Exhibitions – Page 3 – Deidre Adams

Quilt National 2015 Opening

Following on from my last post, here are more images from this year’s Quilt National opening weekend. Above is the legendary Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens. The opening reception this year attracted a huge number of the artists – I think the count was 62 – with many of them traveling from Europe and beyond. The Quilt National Executive Director, Kathleen Dawson, does such a wonderful job of organizing all the various aspects of the event, from the catalog to the hanging, to all of the mini-events that are part of the opening weekend. Each artist is made to feel like we have done something very special! It’s a huge treat to meet everybody, and I especially enjoy trying to get a portrait of each artist with their work. This time, I managed to get almost all of them, with just a couple managing to escape me. (And many thanks to Betty Busby for taking the shot of me!)

(If you are one of the artists pictured and you’d like a high-res copy, just let me know and I’ll be happy to send it to you directly.)

(Click image for full view)

Here’s a group photo of all of us together. Quite the crowd!

And here are shots of the interior so you can get a feel for the entire show.

May 26th, 2015|Exhibitions|21 Comments

disruption

disruption, ©2014 Deidre Adams. 55 x 98 inches. Stitched textile, acrylic paint, found papers.

Quilt National 2015 is now officially open! If I have any readers who aren’t familiar with QN, this is the most prestigious exhibition of art quilts in North America (and possibly the world). From the Quilt National website:

Quilt National was intended to demonstrate the transformations taking place in the world of quilting. Its purpose was then, and still is, to carry the definition of quilting far beyond its traditional parameters and to promote quiltmaking as what it always has been — an art form.

The works in a Quilt National exhibit display a reverence for the lessons taught by the makers of the heritage quilts. Many of the works hold fast to the traditional methods of piecing and patching. At the same time, however, the Quilt National artist is intrigued by the challenge of expanding the boundaries of traditional quiltmaking by utilizing the newest materials and technologies. These innovative works generate strong emotional responses in the viewer while at the same time fulfilling the creative need of the artist to make a totally individual statement.

Out of nearly 1,000 entries, only 84 pieces made the cut this year. I’m honored to be among those chosen by jurors Rosalie Dace, Anne Johnston, and Judy Schwender. Because it’s very important that Quilt National be the first to show these innovative new works, they have a very strict rule that no accepted piece can have been published anywhere in print or on the web prior to the show opening. So in order to avoid the heartbreak of disqualification, most of us keep our work under wraps until the opening.

But now it’s safe to do the reveal, so above is my entry, disruption. (Yes, the lack of capitalization is intentional.) Here’s a detail shot:

disruption, detail

Coming soon: Scenes from the opening reception at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio.

May 24th, 2015|Exhibitions|16 Comments

That was actually quite fun!

gSomniloquence, 48 x 72 inches, acrylic & mixed media on panel

Last night was the opening reception for “What Lies Beneath,” a two-person show featuring me and artist Kim Gentile. As an introvert, I have to say that as a general rule, standing around for a couple of hours talking to people is not my first choice of entertainment. But last night was great; several friends I’ve not seen in a good long while showed up for it, and lots of people were very interested and asked me about the work. I have been making these long enough now that I’m quite comfortable talking about my process and inspirations, and no longer get that deer-in-the-headlights feeling that used to wash over me when someone would ask me about my work.

I got to meet Kim Gentile, the artist who painted these beautiful, lyrical abstract oils. I love her color sense and the balance between freedom and structure she achieves in her paintings. Go see some better photos of her work here.