WEAVINGS FROM CYNTHIA’S STUDIO
An exhibition in the Gallery at Whitcomb’s
September 7 through November 1

Reception on Tuesday, September 17
5:00pm
with a short video “In Cynthia’s Studio” at 5:30

Cynthia Schira is a textile artist living and working in Westport.  Cynthia has been exhibiting her work internationally for over 50 years.  Her work is in the collections of major museums, including the Renwick of the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan and the Textile Museum.  For over twenty years, she was a Professor of Design at the University of Kansas. Additionally, she is a life trustee at the Haystack School of Crafts.  Over the years she has received three NEA grants, a Tiffany Grant, a Gold Medal from the ACC College of Fellows and an Honorary Doctorate from RISD.

Cynthia Schira in her studio

Cynthia approaches her work with serious playfulness – often turning the accepted rules of her craft upside down. Throughout her weaving career she has explored unusual methods and materials - discarded aluminum strips, rayon trim, surplus cotton bandages and buttony notions from the garment world.  She was at the forefront of creating art using the industrial Jacquard and computerized looms to experiment with complex imagery. In her Whitcomb’s show, she experiments with her “finished” weavings by adding patches of old weavings or found material long after they leave the loom.  

I’ve always worked with the intersection of a vertical and a horizontal. Whether it's a backstrap loom in Guatemala or a computerized loom, that gives me a freedom then to let my mind open more when I'm trying to do something aesthetic. — Cynthia Schira