Release: Immediate
Contact: Esther Wu |214-271-4484 | ewu@crowcollection.org
Photos: available upon request
Stitching the Seasons: Contemporary Japanese Quilts, an exhibition of 12 exquisite quilts made by Japanese artists, opens at the Crow Collection of Asian Art Saturday, January 24 and continues through April 19.
The exhibition is part of Quilt Mania II, , one of the largest collaborative quilt shows in the Southwest scheduled between September and April at 17 different cultural institutions in North Texas. More than 300 quilts will be exhibited during this six-month period.
Stitching the Seasons: Contemporary Japanese Quilts, features works of art that infuse Eastern aesthetics with nineteenth and early twentieth-century American patchwork and appliqué patterns. The dazzling quilts exemplify the Japanese sense of color, attention to detail and their fine handling of fabrics.
Chiaki Dosho’s quilt, Cherry Blossom V, employs a technique allowing movement in her quilt—almost as if a subtle breeze is blowing the cherry blossoms. Ms. Dosho is an instructor at the Quilt Studio Chiaki and the Tokyo Textile Forum.
Reiko Naganuma's Summer Sun iis an innovative Japanese interpretation of a traditional nineteenth century American quilt called Drunkard’s Path. Ms. Naganuma has manipulated the pattern to create new interlocking spaces within the basic pattern.
Though quilts are often considered American in origin, historians report that Marco Polo brought quilting back from Asia to Europe. Traditionally, however, Japanese women did not participate in this art form in modern times until the last two decades of the twentieth century.
Today they have raised the art form to a new level. The quilts exhibited at the Crow Collection were among those juried at the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival in 2007. Fumie Ono, one of the judges of the Tokyo show, helped curate Stitching the Seasons at the Crow Collection.
The Los Angeles resident has collected American antique quilts for more than thirty five years and has published two books on the subject.
Ms. Ono will be the featured speaker at the Crow Collection's Inside Asia: Art, Music, Culture lecture series at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19 at the Crow Collection of Asian Art. This program is free for Friends of the Crow Collection; $10 for non-members. Call 214-979-6348 for reservations.
There will also be a Quilt Crawl—a day-long visit to five museums participating in Quilt Mania II—from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. February 28. Stops include the Crow Collection, the Dallas Heritage Village, Historic Mesquite Inc., Mesquite Arts Center and the South Dallas Cultural Center. Cost is $38 and includes transportation, lunch and admission to all five venues. Please visit www.quiltmania.org for information on departures and registration.
