u2019s patchwork design. Sometimes, it can feel like pieces are being constrained or overloaded with \u201cpurpose.\u201d As we read in the exhibition notes that have been provided with each work, these pieces are \u2014 respectively \u2014 about the need for peace and quiet, species extinction and water issues. Rachel Meginnes\u2019 deconstructed quilt, with its painted-over pieces of dissolving patchwork and batting, is one of the most visually compelling pieces in the exhibition. How well it addresses the \u201ceroding away [of] one\u2019s liberties\u201d is less compelling. With works like Joan Schulze\u2019s homage to Agnes Martin and Georgia O\u2019Keefe categorized under \u201cRole Models,\u201d or Susan T. Avila\u2019s \u201cTime To Relax\u201d under \u201cHealth and Well Being,\u201d we seem to have strayed from what is implied by \u201cartist citizens\u201d working with \u201cpurpose\u201d \u2014 a framing that implies dealing with pressing issues that call for action and involvement.<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Detail from Rachel Meginnes’ “Don’t Tell Me It’s Raining”<\/p><\/div>\n

Since the individual purposes of these artists are hydra-like, branching out in so many directions they risk toppling over the collective, a more narrow selection might have resulted in a tighter, more pleasing show. But a collective purpose is apparent from this exhibition \u2014 to demonstrate that quilting (or, if you will, the fiber arts) is not simply a craft or formal exercise, that artists in a quilt exhibition can have as much to say as those in an exhibit of paintings, photographs or sculpture. And for that reason, whether or not it\u2019s the best, this may be the most important quilt show of the year.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Things That Matter: A Fiber Art Exhibition by a Coalition of Artists with Purpose,<\/i>\u00a0St. George Art Museum<\/a>, through July 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utah will be host to at least four major quilt shows in 2019. Is this the best one? Possibly. Technically, it\u2019s not a quilt show. Things That Matter is a \u201cfiber art\u201d exhibition. With one or two exceptions, however, these works are quilts, ones that, as the show\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/From-Russia-with-Love-by-Alice-Beasley.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 12:51:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45330,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45325\/revisions\/45330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}