phyllis lear: world gone mad

June 6 - 29, 2023

FIRST WEDNESDAY OPENING: june 7, FROM 6 - 9PM

ARTICULATE ARTIST TALK: SUNDAY, june 11, AT 4PM.

NORMAL GALLERY HOURS: TUE - SUN, 12PM - 6PM

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In recent years, Phyllis Lear has begun to explore the fabric yo-yo (Suffolk Puff) as an art form. Traditionally used as a quilting technique, she appropriates the yo-yo as a module for building fine art pieces. Many of these quilted works speak to current events as well as personal experiences.

The women in Lear’s family – her sisters, mother, grandmother, and godmother are all excellent seamstresses. Lear clearly recalls her Grandmother Lear hand-quilting in the middle of her tiny living room – the quilt taking up nearly all of the available space.

“I began exploring the fabric yo-yo (Suffolk Puff) as an art form in 2018. Traditionally used as a quilting technique, I appropriate the yo-yo as a module for building fine art pieces. Compositionally I prefer to break away from the traditional rectangular format and allow my quilts to spread across the wall and sometimes spill to the floor. Many of my quilted works speak to current events as well as personal experiences.

The body of work presented in this exhibition, World Gone Mad (BRG 2023), touches on the topics of COVID-19, gun violence in the United States, the war in Ukraine, and the worldwide disaster of plastic waste. One piece, Fall, celebrates the a pear tree’s foliage in autumn.” - Lear

Lear received the 2005 Visual Artist Fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts and was the recipient of the Donald F. Derby Endowed Professorship in 2017. She presently teaches at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in private collections from Toronto to New Orleans.

This exhibition is presented alongside the latest works from Mary Ann Caffery, Margaret Humphris, and David Scott Smith. All works from these artists are on view, free of charge, during regular gallery hours (12 - 6 p.m., Tue - Sun) from June 6 - 29, 2023.