Fabulous Fiber at the Oceanside Museum of Art

 by Patricia Frischer

Susan Davis

Quilting, tufting, felting, weaving, beading, crocheting, stitching, on and with fabric, metal, bamboo, thread, canvas, paper…the list goes on an on with this exhibition of Fabulous Fiber at the Oceanside Museum of Art curated Kate Stern showing until November 2. The exhibition curator chooses the most inventive and unique art works to put together a show which makes us smile, think and feel inspired to make.  From goofy felted heads to comic strip stitchery, it felt good to laugh out loud and accept cuddles, marvel at thousands of beads in a head piece, ponder the bubbles of fabric over a brides face, wonder through streams and streets in a San Francisco creek system, be mesmerized by the cascade of colors in draped waterfalls of fabric, or be punked by the Pink costume on display. And this is just a few of the selections we made.   

Marianna Baker

Susan Maddux

Peg Grady

Linda Gass

Adriene Hughes

Monica Loss

Michelle Kingdom

Isa Guasalupe Medina

Stephanie Metz's art being cuddled by Darwin Slindee

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The Space Between: Texture Studies by Denja Harris until October 12,  is the second of three fiber shows at OMA. This one person exhibition is a look at this artist attempts at healing. There are elements of vulnerability and softness but also the harshness of light and the spikiness of metal warming us that this process entails revealing of ourselves and protecting when necessary.  

 

Denja Harris

Denja Harris

Denja Harris

Denja Harris (detail)

We now get to see the results of the workshops that made yarn "Tsikuris" or God's Eyes at the b.  Ventana Huichola will be on view in the small top gallery and staircase until September 21, 2025 curated by Natalie Gonzalez who directed this work. Tsikuri means,"the power to see and understand things unknown" in the Huichol language. The Mesoamerican society that we know today as the Huichol or Wixárika, is an Indigenous group of approximately 48,000 inhabiting the southern Sierra Madre Occidental, in North-Western Mexico. They act as spiritual protection for much of South America, but it is the act of actually weaving a God’s Eye that connects one to the unknown. This simple process of uniting two crossed sticks is a meditative exercise that anyone can perform. The united results on display bounces off the walls with energy and can also be viewed as an aid to being in touch with something or someone on a higher plane. 

Natalie Gonzalez

Natalie Gonzalez and workshop participants

Fabulous Fiber  until November 2.
The Space Between: Texture Studies by Denja Harris until October 12
Ventana Huichola until September 21, 2025

at Oceanside Museum of Art 
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside 92054

Wednesday, through Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm
First Friday of Every Month - Extended hours 11:00am–8:00pm