WEARABLE Expressions

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine. Ralph Waldo Emerson


This is the Palos Verdes Art Center’s sixth biennial international Wearable Expressions exhibition, a celebration of the creative spirit as expressed in unusual, dynamic and most creative works of fiber and jewelry art. Each exhibition in this long-running series has been bigger and better than the ones before. Each one brings us new artists from around the United States and the world. And this year, we added an international flavor to the jurying as well, working with jurors on three continents.

This year we have the privilege of exhibiting fantastic pieces of wearable art from Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, and United Kingdom. As well as pieces from the United States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin . These represent only 46% of 540 entries received, 250 works were accepted.
We would like to thank all the artists who entered this competition, shared their work with us and created these wonderful examples of wearable art. Their work speaks volumes of the creative spirit that lives in each of us. Congratulations on a job well done!

Special thanks are due to our jurors, who had the difficult job of selecting the best from an excellent pool of entries. The fiber jurors are: Glenys Mann from Australia, president of TAFTA and writer for Textile Fibre Forum magazine; Sunita Patterson from the United States, editor of FiberARTS magazine, and Beatrijs Sterk from Germany, publisher of Textile Forum magazine and secretary general and initiator of the European Textile Network. The jewelry jurors are: Arline Fisch from the United States, teacher, lecturer, professor emeritus at San Diego State University and author of Textile Techniques in Metal; Charles Lewton-Brain of Canada, distinguished fellow of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and fellow of the Gemological Association of Great Britain, and Rebecca Brown-Thompson of New Zealand, botanical illustrator, bead artist and co-author of Rebellious Beads. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise.

The driving force behind our Wearable Expressions program from the very beginning is Gabrielle, curator of this year’s exhibition and manager of The Artists’ Studio, a cooperative gift shop here at the Palos Verdes Art Center. Wearable art is her passion. Gabrielle not only set the vision for this year’s exhibition (and the previous five) but also labored long hours for several months logging in entries, orchestrating images for the jurors, coordinating their work and generally keeping the entire program on track and on deadline. She also secured a wonderful intern: Ingrid Peek from Nelson, New Zealand who has worked behind the scenes for the past six weeks. Ingrid left a corporate career to return to school and is midway through a degree majoring in Costume Design at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. As a successful past entrant into New Zealand ’s World of Wearable Art competition, Ingrid is thrilled to be able to be involved with this year’s Wearable Expression at PVAC.

An exhibition of this magnitude requires the assistance of many dedicated volunteers, who have given untold hours and energy : Jacqueline Marks, curator Wearable Expressions 2006 and Joanell Connolly, fine artists in their own right, have helped with both the selection process and actual staging of the exhibition. To the Wearable Expressions Advisory Committee: Joanell Connolly, Gay Durward, Lila Finlay-Gutierrez and Jackee Marks. To our wonderful Volunteer Committee for Wearable Expressions: Lyn-Rae Ashley, Judith Baer, Olivia Batchelder, Suzi Click, Karla Schmidt Commins, Joy Gonzalez, Norma Greene, Karen Krajzynski, Trish Lange, Carrie Lieb, Pam Reid, Anne Sheikh, Judith Solomon and Julie Watrous. Thank you.
Finally, the exhibitions program thanks members of the Palos Verdes Art Center Board of Trustees for their dedication in helping the arts to flourish on the Palos Verdes Peninsula; Robert Yassin, the Art Center’s chief executive officer and executive director, to his vision in guiding the Art Center to an even greater future; the committed volunteers of the Palos Verdes Art Center Exhibitions Committee for their continued commitment to the visual arts, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, which has sponsored, in part, our entire exhibition program.


Scott Canty
Exhibitions Director
Palos Verdes Art Center