GRAVERS LANE GALLERY 8405 Germantown Ave Philadelphia PA 19118 www.graverslanegallery.com [email protected] gallery 215.247.1603
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!! CONTACT: Barbara Botting - assistant curator [email protected] !!!!!!phone: 215.247.1603
LEWIS KNAUSS / RECORDING TIME FORTY YEARS OF INTERPRETING NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH MATERIAL LANGUAGE AND CRAFT Show Dates: Saturday, May 1 - June 13, 2021
Chestnut Hill, PA April 28, 2021 - Gravers Lane Gallery is pleased to present works by fiber artist, Lewis Knauss: LEWIS KNAUSS / RECORDING TIME, Forty Years of Interpreting the Natural Environment Through Material and Craft
Mr. Knauss is Professor Emeritus, Moore College of Art and Design. He received his BFA from Philadelphia University (Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science), Philadelphia, PA and his MFA fromTyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Knauss is a Fellow of the American Craft Council, additionally a recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Craft Fellowship and a Lindbach Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Pennsylvania.
His early work began on the cusp of a generational shift within the modern textile movement. In 1969, “Wall Hangings” at The Museum of Modern Art, curated by Mildred Constantine and Jack Lenore Larsen, revised concepts of craft within the context of 20th century art. Traditional craft weaving techniques were replaced by the monumental handwoven constructions by artists Clair Zeissler, Sheila Hicks and Lenore Tawney, ushering in contemporary studio fiber practices and sparking the (still present) art vs craft debate.
Knauss’s close associations with these artists presented the potential of new forms of construction and ways of seeing. A recollection of place, from of his youth in Macungie, Pennsylvania, an impulsive trip to Egypt, months- long stays in New Mexico and Cape Cod, to his home here in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania became his subject matter. He states being “increasingly conscious of how we create feelings of comfort from familiar places, the textile medium became my medium for expressing ideas about the importance of landscape.” Long walks while being present, sensitive to color, light, and textures, expanded his vocabulary of varied materials, allowing him to create a textural impression of each environment while nodding to time and season.
Winter fields, summer grasses, accumulations of reeds after a storm, and the scarring of a fire-charred landscape are points of inspiration for Knauss’s work. Using natural materials along with paint, beads, and wire, his meditative weavings are a visual diary of changing environments on a micro scale. Like the repeated walks that inspired them, his process of assembly is a time consuming one. Through intricately woven fibers, barely perceptible, perfectly spaced dots of paint, carefully tied and repeated knots, he patiently manipulates each successive layer, managing the spaces in-between, illuminating them, allowing them to breathe.
Knauss transforms bundles of natural materials into intricately complex woven works of art. He notes, “I hope to reward the viewer’s scrutiny with a more intimate awareness of landscape, a reminder that time passes quickly and we should not rush through our lives, unaware of its cycles of destruction and renewal.” GRAVERS LANE GALLERY 8405 Germantown Ave Philadelphia PA 19118 www.graverslanegallery.com [email protected] gallery 215.247.1603