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Historically the techniques of needle and thread are of domesticity and craft, but in the hands of these four artists, the works transcend and challenge those conceptions of utilitarian purpose and place. In using the needle arts and conceptual approaches, color theory, composition and narrative, the works inhabit the realm of contemporary art.
Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, Hildur Bjarnadottir received her MFA at Pratt in NY. Her work has been shown and collected in Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the U.S. Employing the technique of tatting, the artist has created abstract compositions in cotton thread. "While Hildur Bjarnadottir celebrates the handwork of her [Icelandic] ancestors, she unravels its traditions within the context of contemporary art." Sandy Harthorn, curator, Boise Art Museum
For this exhibition, Diem Chau continues a series of embroidered silk compositions stretched over found dishware creating delicate vignettes of memory, gesture, portrait and form. She explains the use of the dishware in her work by saying, "as different as we all are, we can come together over a meal." Ms Chau was born in Vietnam in 1979 and came to the US at the age of seven. She received her BFA in 2002 from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where she resides. Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, and Seattle.
Linda Hutchins is a conceptual Portland artist working out her ideas in a variety of mediums and an array of processes - sewing, wrapping, weaving, typewriting, drawing. In this newest work, Ms Hutchins is intricately piecing together organza, "These sculptures are drawings in space. I envision a form and piece together the shapes necessary to create it. At the same time, I envision a pattern of shapes, and piece them together to discover a form." The artist received her BFA from the Pacific NW College of Art. Her work as been reviewed in numerous publications and shown in California, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
Jen Pack is an artist living at the Oregon Coast after receiving her BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Solo shows in the Bay Area and Los Angeles as well as numerous West Coast group exhibitions are to her credit. Her works are constructed of silk chiffon and stretched over bars to allow light to pass through. She says, "I strive to integrate hybrid ideas: straddling the fence between craft and art....re-interpreting formal minimalism in the context of a feminine convention."
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