Modern textile designs on exhibit at Craft & Folk Art Museum

“New Directions: A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Textiles,” organized by the Textile Society of America, opened recently at the Craft & Folk Art Museum. The concept is to showcase shifts in contemporary textile art and to highlight technical, aesthetic and structural innovations.

A jury reviewed more than 400 submissions from 159 artists internationally to choose the 19 established and emerging artists in the exhibition, which is scheduled to run through Jan. 4, 2015. Iowa State University professor Eulanda A. Sanders, a director at large of the Berkeley-based Textile Society of America and one of the curators of the exhibition, noted the juried show was a first for her organization, and it was a way to expand its mission. “It is important for people to understand there are textile traditions that live on and that there are many artists approaching these traditions in new ways,” she said.

A few highlights:

— Lia Cook’s digital jacquard loom weaving superimposed with data visualization of neuroscientific readings from a reader’s emotional response to the work

— “Dead Hare” by Jenne Giles, which addresses the lifeless realism of taxidermy through the medium of felting

— Guillermo Bert’s piece that integrates Chilean Mapuche weaving with encryption technology

“A lot of the technologies are very innovative and really take people by surprise,” said Sasha Ali, exhibitions manager at CAFAM.

Other artists are Whitney Artell, Caroline Charuk, Henia Eizenberg, Amy Gross, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Mariko Kusumoto, June Lee, Abbie Miller, Susan Moss, Linda Ohrn-McDaniel, Peggy Osterkamp, Meghan Price, Jennifer Reifsneider, Cynthia Schira, Pauline Verbeek-Cowart and Irene Walker.

The museum is at 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The museum is also open the first Thursday of the month from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. General admission is $7; students’, senior citizens’ and veterans’ admission is $5 and children under 10 are admitted free.

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‘New Directions’

What: “New Directions: A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Textiles”

Where: 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The museum is also open the first Thursday of the month from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Price: General admission is $7; students’, senior citizens’ and veterans’ admission is $5 and children under 10 are admitted free.

Info: https://www.cafam.org

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