Reception & Artist Talk: Joe the Quilter: Modern Musings
Opening reception and artist talk on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 6PM
By origin, quilts are blankets that are meant to be useful. You can use them to wrap yourself up, in case of the apocalypse.
– Joe Cunningham
Opening Reception & Artist Talk
Joe the Quilter: Modern Musings Exhibition
Meet the artist Joe Cunningham
Saturday, March 31, 2012
6pm – 8pm
Joe the Quilter: Modern Musings Exhibition (March 31- June 2, 2012)
Joe Cunningham, rebel quilter with a cause, defies common perceptions of what quilts and their makers are. He creates art quilts that chart new territory in technique, composition and expressiveness. Utilizing the historic medium of quilting, Cunningham crafts thoroughly modern works of art. His quilts, which are intended to hang like tapestries on walls rather than to drape over beds, overturn traditional art hierarchies that have excluded textiles with functional origins from the category of so-called fine art.
Joe the Quilter’s creations prove that quilts can speak as powerfully and effectively as the painter’s canvas. His quilts carry a multi-layered allure that is much deeper than the transfixing colors, patterns, and designs he scribbles across the cloth. Using landmarks of 20th century art as reference points in much of his work – Franz Kline, Abstract Expressionism and John Cage have entered into Cunningham’s approach – he pushes the craft into new realms.
Originally a rock and roll musician, Cunningham found his voice as a quilt artist when he learned and started experimenting in 1979. He soon poured his uncovered passion into researching, teaching and writing about quilts. Typically a female world, rare is the man who has ventured into these waters. Somewhere along his way, Cunningham learned about an 18th century male English quilter named Joe who inspired Cunningham to create a one-man musical quilt show/live performance which he will perform at the Center on May 19 at 8pm.
Joe Cunningham is featured in the INDUSTRY episode.
