Thinking Through Tapestry

About the Exhibition

Thinking Through Tapestry is a juried exhibition featuring work that celebrates, explores, and builds upon specialized techniques often associated with tapestry. Thinking Through Tapestry invites artists to submit work exploring discontinuous weft-faced woven processes rooted in tapestry techniques, such as wedge weave, pulled tapestry, using hachures, or other structures, including the H.V. (Handarbetets Vänner) technique, also known as the Theo Moorman technique. The exhibition seeks to highlight work illustrating the close relationship between tapestry weaving*, drawing, painting, and sculpture. Experimentation and the inclusion of additional materials (such as clay, steel, or wood) are encouraged and welcome; however, the majority of the submitted work must be handwoven.

The jurors for the 2026 exhibition were Emily Silver and Erin M. Riley. Emily lives and works in Los Angeles and is on the faculty at Santa Monica College in the Sculpture Department and the Director/Curator of the Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery. Emily holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and an MFA from Penn State University. She is also the co-founder of L.A. Tactile Lab, along with Svetlana Shigroff and Liv Aanrud. Erin M. Riley is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work focuses on women and women’s issues, primarily through handwoven, hand-dyed wool tapestries. Riley’s work challenges society’s comfort level by displaying shocking images, including nudity, drugs, violence, self-harm, sexuality, and menstruation. A catalog accompanied the exhibition, which was on view at the Evanston Art Center in Evanston, IL from May 31st-June 28th, 2026. 

*The American Tapestry Alliance defines tapestry for this exhibition as any work created through a woven process on any loom resulting in a weft-faced structure utilizing a discontinuous weft.

Juried Artists

Congratulations to the selected artists who participated in Thinking Through Tapestry.

Laura Burcin, Barbara Burns, Emily Cabaniss, Ching-Ting Chiu, Jasmine Claros, Molly Cleator, Deborah Corsini, Nancy Crampton, Sharon Crary, Liliana Crespi, Sam Dienst, Alex Friedman, Rama Ganesan, Tricia Goldberg, Anne Heide, Barbara Heller, Sally Heller, Sofia Herr, Connie Lynn Higgs, Christine Holtz, Rebecca Hooper, Cameron Kashani, Judit Eszter Kárpáti, Kristin Kelley-Munoz, Brendan Kenny, Riley Klein, Robbie LaFleur, Mary Lane, Fannie Lee, Monique Lehman, Connie Lippert, Kyle McKeown Mansfield, Ann Marie Miller, Pip Milton, Janet Moore, Annabelle O’Reilly, Tea Okropiridze, Anna Olsson, Libby Raab, Ellen Ramsey, Helena Richardson, Minna Rothman, Wendy Saam, Kristin Tinsa Saeterdal, Jennifer Sargent, Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, Mary-Ann Sievert, Kyla Sjogren, Rebecca Smith, Linda Soranno, Karmen Steigenga, Vicki Stone, Adrienn Szabo, Kathe Todd-Hooker, Trang Tran, Alta Turner, David van Buskirk, Stevie Van Housen, Ginny Wallace, Sue Weil, and Xingyi Zhao.

A catalog accompanies the exhibition and is available for purchase here. To listen to an artist talk from the exhibition, organized in partnership with Studio Art Quilt Associates, please go here.