Strand Gallery
April 22 - July 9, 2023
ArtWalk Reception
Saturday, April 22, 2022
6 – 9 PM
Artist talk at 6:30 PM
These exhibitions are supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Shawne Major
Sew What?
Sew What? features recent works by Shawne Major that incorporate accumulations of everyday objects sewn into layered abstractions. Taking the form of dense tapestries, Major’s works consider the meaning we place onto material and the connection between the build-up, organization, and assimilation of information. The detritus of the human experience serves as a metaphor for collective memory, exploring themes of loss, happiness, pain, and fear. Objects such as power cables, plastic toys, rope and fabric are woven into a vernacular that Major describes as words in a paragraph, bringing their own bits of significance and narrative to the visual story. The mass-produced objects that serve as her primary source material explore the tension between class and culture, bridging the space between low and high art.
Shawne Major was born in New Iberia, LA and currently lives and works in Henderson, LA. She received her BFA in Painting from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and her MFA in Sculpture from Rutgers University. Her mixed media works have been exhibited throughout the United States, including recent exhibitions at the Hilliard Museum, Texas Gallery, and Lawndale Art Center. In 2008, Major exhibited in the Prospect. 1 New Orleans Biennial. She has received awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Joan Mitchell Foundation and participated in artist residences at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Yaddo and Art Omi, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Joan Mitchell Center. Her work is collected nationally and is included in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute of American Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Hilliard Museum of Art, Lafayette, and Art in Embassies program, Brazzaville, Congo. Major is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery (New Orleans), Marcia Wood Gallery (Atlanta), and Texas Gallery (Houston).
shawnemajor.com
