Episode 3 - Robin Schwalb

If your art collecting has been focused on paintings and drawings, please don’t miss this episode of Art Lovers Forum with Artist Robin Schwalb. Robin is a quilt maker who introduced textile art into the world of pop culture. Her creations make you stop, stare and think “I would like to look at that every day.”

That is exactly why Robin has become so popular. She loves combining her graphically compelling quilts with the digital realm of manipulated photography. She then adds  the extremely analog craft of stenciling, screen-printing, patchwork, appliqué and quilting. She also explores the rich variety of the written word, balancing an appreciation of their abstract beauty with the desire to include the "found art" of relevant texts. Subject matter might be drawn from her travels; the urban environment; film and/or video technology; or even mannequins.

Schwalb's quilts have been widely shown in both juried and invitational exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Japan including The Gold Standard of Fiber and Textile Art (2020); “Deeds Not Words”: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage (2020); Semper Tedium: The Slow Art of Quiltmaking (2015); Art Quilt Elements (2012); Outside/Inside the Box (2012); Crossing Lines: The Many Faces of Fiber (2011); Talking Quilts (2004); Language Arts: Text as Imagery (2003); Six Continents of Quilts: The American Craft Museum Collection (2002); Seeing Yellow (1999); 9 x 9 x 3; Edge to Edge: Selections from Studio Art Quilt Associates (1998); Visions: Quilt San Diego (1996); Five Perspectives: American Art Quilts in Moscow (1996); Artists + Language (1993); and eleven Quilt Nationals, from 1987 to 2017. She was a juror for Art Quilt Elements 2010 and 2020. She curated the 1991 Manhattanville College exhibition Essences and Presences: Art Quilts and wrote the catalog for this six-artist show.  Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including American Craft; The New York Times; Canadian Surfacing Journal; Fiberarts; The Detroit News; and Patchwork Quilt Tsushin.  The artist received the Quilts Japan Prize from Quilt National '05, the Award of Excellence from Quilt National '89 and Jurors' Choice from Tactile Architecture 1992.  She was awarded a grant by the Empire State Crafts Alliance in 1989.

A native of New York City, Schwalb studied painting at the State University of New York at Binghamton, receiving her BA in 1974.

Today Robin is going to tell us what we need to know about textile art and why we should pay more attention to it. Robin thank you so much for taking time to speak to us today.