Artist Talk: Tanya Aguiñiga
Please join us for an artist talk by Tanya Aguiniga and reception at the Craft in America Center from 5-7pm. Talk begins at 6pm. Tanya Aguiñiga discusses how her work is informed by border experiences, the interconnectedness of societies and the celebration of culture. She is dedicated to utilizing art for community empowerment, and she encourages us to reconsider the objects we use on a daily basis through her fiber and design endeavors. This event is in conjunction with the Looming Elections exhibition at the Craft in America Center.
Artist Talk
Meet the artist Tanya Aguiñiga
Saturday, August 18, 2012
5pm – 7pm
Looming Election: Woven Works Exhibition (June 16 – September 1, 2012)
In light of the imminent 2012 election, Craft in America proudly gathers together politically charged work by five contemporary textile innovators. This is a vast and varied group of exceptionally skilled artists who push the medium of fiber, and the traditional technique of weaving, into new realms. Their work redefines what weaving can be, in terms of method, material and meaning. Visually engulfing, boldly crafted, their messages speak loud and clear, causing us to reconsider the road our nation has paved and where we are heading.
Each of these five artists comes from a different aesthetic standpoint but they are unified by their desire to explore the expressive potential of fiber. Tanya Aguiñiga, who trained in furniture design, experiments with alternative weaving structures and explores concepts of border identity and ethnicity in her site-specific work. Connie Lippert is known for tapestries woven in the traditional Navajo wedge weave, here employed to map our world and question where we stand. Michael F. Rohde paints poetic, suggestive meditations on modern life in yarn, using strong geometry and vibrant color. Cameron Taylor-Brown uses the language of woven cloth to, in her words, “shape order out of chaos.” And Consuelo Jimenez Underwood’s outspoken works in fiber challenging our conceptions of ethnic politics and calling into question social and economic hierarchies that exist in American life.
Tanya Aguiñiga is featured in the CROSSROADS episode.