Old, new are common threads at exhibit
“Once Old is New” is the retro-sounding yet enticing name of a show of two dozen individual and six large group quilts.
Organized by the Modern Quilt Guild’s Oklahoma City chapter, it is at Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE 3, through Aug. 18.
Grabbing our eyes first is a giant “Pixelated Gallardia Flower,” which Vincent Van Gogh might have created, using a laptop.
The six pixelated flower power artists are Shirlene Davis, Ann White Derrick, Eva Comer, Lisa Luse, Susan Patterson and Trish Maxwell.
Jemella Hilfiger, Dana Beach, Maria Anderson and Melissa Sullivan offer us their version of a massive dark gray, green and white “Geometric Star.”
Even more stark is a “Windblown Star,” created by six artists, made up of triangular and other geometric shapes, alternating with yellow.
“Windblown Star” was made by Karen Oyerly, Laura Young, Leslie Lamb, Stacie Sherry, Tisha Bowen and Paula Melendy.
In a statement, the six artists said they were surprised to find out that the “rotated pieces” of the traditional pattern “formed pinwheels.”
An unexpected spider in an intersecting yet lyrical grid of cross bars becomes symbolic of “Arachne’s Dilemma” in another large four-person quilt.
Turned into a spider for competing with a goddess, “Arachne’s Dilemma” was made by Cameron Potter, Kathy Gunther, Sarah Atlee and Vicki Medlin.
Other excellent large group quilts depict the “Prairie Silk” of abstract corn stalks, and “Nesting Geese” as triangles within triangles.
Standouts among smaller individual quilts include Ann Solinski’s “OXO” and Debbie Wanzer’s “Cathedral Sunshine.”
Solinsky draws us almost hypnotically into the multicolored grid of what could be the corners of picture frames, or a tilted tic-tac-toe game.
Tiny, origami-like birds and other small symbols bridge a white, stitched gulf between multiple, colorful church rooflike curves, in Wanzer’s quilt.
The exhibit is highly recommended in the rest of its run.
— John Brandenburg, for The Oklahoman