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Art

Nouvelle needlework

A Florida Craftsmen Gallery show celebrating the fiber arts weaves the whimsical and the weighty.

By LENNIE BENNETT
Published February 2, 2006

[Images from Florida Craftsmen Gallery]

Linda Behar, Children of South Africa, embroidered accordion book, 2002.

	Reina Mia Brill, Veruna, layered, machine-knitted and sewn copper wire, nylon, nickel, 2003.
	Lindsay Obermeyer, Weighed Down, hand-knit mohair, 2005.

ST. PETERSBURG - Fiber has had a great run as a metaphor through the centuries. It's the thread connecting us, the tie that binds, the wear and tear on bad days, the seamlessness on good ones, the fabric of our lives.

We cover ourselves, literally and figuratively.

But humans, never content to leave well enough alone, have always wanted more than just the basics. How else to explain the unnecessary sumptuousness of a hand-worked Aubusson rug when a simple wool floor cloth would do?

Still, fiber, as finely used as it might be, has always been associated with the minor domestic arts, a craft considered woman's work.

So how refreshing to see talented men wielding needles with muscle, and women thumbing their crochet hooks at stereotypes in "Twist and Shout," a fiber exhibition at Florida Craftsmen Gallery.

Robert Calvo, known for his large, raw conceptual sculptures, has a delicate touch with needlepoint, perhaps the most eye-straining and time-consuming of fiber work. (I know, having dabbled in almost all of them.) Instead of the standard floral or animal depictions used as decorative pillow covers on drawing-room sofas, his worked canvases reproduce computer-generated pixels that look like stars exploding or being born.

Irony, as the show's title announces, shouts its way through much of the work and veers between wit and stridence, depending on the artist.

Some amuses, softening us up for the philosophical punch. Nathan Vincent works the Y chromosome with crocheted versions of red boxing gloves, screws elongated and twisted into flaccid knots, and a collection of tobacco pipes as humble as tea cozies. So does Pate Conaway, whose 9-foot knitted mitten-on-steroids could double as a sleeping bag.

Maybe I see too much earnestness in Sara A. Christensen Blair's cross-stitched body parts. And Donna Rosenthal's frothy little dresses of crocheted steel scripted with hot pink slogans such as "a big diamond ring" under the banner of Little Girls Wish List II seems outdated.

Then again, Lindsay Obermeyer's sweaters are guileless heart-warmers. A sleeve the length of a jump rope connects a pair titled Don't Leave Me. Knitted red punching bags weigh down a fluffy pink mohair version. And Reina Mia Brill's elaborate dolls of knit wire are layered and formed into weird, sweet aliens emblematic of motherly virtues.

In some cases the medium is the message. Linda Behar's embroidered landscapes and portraits make major statements about technique. They emulate engraving with patterns of dense cross-hatched stitches, photography with their verisimilitude, and painting with their nuanced grisaille of gray tones. Liz Whitney Quisgard's yarn-stitched wall hangings unapologetically revel in complexity that goes no further than its surface. And Tom Lundberg embroiders exquisite footprints that look like designer versions of Dr. Scholl's pads.

You don't mind the occasional swagger, a kind of nonverbal brag, that suggests the need to justify the choice of material. There's value in just stringing along.

- Lennie Bennett can be reached at 727 893-8293 or lennie@sptimes.com

"Twist and Shout: The New Needle Arts" is at Florida Craftsmen Gallery, 501 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, through March 23. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Free admission. 727 821-7391 or www.floridacraftsmen.net

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 09:05:07]