Over the past several decades, artists have embraced handcraft traditions, linking the art forms to the feminist movement and challenging society to locate a space for domesticity, women and art. Today, a new domesticity is emerging that stems not from the home, but from the studio, a love of kitsch, as well as the social arena of punk clubs and coffee shops. This exhibition explores contemporary approaches to embroidery, revealing surprising, humorous, even subversive imagery executed in thread upon vintage fabrics. The curators have carefully selected artists who explore this innovative approach to a traditional handcraft and its intersection with a third wave of feminism that often rejects the movement's moniker.

Download the exhibition brochure (PDF)

ARTISTS: B.J. Adams, Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Louise Bourgeois, Susie Brandt, Lou Cabeen, Orly Cogan, Celia Eberle, Dana Fenwick, Jenny Hart, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, Wendy Huhn, Masah Kalugin, Emily Katz, Roberta Lavadour, China Marks, Darrel Morris, Karen Reimer, Shanon Schollian, Andrea Vander Kooij, David Willburn, Anne Wilson

Exhibition sponsor: Tazo

RELATED PROGRAMMING

Panel Discussion at PNCA
Friday, September 22, 12:30–1:30 pm
Featuring New Embroidery artists Lou Cabeen, Dana Fenwick, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, Wendy Huhn, Roberta Lavadour and Andrea Vander Kooij. Moderated by Namita Gupta Wiggers.
Location: Pacific Northwest College of Art, 1241 NW Johnson Street.
Co-presented by Pacific Northwest College of Art

Exhibition Tour
Wednesday, September 27, 12 pm
Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator at Contemporary Crafts Museum & Gallery, will lead a tour of New Embroidery

Stitch, Link and Drink
Wednesday, October 4, 6–8 pm
Come learn a stitch or two while you "have a few" with local artists and crafers. We will supply materials—you supply the D.I.Y. spirit.

DIY Lounge at Contemporary Crafts
September 21–November 12
The DIY Lounge comes to Contemporary Crafts! Be inspired by the exhibition of New Embroidery to begin your own embroidery project—we will provide vintage fabric scraps and embroidery thread. On October 14 from 1 to 3 pm, Jen Neitzel, DIY Lounge founder and owener of Knot Ugly Designs, will share creative approaches to needlework. Trisha Hassler will also demonstrate and teach shisha, a traditional Indian embroidery technique used to embellish textiles with small mirrors. On November 4 from 1 to 3 pm, Heidi Steeves, DIY Lounge teacher extraordinaire, will divulge a few of her magic stitching tricks.
DIY Lounge home page

Excellence in Craft Lecture: Lou Cabeen
Home Embroidery: The Art and Craft of Domestic Pleasure
Thursday, November 2, 7 pm
Lou Cabeen is an artist and Associate Professor at the University of Washington. Her work explores themes of domesticity and the place of women in society. In this lecture, Cabeen will discuss the role that embroidery kits and samplers have historically played in domestic life. Although perscriptive, these kits were not only used to create adornment for the home, but provided women with a sanctioned means of pursuing pleasure through handcraft.
Location: Reed College,
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Elliot Hall, Room 314
Co-presented by Reed College Art Department

Which Stitch? Gender and the Evolution of Craft
Lecture by Andi Zeisler, Bitch Magazine at PNCA
Monday, November 6, 7 pm
Andi Zeisler is a writer, illustrator, co-founder and creative/editorial director of Bitch Magazine, and editor of the new publication BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine. A longtime freelance writer, her work has appeared in numerous periodicals and newspapers, including Ms., Mother Jones, Utne, Bust, San Francisco Chronicle, Women’s Review of Books, and Hues. The scope of her lecture is the evolution of craft beyond its many stereotypical iterations – ”women’s work” – and beyond its often disdainful reputation in the high-art world. She will touch on the meta aspects of contemporary craft – namely, the fact that many crafts, particularly those made by women, serve to comment on the domestic realms of the past. She will also reflect on how the new “hipness” of craft is represented in today’s popular culture.
Location: Pacific Northwest College of Art,
1241 NW Johnson Street.
Co-presented by Pacific Northwest College of Art

IMAGES (top to bottom): Susie Brandt, Darned Blanket (detail), 1993–1995, Photo: Tom Grow; China Marks, My Life in Pictures, 2006, Courtesy Luise Ross Gallery, New York; Andrea Vander Kooij, Space Fetuses, Photo: Kate Fellerath; Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Frippery, 2004; Andrea Vander Kooij, Cliff's Tatoos, 2005, Photo: Kate Fellerath; Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, Fourth Grade Patriot, 2004, Photo: David Hiltner; Wendy Huhn, Fly Away; Orly Cogan, Busy Barbie, 2004