Nancy Crow: Works from 1988-2008

The Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University presents “Nancy Crow: Works from 1988-2008” featuring over 50 quilts and making it the largest exhibition ever to be organized of Nancy Crow’s work. The exhibition, curated by gallery interim director Petra Fallaux, will run from June 12 through August 15, 2008 with an opening reception June 12, from 5-8pm. Nancy Crow will lecture followed by a book signing on June 11, at 7 pm in McConomy Auditorium in the University Center.

Rather than assembling a ‘greatest hits’ compilation or chronological survey of Nancy’s career, “Nancy Crow: Works from 1988-2008” will present the works with an eye towards uncovering the artist’s process of discovery in these pivotal years. The exhibition includes examples of the ‘Bow Tie,’ ‘Chinese Souls’ and ‘Linear Studies’ series, as well as over thirty works from the ‘Color Blocks’ and ‘Constructions’ series, including new quilts that have not yet been exhibited or published.

Between 1988 and 2008, we witness artist Nancy Crow taking control of the color luminosity of her fabrics, while freeing herself from the straight-edged ruler. By exclusively mixing her own dyes and applying them in multiple applications, Crow brings out the utmost intensities and subtleties in color values and hues. Having mastered the art of free cutting, she at the same time achieved a compositional freedom that made new constructions with dazzling lyrical lines and authentic shapes possible.

Nancy Crow’s vocabulary is now easily recognized as a distinctive language of quiltmaking, analogous to the languages developed by master painters, star architects, or the musical phrasings of great improvisational jazz musicians. From subdued hues to exuberant and intense palettes, from fast and furious complexity to spare and intricate tri-color compositions, Crow fine-tunes her final compositions with dead-on precision. The artist’s scrupulous honesty and unwavering dedication to her art make her one of the most authoritative as well as genuine voices in contemporary art today.