Hillestad Gallery hosts works by fiber artist Susan Taber Avila in March

Released on 03/01/2010, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln

WHEN: Monday, Mar. 1, 2010, through Mar. 26, 2010

WHERE: Robert Hillestad Textile Gallery, 2nd floor, Home Economics Building, north of 35th Street and East Campus Loop

Lincoln, Neb., March 1st, 2010 —
"Cave Stitchings," 2009, 57" x 59", machine stitching on digitally printed hemp fabric backed with Ingeo (photo: Lee Fatherree)
"The Garden Wall," 2009, 9' x 30' x 1', thread, hand-dyed, printed and laser-cut fabric remnants, machine stitching (photo: Barbara Molloy)
"Garden Metaphors," 2009, 85" x 73", thread, hand-dyed, printed and laser-cut fabric remnants, machine stitching (photo: Fatherree)
"Thailand Tree Portrait: Marking," 2010, 44" x 33", digitally printed silk and hemp, thread, machine stitching (photo: Fatherree)

California fiber artist Susan Taber Avila will present a lecture and lead workshops in conjunction with a month-long exhibition of her work at the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Avila's exhibition, "Oh Naturale," will be in the gallery through March 26. Avila will be on campus March 23-26 to teach and provide a public lecture in conjunction with a reception that begins at 4:30 p.m. March 24 in Room 121 Home Economics Building, north of 35th street and East Campus Loop [map]. The lecture, "Exploring the Ubiquitous Stitch: The Textile Art of Susan Taber Avila," will discuss ways she is integrating reclamation of pre-consumer and post-consumer waste, use of renewable resources as well as other current research interests.

She also will teach a two-evening public workshop, limited to 18 participants. Fees collected from the public workshop will help defray expenses. For information on the workshop or to download a registration form, go to http://textilegallery.unl.edu/Exhibit_Schedule.html.

Avila will also conduct a four-day mini-course to advanced students in the Textiles, Clothing and Design Department. Working with TCD undergraduate and graduate students, Avila will explore a spontaneous fashion design process, using the body as an armature for a personal, sculptural statement. The class with students will cover ideation, pattern design and development, heat manipulation and disperse dyes, and will focus on making a wearable statement meaningful.

Since 1996 Avila has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her artwork has been published in Fiberarts, Surface Design Journal, American Craft, Artweek, Art Business News and was included in "Fiberarts Design Book Six" and "Fiberarts Design Book Seven."

Avila has developed a unique use of thread as both a drawing tool and structural element in her work. She has worked with this method over time, using it as a fascinating vehicle for her art-making. Taking advantage of a digital textile printer, she has incorporated printed imagery in her work, adding another layer of technology to her intensively hand-wrought art. This complexity of combining imagery, meaning and making as interdependent forces to create the whole allows Avila's original voice to distinguish itself in contemporary art production.

Her research in textile art and design examines the notions of sustainability, the reclamation of pre-consumer and post-consumer waste and use of renewable resources; technology, digital printing, industrial machine stitching and exploration of new materials and techniques; international perspectives, cross-cultural dialogue to encourage global awareness of textile art, surface design and fashion; and the exploration of traditional hand processes and utilization of textiles to enhance perception of contemporary culture.

Avila lives in Oakland, Calif., and maintains a studio in Emeryville. She is an associate professor in design at University of California, Davis, where she has served since 2004.

The artist has been making and exhibiting fiber-influenced artwork since 1982 when she graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles. Throughout her career, she has combined stitching and sculptural form. This fascination with stitching led her to a postgraduate degree program at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, 1985-86. In London she learned a variety of machine embroidery techniques. The post-Goldsmith sculptures were extremely dense vessels made entirely of thread.

In 1994, she entered graduate school at UC-Davis, where she had the opportunity to work with Gyongy Laky, Victoria Rivers and JoAnn Stabb among other prestigious artists. At this time, she began to address environmental issues and ethnographic textiles in her work. She received two research grants for study in Guatemala and published her research on the use of machine embroidery on indigenous clothing in Ornament magazine.

The UNL Research Council visiting scholar grant, the Friends of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery and the Textiles, Clothing and Design Department have provided funding for this program.

The Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery is on the second floor of the UNL Home Economics Building. The gallery is open to the public without charge Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends by special request. Call (402) 472-2911, to request weekend opening. For more information about the exhibition or the gallery, contact Sharon Reeder (402) 472-2911 or visit the gallery Web site, http://textilegallery.unl.edu.