Peters Valley Announces New Exhibition

Peters Valley School of Craft is pleased to announce a new exhibition, Contemporary Fiber, curated by renowned gallerist Wendy Haas, in the Sally D. Francisco Gallery from August 27th through November 6, 2016, with an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, August 27.
Wendy has selected the pieces in this exhibition as a conversation about the timelessness of traditional craft techniques or materials, and the desire to use them to create works of art that are fresh and relevant to our current time. In her words, “As the fine craft and fine art worlds merge, traditional materials and techniques are being used in highly contemporary manners. Fiber in particular exemplifies this trend, as historical media such as bamboo and horsehair are modernized into abstracted and sculptural forms. The artists in Contemporary Fiber utilize long-used textile and basketry techniques in combination with current aesthetic ideas, resulting in contemporary sculpture in two and three dimensions, the incorporation of light and shadow, and the evolution of conventional ideas into unexpected artworks.”
Participating Artists are: Emily Dvorin, John Garrett, Sandra Jane Heard, Jan Hopkins, Brian Jewett, Tari Kerss, Nancy Koenigsberg, Gyöngy Laky, Elizabeth Morisette, and Karyl Sisson. These artists are using unusual natural and manmade materials from zippers, to dried fruit peels to steel and plastic tubing. For example, Jan Hopkin’s piece titled Falling is constructed of grapefruit, pomegranate, melon and cantaloupe peels, leaves, yellow cedar bark, watch parts and sewn together with waxed linen. Preservation is both an element and subject of the artist’s work.
Wendy Haas is a Chicago-based private art dealer and curator. As director of Cervini Haas Gallery in Scottsdale Arizona, she worked with national and international artists and clients and exhibited at art fairs across the US. Since moving to Chicago she’s also worked for the Sculpture Objects Function Art and Design (SOFA) Fair and is renewing her own studio practice.
The Gallery at Peters Valley School of Craft is located at 19 Kuhn Rd., Layton, NJ 07851 and is open daily from 10am – 6pm.
Peters Valley School of Craft is a non-profit educational center for the exploration, promotion and practice of the craft arts, located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Funding for Peters Valley is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Hudson Farm Foundation and by the generosity of its members and individual donors. Please visit www.petersvalley.org for more information.