Textile Artist Categories

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Pilar Agüero-Esparza

Visual Artist: Mixed Media, Print Maker, Sculptor, Textile

Born in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Pilar Agüero-Esparza was exposed to the potential of materials and the love of the hand-made working with her parents in their shoe repair shop. She received a BA in Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and MFA from San Jose State University. Pilar has been an active artist, arts educator and arts administrator in the Bay Area exhibiting her work in numerous institutions including the San Jose Museum of Art, Triton Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Santa Cruz Museum, MACLA, Palo Alto Art Center, Galeria de la Raza, and the De Young Museum. Her public art commissions include a series of murals in the main reading area of the Biblioteca Latinoamericana Branch Library in San Jose.

Ryan Carrington

Visual Artist: Sculptor, Textile, Visual Artist

Ryan Carrington works as a lecturer at San Jose State University teaching sculpture, foundry work, and mold making. Having received his MFA in spatial art from SJSU he went on to earned his BFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in ceramics and woodworking. Carrington also spent 18 months as an artist-in-residence at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, an experience that the artist credits with as having as much impact on my work as any formal education. His work deals with a wide range of issues that connect labor, class, work ethic and economics with his personal history and family. Using cast objects, construction materials, and tools that combine craftsmanship with symbolic irony, he touches on themes of labor through gallery installations, performances, and site-specific work. Artist Statement: My work addresses the shift in public perspective towards the culturally defined roles of blue and white-collar workers in the United States. It bridges issues of labor, class, work ethic and economics with my personal and family history. Within my studio practice I delve deep into processes that parallel the monotony and tedium that laborers endure. By using construction materials directly off the shelf from Home Depot, pieces of uniforms that represent America’s workforce, and performing acts of labor while dressed as a CEO, I invite a discussion about the ever-changing class struggle in the United States. My intent is to provide a conduit for empathy between our stratified society by inspiring dialogue across communities of people that represent the corners of our culture, history and socio-economic status.

Linda Gass

Visual Artist: Textile, Visual Artist

Textiles have been an important part of Linda Gass’ life since her grandmother taught her to sew and embroider as a child. In her early adult years, she took a detour through technology after graduating from Stanford University with a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science and worked in the software industry for 10 years. Linda returned to making textiles 17 years ago and now exhibits her work internationally in galleries and museums. Her work is published in numerous books and magazines including 500 Art Quilts, The Map As Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, Art Quilts: A Celebration, Fiberarts Design Book 7, American Style, American Craft, and Art Papers. Linda’s awards include the prestigious Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship and the Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship. She was featured in two episodes of Simply Quilts on Home & Garden Television and has taught workshops at Arrowmont and the Mendocino Art Center. She travels extensively in the wilderness areas of the West where she finds much of the inspiration for her work. Linda is an artist in residence in the Palo Alto Cubberley Artist Studio program and is a master member of the Baulines Craft Guild. She currently serves on the advisory board of the Black Rock Arts Foundation and has served on the boards of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles and the Textile Arts Council of the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Marianne Lettieri

Visual Artist: 3D, Mixed Media, Sculptor, Textile, Visual Artist

Marianne Lettieri creates art from commonplace objects that people have used over time and no longer find desirable or necessary. Her mixed media constructions explore the process by which relics of the past illuminate and inform current contexts. Marianne is an artist-in-residence at the Cubberley Artists Studio Program, sponsored by the City of Palo Alto. Marianne is on the leadership team of Doing Good Well, a national initiative to empower next generation female arts and culture leaders. She is on the board of directors of Council for The Arts, Palo Alto and Mid-Peninsula Area (CAPA).

Therese May

Visual Artist: 3D, Textile, Visual Artist

Therese May has been a leader in the creation and development of art quilting, recognized worldwide as a guiding light in the movement and one of its most inspiring advocates. Honored as both artist and teacher, she has been chosen to exhibit her works at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and at the Louvre in Paris, France. Among Therese’s many awards are the Most Innovative Use of Medium award in Quilt National ’85 and the Quilts Japan Prize in Quilt National ’95. Her work is published in numerous books and magazines, including The Art Quilt and America’s Glorious Quilts. Her 1969 quilt Therese was selected by The Alliance for American Quilts, the American Quilt Study Group, the International Quilt Association, and the National Quilting Association as one of the 100 best American quilts of the 20th century. Therese began making quilts in 1965 and has exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. With a focus on transformational healing, her work is centered on wholeness, integration and creativity through art and the quilt-making process. To realize and continue this focus, she makes herself available as a teacher, leading workshops for groups as well as providing individualized one-on-one sessions. She has appeared on the television show Simply Quilts and has taught at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; the Cleveland Institute of Art; Cabrillo College; the University of California, Santa Cruz, Department of Art and Design; and the University of Minnesota Split Rock Arts Program, as well as in many quilt guilds. In addition to Therese May’s other awards and recognitions, she was commissioned twice, in 1991 and 1992, to create quilts for the City of San Jose, California, and her two 196-square-foot works hang in the San Jose Convention Center. Her art quilts hang in many hospitals in Northern California and are included in numerous private collections. Therese has been part of the San Jose art community for the past 43 years and has participated in all of the Silicon Valley Open Studios. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in painting and a master of arts degree in design, with emphasis on the art quilt.

Consuelo J. Underwood

Visual Artist: Textile, Visual Artist

Consuelo Jiménez Underwood is most well known for her textiles and installation work. Her work represents her own history as a migrant agricultural worker, signifying her hybrid culture as well as the arbitrary lines that divide her homes. Artistic expression is deeply tied to traditional Huichol weaving, a heritage she incorporates into her large mixed media textiles. Borders and barriers are the vocabulary she uses to describe and celebrate the lives of migrant workers and indigenous people who are marginalized and downtrodden. Underwood taught at San Jose State University. She received her B.A. and M.A. from San Diego State University and M.F.A. from San Jose State University. Her work is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of Art.

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