Fri, 09/27/2019 - 8:15am

Christine Hopf-Lovette

"Wave Sequence 6/Sand" (detail) Painted, pleated silk 30" x 26”, Ardyth Davis 1999. This piece is included in the artist’s retrospective now through Oct. 26. Courtesy of the Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset

For its last show of the season, Wiscasset’s Maine Art Gallery will display a series of amazing fiber landscapes created by nationally recognized textile construction artist, Ardyth Davis. Visitors will see in this work the textures and formations of rocks and corals depicted in pleated silks and painted washes on cloth or paper that is torn and restructured to build textured surfaces. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 5 p.m. The show continues weekly, Thursday - Saturday, until Oct. 26. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Davis (1930 - 2015) drew much of her inspiration from the natural patterns and rhythms of coastal Maine where she had summered every year from the late 1950s. She finally moved to Maine permanently during the last few years of her life. This exhibition showcases the many phases of her eclectic work in fiber arts, incorporating pieces from the 1970s through the 2000s.

After winning number of awards for the excellence of her unusual quilts in the 1980s and ’90s, Davis moved further into abstract atmospheric pieces that bring to mind the eons of change in the earth’s composition as seen in its rocks, land and sea forms. She is intrigued by the irony of using a soft, flexible medium to depict the hardness and rigidity of these forms.

Davis’s work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in private and public collections, including work owned by corporations such as IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Levi Strauss, Marriott, and Xerox. She has works in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Davis’s pieces are currently included in a national tour sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution entitled “Playing with a Full Deck,” and others are on loan to U.S. embassies as part of the Arts in Embassies Program of the Department of State.

The Maine Art Gallery, 15 Warren St., is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and preservation of painting, sculpture and graphic arts through exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, and educational programs for children and adults. More information can be found at www.maineartgallerywiscasset.org and on Facebook at Maine Art Gallery Wiscasset.