Quilted Blooms: June 2020

The Modern Design Lab (MDL), a bee of seven modern quilters, submitted a proposal for a modern quilt exhibit to the Greenville Center for Created Arts (GCCA) last year and we were delighted to be accepted. We, along with four invited artists, each submitted three or four quilts for display.

The mini quilt, Decades, I recently finished is included in the exhibit along with eight other Mill Challenges and can by viewed in the online gallery as well.

The quilt included in the graphics below is Glow by member, Valorie Kasten and is included in the exhibit.

The Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational Exhibition online gallery can be viewed virtually through July 29, 2020 by clicking below:

Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational online gallery

If you are in the Greenville, South Carolina area, you can now make an appointment to visit the exhibit in person through July 29, 2020.

To view the MDL Quilt Invitational Exhibit at GCCA, please call Ben Tarcson, Gallery Manager, at 864-274-0354 or email at ben@artcentergreenville.org.

UPDATE - Appointments are no longer needed. The gallery is open Wednesday through Friday from 1 -5 pm. You can ready about their COVID-19 protocols here.

~~Appointment times are limited to Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2 - 5PM, as well as June 26th, 6 - 9PM, and July 24th, 6 - 9PM.~~ A maximum of 10 visitors may visit the gallery at one time, and groups should be no larger than 5 visitors.

Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational Press Release

The Greenville Center for Creative Arts is presenting the Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational Exhibition, featuring work from award-winning local and national modern quilters. This exhibit is sponsored by OnPoint CFO & Controller Services. The exhibit is planned to open on June 5th. It will be on display through July 29th, 2020. The gallery will be open by appointment only. To view the Modern Quilt Exhibit at GCCA, please call Ben Tarcson, Gallery Manager, at 864-274-0354 or email at ben@artcentergreenville.org to schedule your appointment. Appointment times are limited to Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2pm – 5pm. A maximum of only 10 visitors may visit the gallery at one time and groups no larger than 5 can set an appointment at one time.

The Modern Design Lab Quilt Invitational Exhibition is organized by the Modern Design Lab (MDL), who are a group of modern quilters based out of the greater Greenville area. The Modern Design Lab was formed when seven friends met through the Greenville quilting community and later convened to explore design, fabric and quilting techniques. The MDL now meets monthly to share individual projects, seek creative input and critique artworks. Each month the group participates in a design challenge or a creative workshop. They have also created group quilts, where each person creates individual quilt blocks and then the group collaborates to design a single finished quilt. Their latest exhibition was juried into QuiltCon held in Austin, Texas in February 2020.

The participating Modern Design Lab members and artists include Paige Alexander (Easley, SC), Cheryl Brickey (Greer, SC), Yvonne Fuchs (Tehachapi, CA), Faye Jones (Simpsonville, SC), Valorie Kasten (Williamston, SC), Cindy Lammon (Greenville, SC), and Travis Seward (Greenville, SC). Each of these Modern Design Lab quilters invited another award winning quilter from outside the upstate to participate in the show. The featured guest artists include Jack Edson (Hamburg, NY), Connie Kincius Griner (Burlington, NC), Nicole Neblett (Chapel Hill, NC), Sylvia Schaefer (Athens, GA), and Michelle Wilkie (Cary, NC).

Each quilter in this exhibition uses the medium of fabric and the process of quilt making to explore how to take traditional techniques and evolve the process into something that encapsulates new ideas on design and aesthetic. Each artist showcases vastly different styles from one another but the use of bold colors, high contrast, graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing and design, minimalism, negative space, and alternate grid work are apparent to invoke impressions of modernity.

GCCA is a community visual arts center located in the historic Brandon Mill in Greenville, SC. It provides studio space to fifteen studio artists, an art school and six art exhibitions in the Main Gallery per year. GCCA’s Main Gallery will be open on Wednesdays-Fridays from 2 pm – 5 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. All visitors must enter through the main entrance and apply hand sanitizer upon admittance. GCCA will require visitors to practice social distancing, remaining six feet apart from others, and avoid hugging, hand shaking, and other close physical contact with people who do not live in your household. GCCA is providing additional cleaning measures for commonly touched areas in the facility. Disinfecting wipes will also be provided to visitors. For further information call us at GCCA at 864-735-3948 or visit (www.artcentergreenville.org).
GCCA’s mission is to enrich the cultural fabric of our community through visual arts promotion, education and inspiration. GCCA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.