With materials as varied as concrete blocks, old journals, coffee filters and repurposed clothing, four contemporary artists redefine our concept of fiber arts; taking the viewer on an exploration into the history of fiber, gender and also memory, as experienced personally, historically and in all its unreliability.
About C. Pazia Mannella
C. Pazia Mannella lives and works in Columbia, Missouri, She is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Fibers and the Fibers Program Head at the University of Missouri. She recently exhibited work in Extreme Fibers: Textile Icons and the New Edge, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI and the Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI. She participated in Art in the Open 2014 and 2016, where artists used Philadelphia’s Schuykill River Banks as their studio space, creating new works of art outside, on-site, Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA. She created Swell, an outdoor installation at The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences sculpture garden, Loveladies, NJ.
About Dot Vile
Dot Vile earned her B.F.A. in Fiber from The University of the Arts in 2013. Between 2014-15, she was the Sculpture Artist in Residence at Millersville University and a Full Scholarship Recipient to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for Blacksmithing. She was featured on the cover of A Women’s Thing for their Spring 2016 issue titled Mothers & Grandmothers. Dot has exhibited nationally and internationally, namely in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Seoul.
About Libbie Soffer
Libbie Soffer was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She attended Moore College of Art as a Textile major following a 17 year career in Dental Hygiene and raising two sons. Her art has traveled with “All the Symptoms of an Artist” to the Smithsonian and Whitney Museum of American Art. Some of her art was selected by corporate and private collectors including Edward Albee and Bristol Meyer Squibb. She exhibits in museums, universities, and galleries. She is a former member and past president of Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, a member of “InLiquid.com,” a member of Philadelphia Sculptors, and Artists Equity.
About Olaitan Callender-Scott
Olaitan Callender-Scott is a Brooklyn, NY native who moved to Northern California before the most recent resurgence in her home town. She has lived in rapidly changing Oakland for many years. Olaitan works in mixed-media particularly using fabric and fibers in traditional and non-traditional ways that and include photography, found objects, printmaking, encaustic and drawing among others. She received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2009.