2019 Exhibitions

KNOW YOUR MEME: STITCHING VIRAL PHENOMENA
OCTOBER 20, 2019 – JANUARY 12, 2020
TURNER AND GILLILAND GALLERIES

The exhibition explores the concept of the meme as a poignant method to summarize, understand, critique and share thoughts on important societal issues. In true meme fashion, the artwork selection was driven by the power of the people, and curated by the online community. All artworks depict, relate to or reference a meme through a textile method such as quilting, embroidery, cross- stitching, knitting and crocheting, weaving, basketry, etc.

STORIES OF WEST AFRICA: HOLLIS CHATELAIN OCTOBER 20, 2019 – JANUARY 12, 2020
FINLAYSON GALLERY

Hollis Chatelain creates art quilts based on her photographs while she lived in the West African countries of Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Benin.

From her photographs, Hollis drew the original illustrations for her coloring book titled Stories of West Africa. These drawings, done in colored pencil, were scanned, enlarged, digitally printed on cotton fabric, and then machine quilted.  Each quilt tells a story showing the strength of family and community, while the backgrounds show lively African fabrics which play an important role in the everyday life of this region.

FORM AND FUNCTION: FIBER ARTS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
SECOND ARTIST MEMBERS BIENNIAL
OCTOBER 20, 2019 – NOVEMBER 24, 2019 
NOVEMBER 27, 2019 – JANUARY 12, 2020 

HALLWAY AND PORCELLA GALLERY 

Juried by artist and curator Karen Gutfreund, Form and Function: Fiber Arts for the 21st Century showcases works in both traditional and new media that emphasize art over craft with bold use of artistic elements—line, space, shape, form, texture, and color to tell an individual story.  Fiber artists utilize a multitude of methods to bridge craft and design, invoke new artistic concepts, and alter or refresh views of fiber. Each of our SJMQT Artist's Members brings a personal vision and sensibility to his or her cloth. We want to celebrate this diversity and this exhibition is intended to promote an appreciation of fiber arts in the broader community.

GEMS FROM OUR PAST
AUGUST 28, 2019 – OCTOBER 13, 2019
PORCELLA GALLERY

Ranging from 1850 to 1940, SJMQT showcases classic quilts from San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textile's permanent collection. Curated by Ashley Elieff, Collections Manager at SJMQT, this show highlights the bright, high-contrast, and bold prints of the museum's diverse quilt assortment.

BORDERS
JULY 31, 2019 – OCTOBER 13, 2019
HALLWAY GALLERY

Explore selected works from San Francisco School of Needlework & Design's Stitch-at-Home Challenge: Borders.

A border is a moat between a castle and its kingdom. A border runs along the hem of our jeans. A boundary, a selvage, a crease, an end and a beginning, a divider and a unifier: a border is all of these at once. Borders are both metaphorical and literal––some are fixed while others have fluidity and movement. Our internal boundaries serve to protect us from real or perceived dangers and help to delineate the furthest reaches of our moods and feelings. Externally, borders are both visual and physical structures that serve to define lands, politics, cultures and linguistic variations. They shift like the high tide line, results of geopolitical incidents, and within each of us as we learn, grow and develop. Sawtooth borders, hemstitched borders, open borders, white picket fences, brick walls, arched openings, drawnwork, or tiny dashed running stitch lines. Visible and invisible, comforting and discomforting, fixed and fluid….all around us.

LA VIE DE BOHÈME
JULY 21, 2019 – OCTOBER 13, 2019
FINLAYSON GALLERY

La Vie de Bohème celebrates the collaboration between two San Jose cultural institutions, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and Opera San José. Showcasing costumes, illustrations and props from Opera San José's production of La Bohème, the costumes illuminate the story of a group of bohemians, and how their lives become intertwined. Although the novel was set in Paris in the 1840s, the costumes in this exhibition represent the 1920s.

Costume Designer: Alina Bokovikova
Costume Director: Alyssa Oania

This exhibition and costumes on display are generously underwritten by Mary and Clint Gilliland.

https://www.operasj.org/

MAYAN TRAJE: A TRADITION IN TRANSITION
JULY 21, 2019 – OCTOBER 13, 2019
TURNER AND GILLILAND GALLERIES

The Maya of Guatemala are known worldwide for their excellent weaving and distinctive trajes (traditional clothing). These were once 100% village-specific, and people could be recognized as being from a specific place. Over time, many and diverse influences have caused significant change -- but even so, visitors are struck by the ubiquitous nature of indigenous weaving and the persistence of their “wearable art”. This exhibit will show outstanding examples of clothing from the early 20th century to contemporary fashion, highlight key differences, and explore some of the reasons for these changes. On view will be individual pieces as well as full trajes – none created for tourist markets. These will be drawn from the rarely-displayed collection of the Friends of the Ixchel Museum.

www.ixchelfriends.org

THE PRIVILEGE TO BREATHE: ADIA MILLETT
JULY 21, 2019 - AUGUST 25, 2019
PORCELLA GALLERY

The Privilege to Breathe is a series of abstracted textile pieces based on a few questions Adia began to ask herself, Can privileges be universal? What are the privileges that inform who we are? And what is our role in creating change? Initially the work that sprang from this inquiry developed into symbols for reconstructing her own relationship to economic disparity, white fragility, and male privilege. Using a combination of recycled and discarded fabrics, Millett pieces together images of hope. Through this process of investigation, she discovered something we all have... the privilege to breathe. 

QUILTS AS WOMEN'S SHELTER:
10TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION

JULY 21, 2019 – JULY 28, 2019

HALLWAY GALLERY

Since 2009, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association, and Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence partnered to teach quilting skills to women and teens whose lives have been changed by domestic violence. This exhibition celebrates the 10 year anniversary of this unique outreach project, which provides participants with new skills and the sense of accomplishment and confidence through creative empowerment.

Denise Labadie: Stone Portraits and Sacred Stonescapes
June 5 – July 14, 2019
Porcella Gallery 

Labadie makes contemporary art quilt portraits of Celtic megalithic stones and monoliths, and more recent monastic ruins. These stonescapes – stone circles, standing stones, dolmens, burial tombs, abandoned churches, forgotten cemeteries, and lost-in-history portals and passageways – are both timeless and evoke deep remembrances of human pasts largely forgotten. Labadie's quilts are known both for their surprising emotionality, large size and, from a construction standpoint, their hand-painted fabrics, textures, color gradation, shadowing and perspective, depth of field, craftsmanship and technique precision. 

H2OH!
APRIL 20 – JULY 14, 2019
TURNER AND GILLILAND GALLERIES

In association with Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA)

Water - it's everywhere! The majority of the earth's surface is covered by water. More than half of the human body consists of water. Every living thing depends on water to survive, and life hangs in the balance when this precious resource is squandered. Offering a variety of artistic interpretations, H2Oh! draws on a well of beauty, reverence, and contemplation as it invites viewers to consider the importance and the impact of water, one of the most vital, desired, powerful, sacred, and enjoyed resources on earth.

THE MARBAUM COLLECTION: VARIATIONS IN TECHNIQUES
APRIL 20, 2019 – JULY 14, 2019
FINLAYSON GALLERY

Discover a selection of quilts from the Marbaum Collection - a unique collection of 87 art quilts generously donated to SJMQT for its 40th anniversary - on display for the first time. Marvin and Hilary Fletcher started acquiring quilts in the early 1980’s, eventually establishing a formidable trove of works from nearly 80 artists, bearing witness to the diversity and vitality of quilt-making from that time, to the present. The Marbaum Collection is both an invaluable resource for artists and researchers to explore, and a deeply personal collection woven together by the Fletchers’ long standing passion for and philanthropic support of art quilts. The gifted collection, unprecedented in size and scope for SJMQT, will travel internationally before joining its new home in San Jose in 2020. 

KRISTEN MARTINCIC: SWIM CLUB
APRIL 20 – JULY 14, 2019
HALLWAY GALLERY

Kristen Martincic uses swimwear as a surrogate for the female body, creating paper bathing suits that are a cross between a bathing suit and an underdress, skin and clothing. Social conventions and context play a significant role in how these garments are viewed by others and ourselves. These delicate paper suits talk about the awkwardness of vulnerability and exposure while maintaining a sense of levity. 

MOMENTARY & TIMELESS 
APRIL 20 - JUNE 2, 2019
PORCELLA GALLERY

Momentary & Timeless invites you to join six Bay Area fiber artists as they explore various ideas through a combination of haiku and the art quilt. Each artist presents a unique style that will draw you into the rhythm of the exhibit. You will be invited to write your own haiku and hang it on a “wishing tree” – a tradition unique to Japan.

INTERNATIONAL TECHSTYLE ART BIENNIAL IV
JANUARY 20, 2019 – APRIL 14, 2019
HALLWAY, PORCELLA, TURNER AND GILLILAND GALLERIES

In 2010, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles launched its signature event, the International TECHstyle Art Biennial (ITAB). Returning now for its fourth incarnation, ITAB is a juried exhibition of work by artists merging fiber media with new information and communication technologies in their artistic processes, as a medium of artistic expression, and/or in the content of their work. Leveraging its location in Silicon Valley, ITAB serves as the premiere platform for introducing the work of artists exploring the intersection of fiber and technology to a global community.

EVANESCENCE: JUDITH CONTENT
JANUARY 20, 2019 – APRIL 14, 2019
FINLAYSON GALLERY

Palo Alto based artist, Judith Content, explores the essence of image, memory or a moment in time through the process of hand dying and stitched silk. Through discharge dyeing and shibori dyeing techniques, Content's work references the natural landscape with painterly movement and depth.

HEY, ARE YOU FREE?
SOLO EXHIBITION: WU YU JUNG
NEW TERRAINS: MIGRATION AND MOBILITY PROJECT
NOVEMBER 28 – JANUARY 13, 2019
PORCELLA GALLERY

Wu Yu Jung’s Solo Exhibition depicts mended cloth as metaphor for how clothing shapes the identity of the wearer, but also reveals our histories, scars and growth. Her exhibition will document the participants of the mended clothing through artifact, video and photograph, and feature the artist’s experience of visiting her Sister City of San Jose.

EXCELLENCE IN FIBERS, IN COLLABORATION WITH FIBER ART NOW MAGAZINE
OCTOBER 19, 2018 – JANUARY 13, 2019
TURNER AND GILLILAND GALLERIES

Fiber Art Now Magazine highlights innovative, contemporary textile art in the Excellence in Fibers issue. An exhibition of the same name, the work shows current trends in the categories of vessel forms/ basketry, installation, wall/ floor works, sculptural works, and wearables.

SEEING THE THRESHOLD: JAYOUNG YOON
OCTOBER 19, 2018 – JANUARY 13, 2019
HALLWAY GALLERY

Born in Korea, Jayoung Yoon is a New York based artist known for using human hair in her art. She focuses on using hair as a medium for exploring systems of thought, perception and sensations of the body. Her use of hair connects the viewer’s visual perception of the work to the physical form of the body. Her creations of 2 dimensional work, of both woven forms and geometric shapes, represent the limbo between conscious and unconscious states.

SUTURE AND STITCH: MARK NEWPORT
OCTOBER 19, 2018 – JANUARY 13, 2019
FINLAYSON GALLERY

For Mark Newport, textile and skin are intimately connected. Physical proximity causes sweat and strength, dirt and fear, love and cologne to move from flesh to cloth indiscriminately. While cloth protects skin, either can be cut or torn. Stitches are the means to aid healing and measure the intensity of the wound. 

These works begin by cutting a hole into the cloth. The hole is then filled by weaving with needle and thread. The repairs are made using traditional textile darning and mending techniques learned from studying European and American mending samplers. Whether the area of repair is immediately visible or camouflaged, mending holes leaves a scar that speaks of vulnerability, intimacy, and futility.