Form, Not Function opens at Carnegie Center

Last night was the opening of Form, Not Function: Quilt Art at the Carnegie, with a quite different look this year.  Instead of 24-30 quilts as has been the case for most past years, there are only 20, with no little ones at all.  I have helped to hang this show several times in the past, and some years it was a struggle to find room for all the accepted pieces, but this year the gallery looks especially spacious and elegant with relatively few quilts.

Of course you want to know about best in show, so I'll tell you that right off:

Niraja Lorenz, Strange Attractor #13 -- Skyview (details below)

Until last month I had never even heard Lorenz's name, but was impressed by her piece in Art Quilt Elements in Wayne PA.  (I wrote about it here.)  Her style is so distinctive that when I saw this piece on the wall at FNF I knew immediately whose it was.

Lorenz uses lots of striped panels in her intricately patterned quilts, and all of them are pieced from solids, so you are looking at a lot of work here.

And may I be forgiven for observing that sections of her work look a whole lot like sections of my own work?

Lorenz detail

Loomis detail

I'll show you other pieces from the show in subsequent posts, so stay tuned.