Geometric textile composition featuring hand-cut pieces of patterned and solid fabrics in green, orange, gray, red, and cream arranged in an abstract planar design. Layers of translucent and opaque silk create areas of overlapping color and pattern that shift across the surface.

Recent Work

Debra Smith

1/13/2017 – 3/25/2017

Debra Smith has the aesthetic sensibilities of a painter, but rather than applying pigment to a fabric support, Smith creates her compositions from a palette of already-dyed textiles. These she cuts by hand into geometric shapes, manipulating a limited range of colors and patterns within the grid of an intuitive, planar abstraction. Her practice involves the stitching together and overlapping of found silk fabric, primarily from vintage Japanese kimonos. Smith incorporates both dense and sheer cloth, which creates an interplay of translucent and opaque areas that add air, movement, and dimensionality to the work. The historic nature of the fabric adds another layer of meaning for viewers, suggesting an intangible narrative that disrupts the otherwise formal quality of the compositions with ghostly and poetic connections to the past. The work in this exhibition - Recent Work - is a curated selection of Smith's recent show at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.

Exhibition Images ()

  • Three framed textile compositions featuring geometric abstract designs created from hand-cut and layered silk fabrics in warm and cool color palettes, hung on a white gallery wall above a wooden bench. The works combine opaque and translucent materials in planar arrangements of overlapping shapes and patterns.
  • Three framed textile compositions hang on a white gallery wall, each featuring geometric abstract designs created from hand-cut pieces of patterned and solid-colored fabric in red, orange, black, and neutral tones. A wooden bench sits in the foreground with a blurred figure standing beside it, viewing the work.
  • Gallery view displaying framed textile compositions made from hand-cut geometric shapes of silk fabric in jewel tones, patterns, and stripes arranged on white walls. The works feature layered and overlapping fabrics in abstract planar compositions, with areas of translucent and opaque cloth creating depth and movement across the gallery space.
Geometric textile composition featuring hand-cut pieces of patterned and solid fabrics in green, orange, gray, red, and cream arranged in an abstract planar design. Layers of translucent and opaque silk create areas of overlapping color and pattern that shift across the surface.

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