New England Fiber Artists:

The CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION opened an exhibition featuring the work of Michelle Samour and work by Audrey Goldstein, Jessica Karlinsky, Janet Hansen Kawada, Abigail Newbold and Ann Wessmann on Thursday, November 6, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The exhibition will continue through Sunday, December 7th.

Michelle Samour is a paper artist, who breaks down plant fibers and stains them with pigments to create art that is influenced by microcosms of the world. In her current body of work Samour guides the viewer through a contemplation of cellular structures, plant materials, genetic codes and microbes. Without getting lost in the data of the microscopic, Samour is able to transform her analogies into elegant didactic maps of fiber, color and articulate drawings of what she perceives in that micro level. In addition to the two dimensional work Samour has culled from her studio, a new installation will be previewed in the same gallery. Samour is a Diploma graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she currently teaches. She has exhibited extensively throughout New England, most recently at Kingston Gallery and Bernard Toale Gallery and has participated in numerous group exhibitions including the DeCordova Annual. Samour has won awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Melon Foundation and her work is the collections of the DeCordova Museum, International Paper Company and Fidelity Management Company.

Audrey Goldstein is an artist who is fascinated with the inner workings of machines, specifically medical machines that might facilitate transfusions or life support. Crafting elegant materials, both natural and man-made she has invented sinuous forms out of fibers, wires, fabric and found objects. Inspired by the design of PC memory boards, cables, grids of wires of almost any machine, Goldstein asks the viewer to consider their own relationship to technology and how the human body is so often dependent on machines. A graduate of Tufts University and Massachusetts College of Art, Goldstein has exhibited extensively across the United States and received numerous grants and awards, most recently from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Suffolk University and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Jessica Karlinsky is a young fiber artist not yet out of her undergraduate program at Massachusetts College of Art. She employs the techniques of embroidery, quilting, sewing and beading, techniques that are both intensely personal and at the same time accessible to others. Karlinsky aims to create non-traditional works through the use of traditional and descriptively intricate applications; creating intimate objects that are deeply involved. Using a combination of fiber techniques, free form collage, painting and complex embellishments, she develops forms into rich and expressive works. Karlinsky has received awards from Massachusetts College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design and the Boston Globe.

Janet Hansen Kawada a fiber artist and teacher at Massachusetts College of Art transforms felt and other pliable materials and uses them to create installations which honor traditional and more primitive crafts. Her felted forms hark back to early American quilters, potters and furniture makers, tangible memories of things past and yet revered. The delicate nature of the material used reinforces that element of reverence. Kawada invites the viewer to ponder the condition of our memories, our ancestral treasures, that may or may not be stored in tissue paper and protective boxes.

Abigail Newbold is a fiber artist who sculpts felt and fashions forms in the most literal sense. Wool, hair, wood and metal are her materials. Her recent work concerns the human body, specifically her human body, and how it absorbs or manifests both emotional and physical experience. Her current work is an attempt to convey her body’s responses and experiences, in the hopes that her responses, while unique are somehow universally understandable. Newbold is a recent graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and is currently working towards her masters degree at Cranbrook at Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Michigan. She has recently exhibited at the Grounds for Sculpture, in New Jersey, The Design Exchange in Toronto, Canada and the Bakalar Gallery of Massachusetts College of Art, Boston.

Ann Wessmann is a fiber artist and Program Coordinator for Fibers at Massachusetts College of Art. Her fiber is human hair and her pursuit is to investigate itÕs expressive potential. Wessmann enjoys the delicacy and strength of personal family relationships, and universal connections between humanity and the natural world. Human hair that is cut evokes various responses, from repulsion to fascination, however Wessmann has found a way to share the allegories of family ties through the weavings of their locks. A graduate of Skidmore College and Cranbrook Academy of Art, Wessmann has exhibited extensively across the country.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 – 4:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00
Admission to all exhibitions is free