Interesting art in the art world

I want to spend some time talking about the SDA/SAQA conference and what came out of it...however, as a direct result of that, I found some interesting information about current "textile" work...ie., tapestries.

I was looking through my Art In America magazine from January (I am sometimes slow) and on the first pages was an ad for "Demons, Yarns and Tales...tapestries by contemporary artists" at the James Cohan Gallery in New York.

Wow, tapestries in New York?  Went to the website for the gallery and found a show of a number of pieces of tapestry but then in the descriptions I realized that these were sold in editions of 5...meaning that five exact copies were available for each of the pieces...how can this be for original work?

I found nothing in the gallery information about how these were made or exactly what they were. So I went to the artist's web sites and found their paintings but no tapestires...none of the artists actually worked in fiber.

So then I went to the small print in the ad in Art in America and found out that the exhibition is curated by Banners of Persuasion.  So I went to their site and found all the information I would like.

These tapestries are actually rugs that have been made under the artists' supervision in China....talk about outsourcing! This company, Banners of Persuasion puts together shows of various artists with work that has been recreated from paintings and then they are sold at very high prices...if you read the article you will get a sense of the price of these.

So where is the orginal fiber art?

Previously I had found the art of Sati Zech who is represented by Howard Scott Gallery, also in New York.  Take a look at her work. This is fiber art done in a very different manner.  She paints on canvas and then puts it all together via sewing....

So, all this will lead to more discussion about the conference but please take a look at these artist's work to see what is happening in the galleries in New York!