Contra Costa Times: Time Out
Tuesday April 27, 1999
Anita Amirrezvani Times Staff Writer

WHAT: "Needle Art"
WHERE: Bedford Gallery, Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Civic Drive at Locust Street, Walnut Creek, CA
WHEN: Through June 13
HOW MUCH: Free
CALL: 925-295-1417

'Needle art' melds love and stitches

If Needlework reminds you of those 19th-century English novels those the heroine passes long afternoons sighing and stitching her trousseau, you have a pleasant surprise ahead of you at "Needle Art," a new exhibit at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek.

This large show is nothing if not contemporary. The 60 artists, who work in a wide range of styles, are inspired by subjects like feminism, cancer, fairy tales and death. And unlike many shows at the Bedford Gallery, this one includes extensive statements by the artists so that even the most obscure work is made accessible.

The driving idea behind this show, curated by Bedford Gallery director. Carrie Lederer, is that needlework and its derivative, "needle art," are just as good as oil paint; that stitches are on par with sculpture.

Much of the work is tremendously painstaking and admirable in its craftsmanship, though the show would have been stronger with a little Judicious trimming and paring.

I can¹t help but chuckle whenever I see Didi Dunphy's work. Her trick is to reinterpret landmark abstract artists like Piet Mondrian in her tiny embroidery hoops. In one piece she parodies the work of artist Frank Stella, taming his surging patterns of black with the tenderest pink thread, surrounded by the most feminine of lace. Some of the work in the show proceeds from personal investigations about cancer, being "dumped," and so on. One powerful work, with or without the personal explanation, is "Percussions/Vital Signs (6)." Artist Ann Chamberlain's s battle with breast cancer included being pricked repeatedly for blood. She projected prints of white blood cells onto pincushions and stabbed them with pins. The result is eerie and visceral, but in her eyes, it is ultimately about healing.

Another touching work, "Monogram," shows Chamberlain's own thumbprint embroidered larger than a hand on an embroidery hoop, a statement far more touching and personal than the usual monogrammed initials.

Pip Culbert's work, although it seems simple, is strangely affecting. Ordinary clothing - a shirt, a vest, a pocket-appears stripped of everything but its seams. What is left is the outline of the thing, the structure laid bare a minimalist dissection of what we wear. Many of the pieces in the show combine kitsch with humor. In the "pinned" series, Amy Berk took amusing blobs of pink Styrofoam and stuck them with silvery pins so that they seem fragile yet dangerous. "Throne Cozy" by Carla Paganelli is a crotched toilet cover, almost Baroque in its excess, a kitschy spin on those handmade things in people's bathrooms that hold the box of tissues.

Almost all of the work in the show is quite contemporary in approach, but a separate room includes traditional needlework made by a group called Valley Quail, the Walnut Creek chapter of the Embroiderer's Guild of America. The seven women in the group created a "friendship band sampler" by embroidering a section on each of seven samplers. Each sampler is personalized for its recipient with exquisite needlework that includes text, fruits, flowers and lace. It would be a shame to miss this meticulous work.