Mixed Media
Shifting Landscapes at Form & Concept
“The border region is a place shaped by limitations and separation, which generates a unique experience for its inhabitants,” writes artist Sarita Westrup, who lives on the Texas-Mexico border, in a statement about her recent practice. “Cultural geography, Mexican-American identity, spiritual icons, belonging, and landscape are ideas that I investigate and that visually inform my work.” She describes her relief wall-hangings, composed of found and recycled materials including paper clips, metal fencing, and rocks, as forming a nonrepresentational portrait of border identity. Westrup’s reliefs are included in Form & Concept’s juried exhibition Shifting Landscapes, which explores the notion of place in the work of textile and fiber artists and designers.
Shifting Landscapes is the third international juried exhibition of the Albuquerque-based Surface Design Association (SDA), a membersupported organization for promoting fiber arts. The exhibition was juried by artist Erika Lynne Hanson and Form & Concept gallery director Frank Rose. The group show includes work by Detroit-based artist Dolores Slowinski, whose mixed media piece Archipoptosis deals with the subject of urban decay; Xia Gao, Michigan State University associate professor and two- and three-dimensional installation artist; and Patricia KennedyZafred, who is showing A Dying Breed, an art quilt created as a tribute to the American farmer and inspired by the documentary photography of U.S. Farm Security Administration in the 1930s. More than 30 artists are represented in the exhibit.
Shifting Landscapes opens Friday, Feb. 24, with a reception at 5 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m., there’s a free panel discussion at the gallery. Form & Concept is located at 35 S. Guadalupe St. Call 505-982-8111.
— Michael Abatemarco