Michael James' 'Ambiguity and Enigma' exhibition to open June 5

The most recent work of quilt artist Michael James will be the focus of an upcoming exhibition at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"Ambiguity and Enigma: Recent Quilts by Michael James" will be on display June 5 through Feb. 20, 2016. This will be James' first solo exhibition at Quilt House.

For more than 40 years, James has explored the studio quilt's conceptual, expressive and technical possibilities. James has continuously experimented with the quilt surface, constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing it in ways that have changed the public's perception of what a quilt can be.

This latest body of work includes some of his most poetic and personal pieces.

"The upcoming exhibition of Michael James' quilts illustrates his constantly evolving creative process," said Carolyn Ducey, the quilt center's curator of collections. "I find these recent pieces incredibly compelling, with an expressive quality that draws a person into contemplating their own personal spaces. I think our viewers will appreciate James' willingness to share his life experience at such a deep level."

Born and raised in southeastern New England, James studied painting and printmaking, earning a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 1971 and a master of fine arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1973. For 25 years, he worked independently as the creative principal of Michael James Studio Quilts, exhibiting his work widely in the United States and abroad. 

Since 2002, James has focused his creative efforts on digital textile printing and its interface with the quilt as mixed media platform. This technology has allowed him to greatly expand his visual and expressive vocabulary. James uses design software to heavily manipulate photographic and scanned materials, including drawings and painted surfaces, then outputs this imagery onto cotton substrates with reactive dyes.

"Ambiguity and Enigma" continues James' exploration of the liminal and fluid borderland between the physical and metaphysical worlds, a psychic territory that James has long claimed as his comfort zone, though not without some effort.

Forced several years ago to come to terms with his wife's diagnosis of younger onset Alzheimer's disease, James said the most difficult part was navigating a sea of sadness and hopelessness with no rudder, no map and no shoreline in sight.

"It didn't happen overnight, but eventually my studio practice adapted itself to the new psychic rhythms and day-to-day unpredictabilities of my life as a primary caregiver, and offered me a way to begin to find some perspective and some solace," he said. "The creative process is very powerful, and it's really the foundation of the notion that when life gives us lemons, we can choose to make lemonade. This is, in effect, what I've tried to do."

A number of public events to accompany James’ exhibition are in the planning stages, as well as a catalogue with essays by James and by former "Art in America" editor Janet Koplos.

The International Quilt Study Center and Museum at Quilt House is home of the world’s largest publicly held quilt collection. Established in 1997, the center opened a new museum in 2008. The privately funded, environmentally sustainable museum houses more than 4,500 quilts and objects, state-of-the-art research and storage space and spacious galleries. The center's mission is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit and promote discovery of quilts and quiltmaking traditions from many cultures, countries and times.

Writer: Laura Chapman, International Quilt Study Center and Museum