NSU will host exhibition of small tapestries

NATCHITOCHES –  Northwestern State University’s Department of Fine + Graphic Art will host an exhibition of work presented by the American Tapestry Alliance June 8-Aug. 14 with an opening reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 11 in the Orville J. Hanchey Gallery.   The “Small Tapestry International 4:  Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation” exhibition is comprised of 45 small handwoven tapestries from weavers around the world.  The 2015 STI exhibition will begin at Northwestern State and will continue to travel to Dover, Delaware, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The exhibition is an international juried show.  Of the 73 artists who entered, 22 were from outside the United States.  Juror Kevin Wallace chose 45 tapestries from a total of 130 submissions with 14 from other countries.

“One of the strengths of the work that utilizes traditional craft processes is the manner that these processes impact the work, design and execution,” said Wallace, director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California.  “What appear to be single colors in the words in larger tapestries, due to the optical blending of multicolored warp and weft threads, become pointillist details in these miniature works.”

There is a comfort provided by works in fiber that transcend content, Wallace said.

“If tapestries are ‘nomadic murals,’ as Le Corbusier once noted, these miniature tapestries are snapshots, sharing the diversity of life in a world balancing tradition and innovation.”

Hanchey Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-noon Friday.  For more information on the exhibition, contact Gallery Director Leslie Gruesback at (318) 357-5476 or e-mail gruesbeckl@nsula.edu.