Masters: Art Quilts

Art quilts have long since moved from covering beds to hanging on walls, and this collection of 40 artists’ works, gathered and introduced by Sielman—executive director of Studio Art Quilts Associates and an art quilter herself—is ample evidence why. Ranging from the United States and Canada through Europe to Israel, South Africa, Japan and New Zealand, these quilters show the beauty and imagination of fine art and a vast variety of styles and materials. Noriko Endo’s forests look like pointillist paintings, while Susan Shie’s pieces are reminiscent of Lynda Barry in the density of image and hand-lettered words. Pamela Allen recycles beads, safety pins and sewing machine bobbins in Crone of Crazy ; Wendy Huhn’s surrealist dreamscapes include vintage fabrics and stenciled images. Each artist is represented by 10 works, some with details, as well as the artist’s comments on inspirations and the works’ meaning; many refer to the layering of fabric as a form of layering time, the opposite of what archeologists do. While it’s sometimes difficult to see all the texture of these quilts in flat photographs, the wealth of color and pattern is worthwhile in itself. Color photos throughout. (June)