FiberScene Honors the American Artists
November 15, 2007 - February 1, 2008

The International Triennial of Tapestry in Lódź, Poland, an historic industrial textile town, is the world’s largest and oldest event focusing on large-scale fiber art. What began in 1972 as a modest show has grown to include 138 artists from 51 countries in 2007/08. This year in conjunction with the Triennial, there were 110 associated shows throughout Poland, and for the first time there were two exhibitions in Slovakia and one in Germany (2008). Rebecca A. T. Stevens was the USA representative on the International Jury Panel; Camille Cook, Friends of Fiber Art International, was a returning consultant.

Six American artists were selected for the 12th International Triennial of Tapestry. In appreciation of the strong work they presented in this prestigious International Exhibition, FiberScene is pleased to reprise it here.

Reina Mia Brill reinvents the scary monsters of childhood nightmares as warm and fuzzy creatures. Knit with wire, the soft, whimsical figures belie the metal cages containing their forms. They beckon and taunt with charming cuteness.

Classical feminism pervades the work of French-born artist Marie-Laure Ilie. Her luxuriously draped Romanesque figures, hanging in multiple panels, become more ambiguous and fluid in Illie’s effort to “re-evaluate ancient symbols and archetypes through the frequently askew prism of the contemporary world.”

Glen Kaufman’s Lódź installation is made of recycled newspaper bags, but the color is the color of blood and war. It is his hope “ that viewers of this work will make the connection between these blood red ‘garment-ghosts’, inspired by an ancient Mesopotamian/Iraq form, and the current war in the Middle East.” In contrast, his sculptured recycled jeans seem almost benign!

Mary Fisher is a social activist working to improve the lives of HIV infected women and children all over the world. Her own struggle with the disease has led her to become a UN AIDS Ambassador, working especially in Africa to help “infected and affected” women become self sufficient in order to provide their families with food, medicine and shelter. Her emotional quilts, books and lectures are part of her personal journey.

Urban R. Jupena’s work explores color and texture and especially, light—“how it filters through an open weave and illuminates its texture, how it reflects and plays on the water depicted in a beaded tapestry of a swimmer, or how light and shadow define the musculature of the human form in a sculpted weaving.”

Marilyn Pappas works quietly and methodically to recreate classical beauty.
Through her labor-intensive stitching method, a traditional textile process, she creates heroic sculptures that speak of “the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome”.