Complex Pattern: The Quilts of Ellen Oppenheimer

Complex Pattern: The Quilts of Ellen Oppenheimer

Monday, September 13, 2004 to Friday, October 8, 2004

Between September 15 and 19, 2004, Oakland, CA-based quilt artist Ellen Oppenheimer will visit the University of Nebraska – Lincoln campus in conjunction with the exhibition “Complex Pattern: The Quilts of Ellen Oppenheimer” in the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery (September 13 – October 8). The exhibition and the artist’s presentations, made possible in part by the Dept. of Textiles, Clothing and Design , the UNL Research Council and Convocations Committee, and the Lincoln Arts Council, will spotlight both her colorful and expressive studio work as well as her long history as an artist-in-residence in numerous California public schools and community arts centers.

Ellen Oppenheimer is one of the most widely recognized and successful studio quilt artists working today. Selected for juried and curated exhibitions in a host of galleries and arts centers throughout North America and abroad (notably, Germany and Japan), her work represents an innovative and original approach to the design and fabrication of quilts. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, notably six Artist-in-Residence Grants from the California Arts Council over a period of as many years; a Japan-U.S. Friendship Foundation Fellowship in 2003, that allowed her to live and work in Japan over a six-month period; the Quilts Japan Award from the Nihon Vogue Company., Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan (1996), that made possible an earlier trip to Japan; and a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship for Visual Artists. Her work is included in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, and the Oakland Museum in Oakland, CA, among numerous others.

The Hillestad Gallery exhibition will include a selection of her signature screenprinted quilts, remarkable for the richness of their color and the complexity of their linear structures, in which multiple layers of design forms overlap and intensify the layered, transparent and translucent effect that these quilt surfaces display. Digitally-conceived, these complex patternings maximize the communicative value of strong graphic contrasts and stimulate the dynamic optical sensations that the act of looking often involves.

Oppenheimer has worked extensively with public school artist-in-residence programs in the San Francisco Bay area, and will lead a special afternoon workshop for graduate and undergraduate students in Teacher and Arts Education areas as well as for teachers in the Lincoln Public Schools system. This encounter, planned for Friday, September 17 from 1 to 4 p.m., will be an opportunity for future and present educators to network on strategies for integrating quilt activities in classroom curricula. “I’ve done a lot of work over the years with schoolchildren in a number of settings, and the possibilities of those encounters and the excitement they generated is something I’d like to share with as many people as possible,” writes Oppenheimer. ‘I have a lot to share that would be interesting and inspiring to present and future teachers as well.” This workshop is being presented free of charge, but advance registration is important (see contact information below).

Ellen Oppenheimer will present a free public lecture in the auditorium of the Home Economics Bldg. on East Campus, at 5 p.m. on Friday September 17. In her talk, Oppenheimer will concentrate on the development of her work over a thirty year period and will offer insights into the current directions that she is pursuing. A reception will follow in the Hillestad Textiles Gallery where visitors will have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Oppenheimer about her exhibited work.

Funding to support Ellen Oppenheimer’s exhibition, workshop and lectures has been generously provided by the Dept. of Textiles, Clothing and Design, the UN-L Research Council, the UN-L Convocations Committee, and the Lincoln Arts Council.

Information about these and related events are available by contacting Michael James, Professor in the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design, at 402-472-0289, or be e-mail at mjames2@unl.edu.

exhibit

PW Block 5, 66" x 66", 2002, screenprinted cotton, machine-pieced and machine-quilted

 

exhibit

PW Block 8, 44" x 44", 2004, screenprinted cotton, machine-pieced and machine-quilted

 

exhibit

FG Block Study #1, 31" x 31", 2000, screen-printed cotton, machine-pieced and machine-quilted


Complex Pattern: The Quilts of Ellen Oppenheimer