Media Contact:

Jenny Jones

Director of Marketing & Community Engagement

612-436-0464

jjones@textilecentermn.org

MINNEAPOLIS, February 3, 2016 - Textile Center announces exhibitions of the work of three innovative, established fiber artists in a variety of media, including paper, mixed media installations, basketry, and digital printing.

Insisting that "materials" have a voice of their own, artist Sandra Menefee Taylor uses common matter like salt, flour, and soil that refer to the body, food, and domesticity to reconsider/re-present timeless images drawn from lace patterns and ancient tapestries. Textiles are integral to memories of comfort; the feel, smell, and colors evoke memories associated with loved ones. She considers human history to be most accurately recorded in the intimate fabrics and materials which we as humans choose to hold in our hands or wear against our bodies.

Sandra Menefee Taylor is a Minnesota-based, nationally recognized mixed media visual artist. Her work is in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; El Archivo, Mexico City; Walker Art Center; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Franklin Furnace, NYC; Artists Book Works, Chicago; Minnesota Historical Society; The Minnesota Center for Book Arts; Carleton College; and Weisman Art Museum. This is her first installation at Textile Center.

Tressa Sularz, a fiber artist with a strong emphasis on contemporary basketry, lives and works in her home studio in Northeast Minneapolis. Her work reflects movement and transitions - from curving forms suggesting movement, embellished with earthly stones suggesting timelessness to cocoons reflecting on a time of stillness and inwardness with eventual rejuvenation. This current body of work is very personal, reflecting on a year of serious health issues, and finding strength through creativity.

Artist Statement excerpt:

"My art has always been organically intertwined with my life. Toward the end of 2013 I was diagnosed with cancer. After numerous surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments, I found myself dancing back to life again.

I left my comfortable world of rattan baskets, and began working with new complex techniques and different materials. My recent work is growing into more sculptural forms. The graceful shapes reflect a new-found, hard-won grace in life." -Tressa Sularz

Sularz has over 36 published designs reflecting her own unique style. Her work is seen in Beyond Basketry, Billie Ruth Sudduth's Baskets: A Book for Makers and Collectors, Fiberarts Design Book 7, 500 Baskets, and All Things Considered VIII. She is a featured artist in the National Basketry Organization Quarterly Review, Fall 2015. She also has pieces in the permanent collection of the Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota, and other private collections.

New Hampshire-based artist Wen Redmond's unusual use of fiber combines painting and digital media. She is a mixed media artist whose work embraces several media including digital processes, surface design, and collage. Wen delights in creating dialogue, changing your perspectives on and perceptions of fiber. She works intuitively, encouraging 'flow', experimentation, and the inner muse in her workshop participants.

Redmond has created several signature techniques; Digital Fiber, Holographic Images published in Quilting Arts Magazine with an appearance on Quilting Arts TV, and Serendipity Collage Technique published in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine. She has two Interweave DVD Workshops, Holographic Memories and Textured Digital Photographs.

Redmond's work has been in galleries, in juried, solo, and invitational shows including an invitation to The National Quilt Museum in Peducah, KY 1986, as well as Quilt National, Art Quilt Elements, Visions,CA, Fiber Directions, Fiber Philadelphia, Columbia University, NYC, Rubin Gallery, Visions, Craft Boston, Niche Finalist 2008, 2010 and 2013, Dinner at Eight's IQF, and in private and public collections.

Her work has been included many publications such as 500 Art Quilts Lark Book, 1000 Artisan Textiles Book, Studio Quilt State of the Art, SAQA Journal, Quilt Visions CA, Surface Design Journal, Innovative Digital Fiber Images, Fiber Arts Magazine, Crafts Report, and International Quilters Magazine.

About Textile Center

Textile Center is unique as America's national center for fiber art, an art form encompassing weaving, quilting, knitting, sewing, dyeing, felting, needlework, lace making, basketry, beading, soft sculpture and multi-media pieces.

Now in its 22nd year, Textile Center provides resources such as classes for all ages and skill levels, exceptional fiber art exhibitions, an artisan shop, a professional-grade dye lab, A Garden to Dye For of natural dye plants, the Youth Fiber Art Guild, and the nation's largest circulating textile library open to the public.

With a mission to honor textile traditions, promote excellence and innovation, and inspire widespread participation in fiber art, Textile Center embraces a vibrant community of artists, makers, and fiber art fans who come together to learn, create, and be inspired by fiber art.

GALLERY AND SHOP HOURS

Monday - Thursday 10 am - 7 pm

Friday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm

Free and Open to the Public

GETTING HERE AND PARKING

Free one-hour parking in front of Textile Center on University Ave, and two -hour west of Textile Center on Arthur Ave.

Two free parking lots on Sidney Place behind Textile Center

Just steps from the Prospect Park light rail stop!