Exhibits

Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints & Stitching Our Story
Opening June 25

The newest exhibition on display in the Juliet Art Museum is focused on the art of quilt-making presents seventeen works by seven fiber artists representing the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Curated by internationally renowned artist and teacher Nancy Crow, Material Pulses contributes to the dialogue of contemporary textile arts.

Crow has seen trends in the medium follow a track of smaller quilts in more neutral colors and asked, why? The pull of quilting lies in its large, forceful presence and the freedom to use color joyously. Making a quilt is a physical activity, involving piecing parts on working spaces that can span entire walls. Crow says “Material Pulses is the culmination of my mission to bring back the majesty, strength, and energy of textile works, particularly large quilts.”

In tandem with Material Pulses, we will feature a key selection of local quilts by innovative and award-winning quilters. West Virginia has a rich tradition of quilting and an abundance of skilled quilters in our own community. Many of these quilters incorporate their own stories into their work, either through collaboration with family members, creating quilts to commemorate life events, or even commenting on social issues.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Elliot Family Foundation. 

Patchwork: Recent Drawings by Ric Ambrose
Open Now!
Juliet Art Museum

We welcome California artist Ric Ambrose back to Charleston for an exhibition of his recent monumental drawings!  Ambrose was the longtime curator at Sunrise Museum and then served as the director of exhibitions here at the Clay Center. He has taught studio art at multiple colleges throughout the country and has curated over 300 exhibitions in art, science, and history.  Now, he is known for large-scale, seemingly photographic drawings of everyday life which he creates using only graphite and an eraser.  However, the images are a bit unsettling upon close examination; each scene is an amalgamation constructed to form specific messages.  Ambrose states,

“The patchwork of urban elements in my immediate surroundings holds tremendous fascination for me.  I am particularly struck by the ironies and paradoxes found in both the micro and macro world that surrounds us.  After twenty-five plus years in the museum profession, a move to the Bay Area in 2007 rejuvenated my desire to re-draw my personal world.  My panoramic drawings are a compilation of disparate images stitched together and interwoven into an introspective tableau, reconstructing partial memories or recollected experiences.” 

This exhibit is presented with support from the The Elliot Family Foundation, Daywood Foundation, Herscher Foundation, Bernard H. and Blanche E. Jacobson Foundation, Fund for the Arts (The Clay Center salutes the following major donors to Fund for the Arts whose annual gifts of $10,000 or more help keep all the arts thriving in our area including City of Charleston, Cecil I. Walker Charitable Foundation, Daywood Foundation, Spilman, Thomas & Battle PLLC),  the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.