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Conversations with Gee’s Bend

“All Over the News”
by Laura Petrovich-Cheney

CONVERSATIONS WITH GEE’S BEND

 

Artists Inspire Artists

“Conversations with Gee’s Bend” exhibits May 25th – Sept. 3, 2018 at San Juan Islands Museum of Art.  Fifteen years ago an astounding exhibit of quilts made by women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama toured the country.  Everywhere, people responded in awe to the quilts, their improvisational designs, bold colors and narrative they told.  The rural Alabama community was left alone, geographically and from outside influences and judgement, to hand down their traditions, quilt by quilt, generation by generation.  The women were not considered artists, by society’s standards, their materials were often nothing more than worn out clothes.  The women of Gee’s Bend succeeded in creating masterpieces of art, telling their stories of great poverty, civil rights, their faith and pride in their African Heritage.  Quilts made out of necessity, from nothing, became something enduring and beautiful.

Many of those in awe were working artists.  Our exhibit poses questions, how are contemporary artists in conversation with the Gee’s Bend quilts?  One artist is a hurricane survivor who uses salvaged building materials to create wooden textiles.  Another artist uses clothes to create a textile full of grief and healing.   Using electric filaments woven into fabric to create an electronic light animation into her work is another example of an artist’s expression.  Our contemporary artists work across a variety of media, some traditional, some unconventional.  What they all have in common is a particular aesthetic, a direct response to the quilts, where artists inspire artists.  The women of Gee’s Bend have inspired artists across the country to speak through their work, a visual dialog, a Conversation with Gee’s Bend.

Recognition of CWGB sponsors:
Dave and Nancy Honeywell Charitable Trust, Town of Friday Harbor, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Maryanne Tagney Jones Family Fund, Peg Gerlock and Phil Johnson, Kim Miller
Additional sponsors:
Kenmore Air, Tom and Barbara Cable, Margaret Greene, David and Valerie Kelley F/V Arrow, Bill and Susan Potts, Funk and Junk Antiques, Greg Kucera Gallery, Printonyx, Harbor Rental, Café Demeter, Sharon Lannon, Christine Leiren Mower, Margaret and Scotty Green, Cindy Pigott, Deirdre Morris, Mike’s Wine Bar and Café

 

Serge Attukwei Clottey

Courtesy of the Jane Lombard Gallery of New York
 
Courtesy of the Jane Lombard Gallery of New York and the artist, Sege Attukwei Clottey, Ghana

Melissa Alverinos