Modern Design Lab Quilt Exhibit

About a year ago, the Modern Design Lab (MDL) submitted a quilt exhibit proposal to the Greenville (South Carolina) Center for Creative Arts (GCCA). The proposal was accepted, and a quilt show was scheduled for June 5 – July 29, 2020. Although GCCA will be limiting the number of people who can be in the building, with restrictions easing a bit recently, the plan is to go ahead and hold the quilt exhibit! With that in mind, I shipped off 4 of my quilts to South Carolina last week.

Trussed – Mill Photo Challenge

The Modern Design Lab, with the help of GCCA staff, will be curating a show to best represent the group and showcase the breadth and depth of modern quilting. One of the exhibits will be the Mill Photo Challenge, a collection of finished 15″ square mini quilts that were created based on the same photograph of the Woodside Mill by Mark Mulfinger using Kona Cotton in Grasshopper and any additional fabrics in white, gray, or black. Trussed is my submission to the Mill Photo Challenge, and I look forward to getting to see (and hopefully share) a photograph of the grouping hanging together.

Crown Mini Quilt

I also submitted and shipped my Crown mini quilt, which I created based on an MDL design prompt last year.

Scoop

Scoop was designed and made last November based on yet another MDL design prompt. I’m proud of Scoop because I not only completed the design prompt challenge but also made a baby sized quilt in less than a month.

Push-Pull – Sample Lap Quilt in Northcott Solids

Finally, I also submitted and Push-Pull for the exhibit. I think it represents the modern movement and has amazing modern quilting done by Christine Perrigo @ccpquilt.

Ready to Ship

I photographed all my quilts together just prior to packing them all off for shipping. With shipping being a bit weird during these uncertain times, I definitely breathed a big sigh of relief when they were safely received at the end of the week.

Exhibiting Artists

MDL Members
Paige Alexander @quiltedblooms
Cheryl Brickey @meadowmistdesigns
Yvonne Fuchs @quiltingjetgirl
Faye Jones @fayejones4444
Valorie Kasten
Cindy Lammon @clammon
Travis Seward @travlis

Invited Quilters
Jack Edson @jack14075
Connie Griner @gynconnie
Sylvia Schaefer @flyingparrotquilts
Michelle Wilkie @ml_wilkie

Official GCCA Press Release

The Greenville Center for Creative Arts is presenting the Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational Exhibition, featuring work from award-winning local and national modern quilters. This exhibit is sponsored by OnPoint CFO & Controller Services. The exhibit is planned to open on June 5th. It will be on display through July 29th, 2020. The gallery will be open by appointment only. To view the Modern Quilt Exhibit at GCCA, please call Ben Tarcson, Gallery Manager, at 864-274-0354 or email at ben@artcentergreenville.org to schedule your appointment. Appointment times are limited to Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2pm – 5pm. A maximum of only 10 visitors may visit the gallery at one time and groups no larger than 5 can set an appointment at one time.

The Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational Exhibition is organized by the Modern Design Lab (MDL), who are a group of modern quilters based out of the greater Greenville area. The Modern Design Lab was formed when seven friends met through the Greenville quilting community and later convened to explore design, fabric and quilting techniques. The MDL now meets monthly to share individual projects, seek creative input and critique artworks. Each month the group participates in a design challenge or a creative workshop. They have also created group quilts, where each person creates individual quilt blocks and then the group collaborates to design a single finished quilt. Their latest exhibition was juried into QuiltCon held in Austin, Texas in February 2020.

The participating Modern Design Lab members and artists include Paige Alexander (Easley, SC), Cheryl Brickey (Greer, SC), Yvonne Fuchs (Tehachapi, CA), Faye Jones (Simpsonville, SC), Valorie Kasten (Williamston, SC), Cindy Lammon (Greenville, SC), and Travis Seward (Greenville, SC). Each of these Modern Design Lab quilters invited another award winning quilter from outside the upstate to participate in the show. The featured guest artists include Jack Edson (Hamburg, NY), Connie Kincius Griner (Burlington, NC), Nicole Neblett (Chapel Hill, NC), Sylvia Schaefer (Athens, GA), and Michelle Wilkie (Cary, NC).

Each quilter in this exhibition uses the medium of fabric and the process of quilt making to explore how to take traditional techniques and evolve the process into something that encapsulates new ideas on design and aesthetic. Each artist showcases vastly different styles from one another but the use of bold colors, high contrast, graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing and design, minimalism, negative space, and alternate grid work are apparent to invoke impressions of modernity.

GCCA is a community visual arts center located in the historic Brandon Mill in Greenville, SC. It provides studio space to fifteen studio artists, an art school and six art exhibitions in the Main Gallery per year. GCCA’s Main Gallery will be open on Wednesdays-Fridays from 2 pm – 5 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. All visitors must enter through the main entrance and apply hand sanitizer upon admittance. GCCA will require visitors to practice social distancing, remaining six feet apart from others, and avoid hugging, hand shaking, and other close physical contact with people who do not live in your household. GCCA is providing additional cleaning measures for commonly touched areas in the facility. Disinfecting wipes will also be provided to visitors. For further information call us at GCCA at 864-735-3948 or visit (www.artcentergreenville.org).

GCCA’s mission is to enrich the cultural fabric of our community through visual arts promotion, education and inspiration. GCCA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.