"Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets" at Boca Raton Museum of Art

Alexandre Arrechea - Mask Series: Havana, 2016
Jacquard tapestry, 99 x 99 in. Edition of 3
Numerous tapestries published by Magnolia Editions will appear in "Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets," on view at the Boca Raton Museum of Art from April 24 – October 21, 2018.

The show is not limited to tapestries from Magnolia: tapestry publications from the studio by artists such as Kiki Smith, Aziz & Cucher, Alex Katz, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, and Alexandre Arrechea will be exhibited alongside woven works by various other artists including William Kentridge, Fred Tomaselli, Kara Walker, and Kehinde Wiley.

Kiki Smith - Harbor, 2015
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 76 in. Edition of 10
The exhibition’s title refers to the portable nature of the medium; the phrase “nomadic mural” is borrowed from an essay about tapestry by Modernist architect Le Corbusier.

Throughout the centuries, notes the exhibition press release, important artists such as Rubens and Raphael were famous for their tapestries, and in the 20th century artists including Picasso, Braque, Leger, and Miro embraced the medium. Today, artists have increasingly incorporated tapestry into their oeuvre no matter the medium for which they are known.

For more details, please visit the Boca Raton Museum of Art website.

Geisha in Ofuro

Masami Teraoka - Geisha in Ofuro, 2011
Jacquard tapestry
115 x 78 in. Edition of 8
Geisha in Ofuro, the first tapestry edition by Masami Teraoka, has been more than five years in the making.

Don Farnsworth and Teraoka working on the weave file for Geisha at Magnolia Editions
The image itself has even more history: Geisha in Ofuro (ofuro is the Japanese word for "bath") began as a watercolor on canvas from the artist’s 1988 AIDS Series, described by Sarah Atlee as “an evocative mix of beauty and terror, sensual forms startled into abrupt mortality,” in which Teraoka grappled with the burgeoning AIDS crisis.

Detail from Teraoka's Geisha in Ofuro tapestry; click to enlarge & see the weave structures!
In 2008, Teraoka reworked the image as a woodblock print edition; now his Geisha takes on an especially monumental, heroic cast as a nearly ten-foot-tall tapestry.

A Geisha tapestry proof at Catharine Clark Gallery; photo by Michael Strickland
Teraoka’s reflection on the effect of AIDS on the vast sex industry in Japan (the mizu-shobai, or “water business”) suggests that even in a world of fantasy, awareness is paramount, and a simple act of self-protection can be a measure of strength.

Detail from Teraoka's Geisha in Ofuro tapestry; click to enlarge
“A saint or angel doesn’t have to be a priest, a high-achieving person, or anyone particularly special,” Teraoka told Alison Bing in 2006, “anyone who is decent and civilized and a good person, we should be celebrating.”

A consummate painter, Teraoka mixed paint colors by hand to indicate color corrections on his tapestry proofs (just as Alex Katz did for his 2008 Ada with Sunglasses tapestry edition).

Masami Teraoka working at Magnolia Editions
For more information on Geisha in Ofuro, please see the press release on Magnolia's website:

Geisha in Ofuro press release (PDF)

New Chuck Close tapestry edition

Chuck Close - Lucas, 2011
Jacquard tapestry, 87 x 74 in. Edition of 6
Chuck Close's first tapestry edition of 2011 is a portrait of the groundbreaking artist Lucas Samaras, who (like Close) is perhaps best known for his self-portraits. Samaras's work often involves one of Close's favorite photographic media – the Polaroid, which Samaras manipulates in innovative ways to produce "photo-transformations."

Close’s Lucas is woven at a more intimate size than his previous tapestries, and the unprecedented detail in its matte surface is due to a higher thread count and a new palette which includes wool fibers for several of the black values in the work. With darker blacks and brighter whites than any of Magnolia’s previous tapestry publications, this work has an exceptionally photographic quality appropriate to its subject.

Like his other tapestry editions depicting fellow artists and creative figures, Close's tapestry portrait of Samaras was digitally translated from a daguerreotype. Together with Cindy Sherman and Andres Serrano, also subjects of Close tapestries, and the painter Alex Katz (another artist who has created a tapestry with Magnolia Editions), these two artists are largely responsible for redefining contemporary portraiture: the extraordinary detail of Close's image and the sheer intensity of Samaras's gaze leave no doubt that both artist and subject are masters of their craft.

Chuck Close - Lucas Press Release (PDF, 179 Kb)

More art by Chuck Close at Magnolia Editions

UPDATE:

Here is a nice high resolution photo of Lucas at White Cube Gallery's booth at the Armory Fair in New York last month, courtesy of Artobserved.com (check their site for more photos from the fair):

photo by L. Streeter, Artobserved.com - click to enlarge