49th Annual Textile Exhibition
August 11 – September 23, 2017
Artists Reception: Friday, August 11

Textile Art refers to fine art that utilizes natural or synthetic fiber in the form of fabric or yarn. A wide variety of techniques are employed to create textile art such as weaving, quilting, knitting, embroidery, rug hooking, felting, braiding, lace making, and many more!

The Annual Textile Exhibition at Olive Hyde Art Gallery, in its 49th year, was started in 1968, to honor its original benefactor Olive Hyde, who had an avid interest in textile art. Over the years, the exhibition has transitioned from displaying primarily quilts to a wide spectrum of textile creations. It has been one of the most popular exhibitions featuring works of both traditional and contemporary artists.

This year’s exhibition includes a special presentation called Lines, Angles and Spaces by three accomplished Northern California fiber artists: Jean Renli Jurgenson, Geri Patterson-Kutras, and Sue Siefkin. Whether drawing inspiration from actual buildings or pure imagination, each artist reveals her way of expressing angle, perspective, line, and shape through her use of value, color, and scale.

Jean Jurgenson, from Walnut Creek, made her first architectural quilt twenty-four years ago. “Since then my interest in architecture has only deepened,” she says. It does not matter how long it takes, or what technique she uses. She just works towards an effect that pleases her, knowing that when she’s done there will be another piece that she is as excited to begin!

A retired California Superior Court Judge, Sue Siefkin, first began making quilts in 1990. Almost a decade later, she attended a seminar that radically changed her perspective. Freed from the traditional quilt block format, she has since focused exclusively on producing original textile “paintings” with “layering and fusing fabric from background to foreground.”

Geri Patterson-Kutras likes to tell stories through the medium of cut cloth, stitch, color, and design. Originally from special education background, Geri earned another Degree in Studio Art after her retirement. In this exhibit, she explores the architectural relationships between buildings and the landscape. Geri believes that, “like human relationships, structural-environmental relationships are never static.”

The Gallery Curator Gloria Kim has selected ten additional Bay Area artists – Nancy Bardach, Adriane Dedic, Giny Dixon, Kirsi Engels, Susan Helmer, Kay Hille-Hatten, Barbara Meyers, Denise Oyama Miller, Liliana Rocha, and Ellen Wong – whose works will also be displayed at the exhibition.

Nancy Bardach credits her inspiration to years of art observation, architectural school, and practice, and a constant enjoyment of her visual surroundings. Her recent work is characterized by abstract imagery, brilliant coloring, and curved piecing of cotton fabrics.

In her most recent mixed media creations, Adriane Dedic uses fabric, stitching, and paper shapes to form artistic lines, then adds textures and embellishments. Female figures, geisha, birds, and gardens, often constitute her themes. She loves it when her art touches someone. “It’s like a language without words.”

With a background in construction management, space planning, and interior design, Giny Dixon grew an affinity towards color, texture, and materials. Experimentation with different quilting techniques and surface design methods, ultimately, led to creating her own fabric that became the foundation of her artwork.

Kirsi Anna-Maria Engels works with handmade papers that she created without an objective. Their textures and colors inspired her to make them into something more touchable, to be held and played with, adding “a tactile experience to the visual.”

Mesmerized by “the incredibly intense colors spread like magic on the silk,” Susan Helmer started off as a silk painter, but later began to incorporate her love of textiles and beads into her paintings. Her interest in color and textiles has led to a variety of utilitarian products including t-shirts and scarves.

Kay Hille-Hatten’s piece is a product of “random weaving infused with artist made paper.” Her weaving experience comes from basketry and she loves to make paper. Her work on display is a result of experimentation with yarn, wax linen, ribbon, raffia, and paper pulp.

An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Barbara Meyers does weaving as a creative outlet and as part of her spiritual practice. She specializes in Theo Moorman weaving technique, which is characteristic of most of her creations.

Denise Oyama Miller enjoys making things with her hands. While traveling, she always keeps journals for recording what she sees and ideas for future work. For Denise, “the challenge of taking an idea from inspiration to artwork is thrilling.”

The artwork of Liliana Rocha analyses clothing, how it is made to function within a specific environment, and how it relates to the body. Clothing to her is more than a set of pieces of fabric on the body, for “it is the construction of a membrane with textiles.”

Ellen Wong likes to “manipulate colors and shapes to create compositions with depth, movement and mystery.” She loves to challenge herself into translating any verbal idea or concept into a visual composition.

The 49th Annual Textile Exhibition will open with an Artists Reception on August 11th, and will remain on display through September 23rd.

Pancho Jimenez
October 6 – November 4, 2017
Reception: Friday, October 6, 7-9pm