2022 Call to Artists for the Inaugural Fiber Biennial

Proposal Details
Tangled Web, an Inaugural Fiber Arts Biennial | July - August 2022

An adjudicated biennial exhibition representing the diversity of contemporary fiber work currently being created in Michigan.
The Lansing Art Gallery & Education Center invites you to submit work for Tangled Web. This inaugural biennial show seeks to tease out the ties that bind text and textiles. Both words, text and textile, share the stem textere, "to weave." Springing from this root, the two are inextricably interwoven in the development of humans. Terms from the world of textiles permeate our language in ways we no longer notice, we weave a tale, lose the thread of thought, tie up loose ends, and hope with every fiber of our beings.

How do you understand the connection between text and textiles? Whether you are commenting on the social fabric, embroidering the truth, weaving a tale, knitting ideas together, tied up in knots, or creating a patchwork of images layered with meaning, we’d love to see how you explore the thread of this idea. We wait on tenterhooks for your submissions!
Steering Committee

The inaugural Fiber Biennial has been guided and developed with the help of our distinguished steering committee including fiber artists Martha Brownscombe, Nancy McRay and Shanna Robinson and Lansing Art Gallery & Education Center's Executive Director Barb Whitney and Exhibitions & Gallery Sales Director Katrina M. Daniels.

Meet the Jurors

Boisali Biswas

Boisali Biswas is a studio artist working in mixed-media fibers, born and brought up in India. Her formative years during BFA were spent at Visva-Bharati University, founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. The essence of that profound experience throughout her educational journey has stayed with her, and continues to influence her work. She completed her MFA at Bowling Green State University. Living in this country for over 3 decades, and adapting to Western styles and inspirations in concert with her background has made her Art into a cauldron of multicultural assemblages that are unique and a feast for the eyes.

Xia Gao

Xia Gao received her B.A. and M.S in Fashion Design from Donghua University (former China Textile University) and her MFA in Textile Design and Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gao is a visual artist and designer who primarily works with fibers/textiles for 2D, 3D and installation expressions. Her works often address personal, cultural, and societal adaptation and transformation.

Currently, Gao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Michigan State University. Before joining MSU, she was faculty member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Donghua University in Shanghai, China. Gao has also guest lectured and presented at diverse academic and conference venues.

Carole Harris

Carole Harris is a fiber artist who has redefined and subverted the concepts of quilting to suit her own purposes. She extends the boundaries of the tradition beyond utilitarian usage through explorations that include other forms of stitchery, irregular shapes, textures, materials and objects. Her work has received numerous awards and has been exhibited and published extensively. Highlights include a 2014 solo exhibition at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts (Rochester, MI) and inclusion in the exhibition “The Sum of Many Parts: 25 Quiltmakers in 21st Century America” which toured China, where she was a guest lecturer. Carole was also a 2015 Kresge Visual Arts Fellow.

Questions or Scholarship Needs

This application does have a $30 fee for members and $35 for non-members to apply. Scholarships are available, please contact Exhibitions & Gallery Sales Director, Katrina M. Daniels, at katrina@lansingartgallery.org

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