Concepts in Tufting

High Pile

Bedford Gallery

(Walnut Creek)

Ongoing – December 13

Sam Druant (Belgium), Blossom

High Pile explores tufting beyond its traditional associations with domestic and commercial craft, highlighting the medium’s role within contemporary fine art as a site of experimentation and conceptual inquiry. This exhibition examines tufting as a practice where color is built through fiber density, form emerges through pile structure, and materiality plays a central role in how the work is experienced.

Trish Anderson & Michael Porten (US-Georgia) Wild Frontier 1-2; 4-9

If you are reading this blog, I already know that you are open-minded. (It’s not flattery; it’s a simple fact.) You do not limit the appreciation of art to just oils, watercolors and marble. When you go to the Bedford for this show, you are in for a real treat.

Angela Anh Nguyen (US-CA), A response to the Query

Nguyen’s work is a flattened self-portrait that exposes her coping mechanisms in a technologically-driven culture. A 7-Eleven coffee cup, a bottle of wine and some zines.

L2R: Mychaelyn Michalec (US-OH), All my geese are swans; Shishi San (Belgium) Stained glass vase (which stands over six-feet tall), and Johannah Herr (US-NY) & Mae Wang (Thailand), American War Rug III (El Paso Shooting)

Peter Salsman (US-CA), Kilauea volcanos with the blood moon

Salsman maintains his studio at Creative Growth in Oakland. His expression of his lived experience comes in many forms, including painting, ceramics, wearable art and tufted rugs. Both Hyperallergic and The New York Times have included his practice in their publications.

These artists from around the world have accepted the challenge to make yarn into art. At the same time, the curator has embraced the joy inherent in the theme. So, be prepared for art that climbs walls and runs across the floor, a work that rolls on the wheels of antique table legs, and another that grows out of a massive ceramic pot (not pictured). Once you see this exhibit, you will wonder: Why do so many artists restrict themselves to the paintbrush and chisel?

L2R: Jennifer Banzaca (US-CA), RISE UP!, Maya Michaelsdotter (Sweden) A cat burning from the head, and Melissa Monroe, (US-Oregon) Cape of Faces (certainly an effort that even Picasso would appreciate)

High Pile brings together 20 artists whose work engages tufting as both a physical and expressive language. The works emphasize process while incorporating elements like abstraction and pattern to convey narratives and cultural meaning. Collectively, the exhibition positions tufting as a vital contemporary medium that is tactile, yet conceptually expansive.

Liv Beret Aanrud, Diamond

For more information, click here.