Artist Talk: Jason Kriegler

SYMBOLIC TOTEMS 

I have a deep interest in the stories, applications,  materials, and techniques that have been told  through textiles and the people that create them:  the historical nature of man-made creations  from different regions, tribes, or villages that  construct these intricate pieces. Men and women  contributing to conceive unique works through  the making of textiles. Ceremonial, everyday use,  wearables, trade or decoration: shapes, patterns,  color, and ideas unfold through the centuries. 

This body of work is a contemporary interpretation and influence from textiles from the past, using  dark and light organic, biological forms as well as  abstract exteriors, but can also be experienced  purely as combinations of shapes, line, and  texture. Despite their simplicity, they have a  captivating quality that rewards careful looking  which reveals the complexity and fragility of  contemporary works, hand-embroidered into paper  and linen, enlivened by a sense of depth that only  seems to grow with the continued examination. 

- Jason Kriegler 

BIO 

Kriegler’s work has been exhibited both within  the U.S. and internationally. He currently lives  and works in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. 

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While in art school in the mid-’80s, Kriegler  was intrigued by the rising textile artists, contemporary art and modernism that were  changing the art scene; especially Bauhaus and Black Mountain College where new ideas  and techniques were being challenged 

and created. 

Influences of his work were and are abstract  modernist artists; Dubuffet, Anni Albers, Bryce Marden, Anslem Keifer, Franz Kline,  Helen Frankenthaler, Sheila Hicks, Ruth Asawa  and Cy Twombly to name a few. 

These artists influenced his work and helped push  the boundaries of what textile art or fiber art is.  Painting and textiles can the both be intertwined,  infused. 

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‘Not the norm’ of traditions. i.e. hand embroidery  into paper rather than traditional fabric. He began  as a traditional painter then made the transition to  mixed-media, using found objects and materials in  the early ‘90s. 

Over the past 10 years, he began using embroidery  or stitching into different mediums to create  modern contemporary dimensional forms based  on his experiences traveling and learning about  techniques old and new through the making of  textiles.