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| Photo By Roger Rowitz |
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Sandra Palmer Ciolino's "Free Fall"
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Many of the "quilts" in the current exhibition at the Health Foundation's Gallery Salveo (Rookwood Tower, 3805 Edwards Road, Norwood) don't look like quilts at all. Most of them are too small to keep someone warm. While some employ elements of traditional quilt patterns, such as the kaleidoscope, many are asymmetrical and non-traditional. The 39 quilts and fiber artworks by 22 Cincinnati area artists represented in
What's Old Is (Really) New Again demonstrate the various possibilities when building a work of art by piecing together fabric with needle and thread.
The popularity of quilts as fine art has grown steadily with major museum exhibitions devoted to the medium. For example, quilts made by African Americans in Gees Bend, Ala., have made the rounds to major U.S. museums in two blockbuster shows, the first of which opened in 2002. Most of the quilts in these exhibitions were made initially as utilitarian objects out of scraps of old fabric. Only later were they recognized as sharing an aesthetic sensibility with Modernist art.
The quilts at Gallery Salveo, on the other hand, have all been self-consciously made as art. Most are the size and proportion of an easel painting intended to hang on a wall.
The show's curator, Steven Vincent Clark, says, "They are paintings in cloth -- to me, that's what they really are."
Indeed, many of their subjects fit into major genres of painting -- landscapes, still lifes and abstract compositions.
The materials used range from hand-dyed cloth to fabric that looks like it was purchased off the rack at a commercial sewing store. Some of the works are hand-stitched, while others have been constructed by sewing machine. All exhibit a mastery of the quilting technique -- that is, piecing together fabric in two layers with batting sandwiched in between -- and most push its boundaries in some way.
Lynn Ticotsky's "Goldening of Ginkgos," one of the few "bed-sized" quilts in the show, combines more traditional quilt piecing with a graphic design sensibility. The repeated organic forms of ginkgo leaves are interwoven in an asymmetrical, geometric pattern, serving as a meditation on a particular form in nature.
Sandra Palmer Ciolino's "Free Fall" also draws on intricate plant forms. Looking at this leafy green work is like peering through dense forest undergrowth.
Kathleen Wilkins' "Foothills," in its vertical format, is reminiscent of a painted Japanese scroll. Wilkins used just three colors to portray a distilled mountain landscape. Most of the quilt is red, with the foothills depicted in a black box with thin, white lines. Its inherent charm lies in its simplicity.
One of the smallest and most evocative pieces in the show is "Niagara 12:01 AM" by Barbara Green. Its misty, atmospheric mood is enhanced by a layer of gray-blue netting that hangs slightly over the edge of the composition. The effect is that of the almost imperceptible movement of water in darkness.
Many of the works on view draw inspiration from the natural world. Perhaps this is not mere coincidence. Fabric is often made from natural fibers, such as cotton or wool. And nature, like a quilt, is a conglomeration of small parts that fit together just so, to form a perfectly constructed whole. Grade: B+
What's Old is (Really) New Again is on view at Gallery Salveo in Norwood through Feb. 2.
