Seventeen quilters will showcase their
work at a new exhibit that opens Saturday at the Avenue Art Gallery.
"Quilts of Central New York" features about 50 traditional and
abstract quilts created by artists who live in the Triple Cities,
Ithaca, Utica and Rome, Pa.
"There's a lot of exciting growth in the fiber quilt world, and
some of it is very obvious in a show like this," said Melissa Craven
Fowler, a quilter based in Ithaca who has four pieces in the show.
"People who have a conception of what they think they are going to
see are going to be pleasantly surprised."
The quilts range in size from 9 by 10 inches to 9 1/2 by 10 1/2
feet. There's even a hexagonal quilt that measures 5 feet on each
side.
Fowler, who has been quilting for 13 years and has made 160
quilts, said that most people think of "grandma's quilt on the bed"
when they hear the word "quilt."
"There's nothing I saw (at the exhibit), with the exception of a
couple baby quilts, that belong on a bed," she said.
Another aspect of the show involves a series of eight batiks,
where a fabric takes on the appearance of a drawing through a
wax-and-dye technique. Artist Jonathon Evans lives in India -- his
agent lives in Endwell.
"The batiks are so incredible to look at," gallery curator Chip
Kinne said. "There are portraitures of people, and they are so
detailed, from the lines on the face to the shadings."
Kinne said he was interested in holding a show for quilters
because the public does not often recognize them as artists.
"I'm always taken aback by the intricacy in the patterns and the
amount of skill needed to lay it out ... and create pieces of art
just as magnificent as that piece of watercolor or photography," he
said. "They aren't just that blanket that you buy at Target to put
on someone's bed. They are wonderful, wonderful pieces of art."
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