Area Attractions: San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles (SJMQT) announced today that it will showcase an innovative array of exhibitions and events.

SJMQT will be displaying Excellence in Fibers (in collaboration with Fiber Art Now Magazine), Suture and Stitch: Mark Newport, and Seeing the Threshold: Jayoung Yoon  through January 13, 2019. Miriam at MoMA:  Miriam Nathan-Roberts, Public and Personal is on view in the Porcella Gallery through November 25, 2018 and Hey, Are you Free? by Wu Yu Jung is on view November 28, 2018- January 13, 2019.

Excellence in Fibers

Fiber Art Now and SJMQT are pleased to present the third annual juried exhibition, Excellence in Fibers.  The jurors represent a group of well-respected artists and leaders in the fiber arts and fine art community. They include Marcia Young (Editor in Chief, Fiber Art Now), Art Martin (Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Muskegon Museum of Art), and Louise Allrich (Allrich Gallery, San Francisco). The Paul J. Smith Award for Excellence in Fibers was awarded to Patricia Kennedy-Zafred. The categories of this exhibition are Installation Works, Sculptural Works, Vessel Forms/ Basketry, and Wearables.

Suture and Stitch: Mark Newport

Newport’s mending work explores a variety of topics involving aspects of identity, protection, masculinity, vulnerability and the development of both emotional and physical scars. He illuminates the relationship between skin and textiles through mending and repair, exploring traditional darning patterns. Mark Newport was appointed Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2007.

Seeing the Threshold: Jayoung Yoon

Jayoung Yoon’s work explores the medium of human hair with the intent to focus the viewer’s attention to the body. Since hair does not decay after death, it is a symbolic form of remembrance. Yoon presents work that seems to blur and fade away, placing emphasis on her desired message of a transcendent reality. Compositions of grids, and geometric shapes with repeated hair-lines intend to convey dissolving thoughts, touching on states of both unconscious and conscious minds.

Miriam at MoMA:  Miriam Nathan-Roberts, Public and Personal

SJMQT commemorates Miriam Nathan-Roberts, the late Bay Area art quilt pioneer. The exhibit includes several of her iconic works as well as quilts and personal articles never before shown. Nathan-Roberts was well-known for illusions of 3D shapes on a 2D surface.  Her later work was distinguished by striking, digitally-printed images. The exhibition’s title piece imagines a radical departure for the Museum of Modern Art in New York as a venue for Nathan-Robert’s art quilts. 

Hey Are You Free? Wu Yu Jung, New Terrains: Migration and Mobility Project

Wu Yu Jung lives in San Jose’s Sister City Tainan, Taiwan’s “Cultural Capital.” In conjunction with New Terrains: Migration and Mobility, a Silicon Valley-wide project organized by San Jose Museum of Art, Wu Yu Jung spent a week in October, riding a bicycle around various San Jose neighborhoods, asking “Hey, are you free?” Her bicycle was equipped with sewing supplies and she asked if people wanted their clothes mended on the spot. Her artistic practice promotes meeting new people through sewing in public places and focuses on the relationship between the artist and society, and the symbolism of mending and clothing. This exhibition documents the artist’s practice and will include her custom bicycle created exclusively for her visit to San Jose

Please contact info@sjquiltmuseum.org with any questions.

Additional Events

December 1, 2018 - Gun Buy Back
 

In collaboration with the San Jose Police Department and the San Jose Police Foundation, officials will hold a gun buy back event on December 1, 2018. The public will have the opportunity to anonymously trade in their handguns, rifles, shotguns and assault weapons in return for cash and a quilt. As celebrated programming for SJMQT’s spring exhibition, Guns: Loaded Conversations, SJMQT has pledged $20,000 to support this community event and is collecting quilts. Each participant turning in a gun on this day will receive cash and a quilt. For more information on how to donate cash or quilts please visit: https://www.sjquiltmuseum.org/cashandquilts/

December 2, 2018 – Free Community Day Open House
 

Please come to SJMQT for a free, family friendly community day on December 2, 2018 from 11-3 pm. Celebrate the season with us and enjoy art activities, presentations, exhibitions and enjoy stress-free holiday shopping in our unique store, filled with gifts created by local artists.

ADMISSION: Admission is $8.00 general; $6.50 students and seniors; and free to Museum members and children 12 and under. Admission is ‘pay what you can’ on the first Friday of each month (excluding January and July). For more information, call 408-971-0323 or visit www.sjquiltmuseum.org.
These exhibitions and related programs are supported in part by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Silicon Valley Creates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and California Arts Council; by a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San Jose; and the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association.