Join us from 5-7pm for an Artist Reception featuring “Woolworks” by Alex Friedman (Main Gallery) and “A Lifetime of Painting on the Side” by David Harris (Crescendo Gallery).
Artist Statement for “Woolworks”
Tapestry weaving has a long tradition as a narrative artform. While that aspect initially drew me to the medium, it was the weaving process that really got me excited. I realized the simplicity of the grid and the basic over/under interlock of the warp and weft would allow me to explore many ways of creating more dimension within the basic parameters of traditional tapestry. I was interested in developing the organic, ‘textileness’ of tapestry.
Recent pieces have explored a new direction that involves working with eccentric weaving, extra tension and surface design. The result enhances the notion of traditional tapestry with a rich configuration of slits, bas-relief sections; space dyed yarns and occasional embellished sections and even non-rectangular format.
Art was always part of my life. A native San Franciscan, I studied both studio art and art history. I was hired to work in an architectural office but an evening class in weaving set me on a new path. In NYC, I worked in a studio where four of us wove tapestries for a fleet of Pan Am jumbo jets.
Tapestry has taken me in many directions and introduced me to weavers around the world. I have been the Director of the American Tapestry Alliance and currently I serve on the Board of the Textile Arts Council at the DeYoung. I have a studio in the ICB in Sausalito and welcome visitors by appointment. www.alexfriedmantapestry.com
*Featured photo (right): Flow7: Seafoam, 45″ x 34″, tapestry
Artist Statement for “A Lifetime of Painting on the Side”
Now 72 years old, my art has always been something I did on the side, often going years between paintings, but always returning eventually to “keep my hand in.” This show spans fifty years’ worth of such returns and revisionings, each squeezed from among the few vacant spaces in my ongoing career as a writer, journalist, and political advocate, snatched from the pressure of time and family and work. In that sense, I have been an amateur artist, painting for the love of creating form from blank surfaces, addressing only an audience of one, satisfying my eye alone, thrilled at the outcome for its own sake. All of these pictures have been generated by my imagination, recreating an image that has suddenly appeared in my mind’s eye rather than reflecting the “reality” around us—portraits of an emotional rather than a physical truth. I think of them as grown up cartoons, exploring color and shape, each hinting it is an episode in larger story, but without elaboration. Heretofore, only my friends and family have seen them, on the walls in my home, though I’ve given a few as presents over the years. And having finally put some of them on public display for the first time makes me wish I’d found time to paint more.
*Featured photo (left): On the Beach, 24″ x 48″, Acrylic on Masonite
