Two Art Quilt Exhibits

We’re very lucky to have the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts right here in Melbourne, FL.  This is a state of the art facility which brings in extraordinary textile exhibits all throughout the year.

Every summer they host an art quilt exhibit.  Right now they have two:  Radical Elements and A View Within.

Radical Elements is a juried invitational* exhibit, curated by the great folks at SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association.)  It’s all about the elements of the periodic table.  Each artist got to select the element she wanted to use and then made work appropriate to that element.  Artists were encouraged to use very non-traditional materials.

This is Chromium, by Diane Melms.  It’s composed of artists’ canvases that have been painted and stacked.  It definitely pushes the definition of a quilt, but this sort of thing is allowed per the SAQA definition of a quilt.

Trisha Hassler selected iron as her element.  She calls her piece
The Irony of it All Was Not Lost on Her.

She used a wide variety of materials, including steel and snake skin!

Mary Pal did one of her wonderful cheesecloth portraits to portray Albert Einstein.  She calls it
Elements of Surprise.

Darkness Into Light II is the title for Grace Harbin Wever’s piece.

It has really wonderful details.

Chloros was a very interesting piece by Martha C. Hall.  As you can see, it’s double layered with holes cut in the front layer.

I think Martha must have had fun collaging paper and other items to create the first layer.

This exhibit will be on display through August 27th.  I hope you get the chance to see it.

In the next post I’ll show you images from the second show.

*(I’m not sure my term”juried invitational” is exactly correct.  What I mean is that people apply to be invited, without actually making any work.  If the juror likes their portfolio they’re invited to make a piece specifically for the exhibit.)

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  If you want to see more of what the RFCTA offers, click on Old Blog above and in the search box type “Ruth Funk.”  You’ll find a wealth of posts about exhibits there.