Sherri Smith | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Stanford University (BA), Cranbrook Academy of Art (MFA) |
Occupation(s) | Fiber and textile artist, weaver, sculptor, educator |
Known for | Large-scale and three-dimensional hanging sculptures, waffle weave sculptures |
Movement | American studio craft |
Website | www |
Sherri Smith (born 1943) is an American fiber and textile artist, weaver, sculptor, and educator. [2] She is one of the pioneers within the field of fiber art since the late 1960s. [3] Smith taught for many years at the University of Michigan (UMich) in Ann Arbor, where she is the Catherine B. Heller Collegiate Professor Emerita. In 2012, she was named a fellow of the American Craft Council (ACC).
Smith was born on March 21, 1943, in Evanston, Illinois, U.S.. [1] [4] [5] [6] However some sources state she was born in Chicago. [7] [8]
She graduated with a BA degree in 1965 and Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University; and went on to earn an MFA degree in 1967, in weaving and textile design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. [8] [7] [9]
Smith opened her career as a textile designer with two New York City firms, Dorothy Liebes, Inc., (1968), and Boris Knoll Fabrics (1969). [7] In 1969, Smith achieved early acclaim after participating in the pivotal group art exhibition, Wall Hangings (1969) at the Museum of Modern Art. [10]
She began her academic career teaching at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, from 1971 to 1974. [7] From 1974 until 2018, she taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. [7]
Her artwork is included in public museum collections, including at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; [11] the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [12] the Art Institute of Chicago; [13] the Minneapolis Institute of Art; [10] and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. [14]
Anni Albers was a German textile artist and printmaker credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art.
Besides surface qualities, such as rough and smooth, dull and shiny, hard and soft, textiles also includes colour, and, as the dominating element, texture, which is the result of the construction of weaves. Like any craft it may end in producing useful objects, or it may rise to the level of art.
Lenore Tawney was an American artist working in fiber art, collage, assemblage, and drawing. She is considered to be a groundbreaking artist for the elevation of craft processes to fine art status, two communities which were previously mutually exclusive. Tawney was born and raised in an Irish-American family in Lorain, Ohio near Cleveland and later moved to Chicago to start her career. In the 1940's and 50's, she studied art at several different institutions and perfected her craft as a weaver. In 1957, she moved to New York where she maintained a highly successful career into the 1960's. In the 1970's Tawney focused increasingly on her spirituality, but continued to make work until her death.
Claire Zeisler was an American fiber artist who expanded the expressive qualities of knotted and braided threads, pioneering large-scale freestanding sculptures in this medium. Throughout her career Zeisler sought to create "large, strong, single images" with fiber.
Frans Wildenhain also known as Franz Rudolf Wildenhain was a Bauhaus-trained German potter and sculptor, who taught for many years at the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.
Mary Lee Hu is an American artist, goldsmith, and college level educator known for using textile techniques to create intricate woven wire jewelry.
Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based visual artist. Wilson creates sculpture, drawings, Internet projects, photography, performance, and DVD stop motion animations employing table linens, bed sheets, human hair, lace, thread and wire. Her work extends the traditional processes of fiber art to other media. Wilson is a professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Mildred Constantine Bettelheim was an American curator who helped bring attention to the posters and other graphic design in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in the 1950s and 1960s
Adela Akers was a Spanish-born textile and fiber artist residing in the United States. She was Professor Emeritus at the Tyler School of Art. Her career as an artist spans the "whole history of modern fiber art." Her work is in the Renwick Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and Design. Her papers are at the Archives of American Art.
Polly Barton is an American textile artist.
Katherine Westphal was an American textile designer and fiber artist who helped to establish quilting as a fine art form.
Marianne Strengell was an influential Finnish-American Modernist textile designer in the twentieth century. Strengell was a professor at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1937 to 1942, and she served as department head from 1942 to 1962. She was able to translate hand-woven patterns for mechanized production, and pioneered the use of synthetic fibers.
Helena Hernmarck is a Swedish tapestry artist who lives and works in the United States. She is best known for her monumental tapestries designed for architectural settings.
Françoise Grossen is a textile artist known for her braided and knotted rope sculptures. She lives and works in New York City. Grossen’s work has been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Wall Hangings was an exhibition of textile fiber art at Museum of Modern Art from 25 February to 4 May 1969. It was planned in 1966 and toured 11 cities in 1968–1969.
Joan Livingstone is an American contemporary artist, educator, curator, and author based in Chicago. She creates sculptural objects, installations, prints, and collages that reference the human body and bodily experience.
Tracy Krumm is a textile artist, craft educator, and curator based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Krumm's work combines metalworking and crochet; crafting items such as curtains and clothing out of metals and wire.
Lillian Elliott was an American fiber artist, and textile designer. She is known for her innovative basket craft.
Evelyn Svec Ward was an American fiber artist, she was known for her abstract textile work. She was influenced by Mexican handicrafts and Mexican traditional fiber. She worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the textiles department for almost 10 years, before embarking on her career as an artist.
Jane Gottlieb Sauer is an American fiber artist, sculptor, gallerist, and educator. She is known for her abstract waxed linen sculptures, sometimes referred to as "closed baskets". Saur founded the Textile Art Alliance; and formerly owned the Jane Sauer Gallery (2005–2013) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.