Susan Taber Avila
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
b. 1960, El Paso, Texas
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Kaiser Permanente, Santa Clara, California
University of California, Berkeley, University Health Service
Alameda County Public Art Collection, Oakland, CA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2006 Contemporary Baskets, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Fifth International Fiber Biennial, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
2005 Byzantine Las Vegas De Novo, Pi Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Beyond the Weave, Oakland Musuem of California External Exhibits, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA
In the Narrative: Textiles Object/Word, The IE Millstone Gallery at COCA, St. Louis, MO
2004 From Lausanne to Beijing:Third International Fiber Art Biennale, Shanghai Library Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
The Artful Table, Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Basket Invitational, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
2003 All Sewn Up, The Sturm Gallery, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV
Far Off the Runway:Images of Clothing, Virginia Breier,
San Francisco, CA
Generationss/Transformations: American Fiber Art, American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA
Needle Art: A Postmodern Sewing Circle, J. Wayne Stark University Center Galleries, College Station, TX (and traveling through 2006)
2002 Contained in Stitches, Stevenson Union Gallery, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
The Art of Collecting, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA
Bold Expressions, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA
2001 Beyond Thread: (A)mending Social Thought, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 Measure for Measure, H &R Block Artspace, Kansas City, MO
Persistent Anamoly: Visual Arts in Fiber, Solomom Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2004 American Craft, Vol. 64, No. 4, August/September, Review of
Byzantine Las Vegas.
Fiberarts Design Book Seven. Asheville, NC: Lark Books.
2003 American Craft, Vol. 63, No. 4 August/September
GalleryFiberarts, Vol. 30, No. 1, Summer
Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, Vol. 34, No. 2, Spring front cover
The Lowell Sun, Thursday, April 17, 2003
El Paso Times, Sunday, April 6, 2003, Artist of the Week.
2002 Art Business News, Vol. 29, No. 13, December 2002, Uncommon Threads: The Diversity of Fiber Art, pp.44-47.
Chargeurs Annual Report 2002, Paris, France
Surface Design, Vol. 26, No. 3, Review of Beyond Thread, pp. 44-45.
2001 American Craft, Vol. 61, No. 6, December /January 2002.
Surface Design, Vol. 25, No. 2,Winter, pg. 51.
2000 Artweek, Vol.31, Issue 4, April. Review of Persistent Anomaly, pg. 21.
Fiberarts, Vol. 26, No. 4, January/February, Profile, pg. 14.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My art describes a world that balances security with vulnerability. I create pieces to investigate issues of containment. I am curious about how clothes or skin contain the body, how language contains thought, how environment or packaging contains identity. My work allows me to play with the contradiction of accessible and inaccessible spaces, inviting, and yet deliberately mysterious.
Each piece is influenced by my desire to share and withhold. An extremely personal poem may be rendered illegible by irregular stitches while a nagging thought or word is clearly spelled out. I invent a dialect combining illusion and reality. I reference contemporary fashion and historical costume. I am also inspired by textiles created by other cultures and the powerful messages attached to them.
Creating art gives me a space and time to gather my thoughts, enabling me to express what I can't articulate with words. Threads transform into colored pencil lines of ethereal writing or compat blocks of textured color. In the way, threads metaphorically mimic life's simple, linear qualities, which in abundance are transformed into fabrics dense or delicate, supportive or fragile.
ABOUT THE WORK
TORSOS
Geography
This piece looks at how the body is used for marking boundaries. The torso is elongated and distorted by inside the piece floats an object similar to a woman's breast. The main object of female identity is thus contained within the body.
Elizabeth
The piece speaks of Elizabethan regality. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16th Century, a noble woman other than the queen had very little power, her primary prupose was as a billboard for her husband's wealth–usually by wearing heavy clothing encrusted with jewels. The queen herself was known for wearing pearls, a symbol of her "virginity".
Royal Flush
This piece is part of a series juxtaposing ancient Byzantium and contemporary Las Vegas. It is made up of 20 decks o recycled playing cards. Over 2000 hand-punched paillettes are hand stitched with faux pearl to a machine stitched torso. The pearls and ornate patterning comprise the Byzantine reference, while the playing cards and leopard skin refer to gambling lounges in Las Vegas.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Kaiser Permanente, Santa Clara, California
University of California, Berkeley, University Health Service
Alameda County Public Art Collection, Oakland, CA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2006 Contemporary Baskets, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Fifth International Fiber Biennial, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
2005 Byzantine Las Vegas De Novo, Pi Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Beyond the Weave, Oakland Musuem of California External Exhibits, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA
In the Narrative: Textiles Object/Word, The IE Millstone Gallery at COCA, St. Louis, MO
2004 From Lausanne to Beijing:Third International Fiber Art Biennale, Shanghai Library Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
The Artful Table, Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Basket Invitational, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
2003 All Sewn Up, The Sturm Gallery, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV
Far Off the Runway:Images of Clothing, Virginia Breier,
San Francisco, CA
Generationss/Transformations: American Fiber Art, American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA
Needle Art: A Postmodern Sewing Circle, J. Wayne Stark University Center Galleries, College Station, TX (and traveling through 2006)
2002 Contained in Stitches, Stevenson Union Gallery, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
The Art of Collecting, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA
Bold Expressions, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA
2001 Beyond Thread: (A)mending Social Thought, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 Measure for Measure, H &R Block Artspace, Kansas City, MO
Persistent Anamoly: Visual Arts in Fiber, Solomom Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2004 American Craft, Vol. 64, No. 4, August/September, Review of
Byzantine Las Vegas.
Fiberarts Design Book Seven. Asheville, NC: Lark Books.
2003 American Craft, Vol. 63, No. 4 August/September
GalleryFiberarts, Vol. 30, No. 1, Summer
Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, Vol. 34, No. 2, Spring front cover
The Lowell Sun, Thursday, April 17, 2003
El Paso Times, Sunday, April 6, 2003, Artist of the Week.
2002 Art Business News, Vol. 29, No. 13, December 2002, Uncommon Threads: The Diversity of Fiber Art, pp.44-47.
Chargeurs Annual Report 2002, Paris, France
Surface Design, Vol. 26, No. 3, Review of Beyond Thread, pp. 44-45.
2001 American Craft, Vol. 61, No. 6, December /January 2002.
Surface Design, Vol. 25, No. 2,Winter, pg. 51.
2000 Artweek, Vol.31, Issue 4, April. Review of Persistent Anomaly, pg. 21.
Fiberarts, Vol. 26, No. 4, January/February, Profile, pg. 14.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My art describes a world that balances security with vulnerability. I create pieces to investigate issues of containment. I am curious about how clothes or skin contain the body, how language contains thought, how environment or packaging contains identity. My work allows me to play with the contradiction of accessible and inaccessible spaces, inviting, and yet deliberately mysterious.
Each piece is influenced by my desire to share and withhold. An extremely personal poem may be rendered illegible by irregular stitches while a nagging thought or word is clearly spelled out. I invent a dialect combining illusion and reality. I reference contemporary fashion and historical costume. I am also inspired by textiles created by other cultures and the powerful messages attached to them.
Creating art gives me a space and time to gather my thoughts, enabling me to express what I can't articulate with words. Threads transform into colored pencil lines of ethereal writing or compat blocks of textured color. In the way, threads metaphorically mimic life's simple, linear qualities, which in abundance are transformed into fabrics dense or delicate, supportive or fragile.
ABOUT THE WORK
TORSOS
Geography
This piece looks at how the body is used for marking boundaries. The torso is elongated and distorted by inside the piece floats an object similar to a woman's breast. The main object of female identity is thus contained within the body.
Elizabeth
The piece speaks of Elizabethan regality. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16th Century, a noble woman other than the queen had very little power, her primary prupose was as a billboard for her husband's wealth–usually by wearing heavy clothing encrusted with jewels. The queen herself was known for wearing pearls, a symbol of her "virginity".
Royal Flush
This piece is part of a series juxtaposing ancient Byzantium and contemporary Las Vegas. It is made up of 20 decks o recycled playing cards. Over 2000 hand-punched paillettes are hand stitched with faux pearl to a machine stitched torso. The pearls and ornate patterning comprise the Byzantine reference, while the playing cards and leopard skin refer to gambling lounges in Las Vegas.