Wearable Art

Artistry in Fiber, Vol. 3: Wearable Art

Authors: Anne Lee , E. Ashley Rooney, Foreword by Susan Taber Avila, Foreword by Margery Goldberg 

Wearable fiber art, whether in garment or jewelry form, is unique in that the human body breathes life, shape, and movement into the pieces. Be it a felted brooch or a dress made of book pages, wearable fiber art can provide personal expression unavailable from the world of mass production. In this volume of the acclaimed three-book series, comments from the makers, who discuss creating pieces that the wearer influences, are accompanied by more than 300 photos. Susan Taber Avila offers insights to what wearable art means and how fibers play into that combination, and Margery Goldberg discusses the term in relation to jewelry. The hundreds of creations here, bridging art, design, craft, and fashion, show how fiber art that relates to the human body is in a class of its own.

As coauthors, Anne Lee and E. Ashley Rooney and balance each other and offer different experiences and perspectives: Rooney is the author of over fifty books, specializing in contemporary art and architecture; and Lee has researched, curated, and written about exhibitions at Vose Galleries in Boston. Exploring fiber art together has been a fascinating and fruitful journey they are eager to share. They have also coedited Encaustic Art in the Twenty-First Century (Schiffer).

Susan Taber Avila is a Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis, where she teaches courses in textile design and history of fashion. She is a practicing artist and has exhibited work in Argentina, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Finland, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Mexico, Spain, Swaziland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom as well as numerous exhibitions in the United States. Her artwork is included in several books and periodicals, and she has published in the field.

Margery Goldberg began sculpting at a young age while growing up in Rochester, New York. She opened Zenith Gallery in Washington, DC, in 1978, and in 2000 founded the Zenith Community Arts Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to fostering alliances between artists, businesses, and other organizations in order to use art to benefit the metropolitan community. She received the Mayor’s Excellence in Service to the Arts award in 2010 for her contribution to the cultural life in the nation’s capital.

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