A trip to the galleries....

When I go to New York City, I love to visit all the art galleries...they're usually much less crowded than the museums...and, of course, are free!  And they have nice little "press releases" that give you lots of info.

On my recent trip I came across several artists whose work is very reminiscent of art quilts.

JUAN USLÉ
At Cheim and Read, down in Chelsea, there's a display of paintings by Juan Uslé.
Here's a nice little You Tube (sorry I don't know how to embed them)...alas I don't speak Spanish, but you can see some of his technique...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUDM4rf7Ms

What's striking about the work (not all of it, but much) is how he's using quilt designs - basic grid structures, horizontal structures  as the basis of his paintings.
And imagine how beautiful those stuttering brush marks would be if interpreted with long stitches!!

It is said that those marks are based on his pulse, for Uslé describes his "sequential feild or territory of marks" as a "cardiogram".

Here are some of my photos from the show (which is up till June18).

CARMEN HERRERA

Carmen Herrera is originally from Cuba but has lived in New York for many years - she is 100 and still working (there's hope for me yet!)...but wasn't "discovered" until she was about 90....
Her work is very clean and crisp and reminds me of Modern quilts (or what modern quilts should be!! - yes, some are, I know, but a lot arn't!).

Here's a picture of the gallery (Lisson) with her work: (and you can see a lot more if you click the link on her name (above) - including one piece (Green Garden) I could swear I've seen at several art quilt shows!  The "motif" look!

What fun to look out of the window of the gallery and see another Herrera outside on a truck!
Now we know where she gets her inspiration:
























SIGMAR POLKE

And then of course Polke (also down in Chelsea) who paints on commercial printed fabric...this is a detail of a huge painting  - again I think it would be really interesting to piece the red and white and then do big globby hand stitches over the top!!!  Might actually look better!!!

Here's a very fun Yout-tube "critique" of a Polke show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLd5f8Pugk

NASREEN MOHAMEDI

Of course I did get to the "old Whitney", now the Met Breuer...I had to see the show of drawings by Nasreen Mohamedi, the Indian artist.  Well known in India, but I've never heard of her in America.
Alas, she died very young but the show has a lot of her work.

Here's an example:

This reminded me of the obsessive  hand stitching  - thousands of straight lines - by my friend Juliarose Loffredo Triebes... (alas no website).....
But it would also make a good machine stitching idea...I really like the way the objects are suggested so delicately by the tiny little curves.
What was really interesting about this show too were the drawings based on the photos she took - how she interpreted the photo....very sophisticated, very abstract....a good lesson for us all - don't be too literal!!

And now to the beach....I wonder if I'll find as much inspiration!!  Well, a machine quilting design based on alligator hide might work...(yes there are alligators - really!).  

And, if you have been, thanks for reading!!  Do let me know if you've seen any of these shows, or any other shows that gave you ideas for quilts......Elizabeth