This summer, the Upstairs Noyes Arts Gallery at 927 Noyes St. will be showing Layers, a textile exhibition by the Art Cloth Network.
The Art Cloth Network is a collaborative group of artists brought together by their passion for creating stand-alone textile artwork. The Network was established in 2000 by Jane Dunneworld, Wrenn Slocum and other passionate textile artists who wanted to curate a space in which textile artists could create and share their work with one another. Over time, the Network’s understanding of what qualified as ‘art cloth’ was expanded to include more avant-garde, experimental textile creations.
Sherri Lipman McCauley, co-chair of the Art Cloth Network’s exhibition committee, describes the Network’s current understanding of art cloth: “Art cloth is cloth transformed by adding or subtracting color, line, shape, texture, value, or fiber to create a compelling surface.”
Layers encompasses the Art Cloth Network’s boundary-pushing definition of textile art. The exhibition features a variety of textile works, ranging from printed cloth to three-dimensional sculptures created using cloth and other materials. Regarding the meaning of the exhibition title, the Art Cloth Network states that Layers can refer to both the physical, “layered clothing, layers of soil, layers of paint, or layers of light, shadow, and color,” and the abstract, “layers of memory, of meaning in conversation, or of cultural knowledge.”
Many pieces in the collection reflect on the Layers that form and influence artists’ identities and experiences. McCauley explains: “Some of us remember past relationships, memories, patterns we see in our world, our environment and the world we live in. We interpret our vision with paints, dyes, fabrics and insight.”
Viewers of the exhibit are also encouraged to reflect on the layers that are pertinent to their own lives and those that shape the dialogues, relationships and communities they are part of.
Admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public, and no pre-registration is required. The exhibit opened on May 31, and will run through September 3.
Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.