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Creating from Memory

“Oftentimes when I’m in the studio I feel my mother’s hands tracing unabashedly across my back and through my hands, and it reinforces
everything I learned from her about myself and about working.”—Gail Grinnell

Gail Grinnell cuts and draws on fabric to shape her sweeping, intricate installations. Her work is influenced by the memory of her mother, a talented and self-taught seamstress. Grinnell’s use of polyester interfacing fabric references the tissue-paper patterns her mother used for sewing, and the material allows the artist to create durable sculptures from seemingly fragile materials.

Grinnell’s new installation, RUFFLE, opens with a reception tomorrow evening at Suyama Space in Seattle. The installation responds to the unique structure of Suyama Space—the delicate forms creating alcoves throughout the gallery, spanning across the ceiling and draping to the floor. At noon on Saturday, September 8, Grinnell will be in the gallery to discuss her work and the installation.

RUFFLE follows Grinnell’s 2011 installation Tinker, Tailor, Mender, Maker at the Anchor Art Space gallery in Anacortes, Washington. Marquand Books designed and produced the catalogue for this exhibition. The sixteen-page catalogue was designed by Ryan Polich and features color illustrations of her work—from the exhibit as well as her studio—and essays by Patricia Grieves Watkinson and Jean Behnke. The catalogue was printed digitally in our Seattle office.

For more informationabout RUFFLE, visit Suyama Space. To learn more about Grinnell’s work, visit her website. 

 

Photographs from the catalogue Tinker, Tailor, Mender, Maker by Chris Terrell and Jean Behnke (installation images) and Richard Nicol (drawings).