To complement the fiber-rich exhibition of Gee’s Bend quilts and prints as well as that of Cozbi Cabrera’s dolls, quilts and paintings, the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum is presenting visitors with works from their permanent collection from a new perspective that references and explores fabric and other forms of fiber in a variety of ways.

The Fabric of Our Collection presents works like Burgess, The Legacy photo-collage quilt by Carolynne Miller. It serves as an example of art that utilizes fabric as its medium, while works in non-fiber media, like Carl Blair’s oil and wax painting Appalachian Spring exhibit imagery that evoke the look and feel of fabric by way of texture, color, style and composition. Other works exemplify the theme with their subject matter, such as Jonathan Green’s oil painting of a woman in an iconic straw hat embellished with a striped ribbon moving between colorful, line-hung quilts, titled African Memories (pictured above). And finally, the exhibition highlights technique in terms of representing the beautiful folds and draping of fabric in several drawings of women’s clothing and one still-life featuring a tablecloth.