Currently on view at THE DAUM Museum:

The Thread You Follow, an exhibition featuring artist Debra Smith and Donna Sharrett,

on view from October 1 to December 20

Debra M Smith and Donna Sharrett are fiber artists who employ an eclectic and intricately technical practice that bridges the conventional divide between crafts and fine art. Both artists repurpose found fabric in their compositions, which is painstakingly cut and stitched together to form compatible, yet distinct, bodies of work. Sharrett employs a sculptural approach to explore memory and symbolic ritual in her circular assemblages. Smith takes a more painterly interest in the arrangement of her fabric scraps, and concentrates on the formal language of shape, color, and texture in rectangular arrangements that yield a cubist-inspired graphics.

The exhibition seeks to spark an aesthetic dialogue between Sharrett’s and Smith’s oeuvres by installing them in a single, large gallery that affords each a discreet but common space. The work of both is clearly slow to make and there is obvious care, patience, and skill. This is an essential and shared characteristic; however, while they explore similar media and processes, they diverge in terms of intent and presentation.  Sharrett’s assemblages invite close scrutiny and play to archetypal understanding; Smith’s compositions are best contemplated as unified wholes and offer stimulus for the viewer’s imaginings.