PHILADELPHIA (October 24, 2007) – Fibers, textiles and materiality have gone mainstream. No longer considered an eccentric, peripheral or quirky, the material arts and their place in today’s art and culture world will be examined at “Materiality + Meaning: Examining Fiber and Material Studies in Contemporary Art and Culture,” an international fiber symposium (March 6 - 8, 2008) and Contemporary Korean Fiber exhibition (March 7 - April 5, 2008), at The University of the Arts.

More than 400 artists, educators, critics and students scheduled to attend the symposium will examine, debate and consider today’s role of fiber and textiles as an expressive force. The University’s Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery will exhibit work by 21 established and emerging Korean material artists, while galleries throughout Philadelphia will host fiber and textile-related events and exhibitions.

The symposium kicks off with a keynote address by internationally recognized fibers leader and mentor Gerhardt Knodel, who has influenced a great number of today’s leading fibers artists. Knodel led the Fibers program at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art for 25 years and served as the institution’s director from 1995-2007. His works have been collected and exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.

Symposium attendees will also hear from other educators, historians and artists, who will share their experiences in the explosion of the fiber arts and include:

• Lydia Matthews: Associate dean and associate professor of visual studies at Parsons The New School for Design; former director of visual criticism at the California College of Art in Oakland, Calif.
• Sandra Alfoldy: Associate professor of craft history at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; has written or edited several books of crafts theory and history, most recently editing Neocraft: Craft and Modernity and co-editing Craft, Space and Interior Design, 1855-2005.
• Sun-Hak Kang: Chief curator of Korea’s Busan Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1997-2007; has published numerous books on art history, theory and criticism, including Figuration and Meditation and Indulgence in Pain and Aggressive Landscape, written in Korean.
• Hyuk Kwon: Studio artist and adjunct professor at the Korea National University of the Arts and other major universities in Seoul; has held 10 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Austria and Japan.
• Chung-Hie Lee: Internationally renowned fiber artist, lecturer and freelance writer; Fulbright Exchange Scholar at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994 and is now on its faculty. Recent curatorial exhibition Pojagi & Beyond has shown for the 2007 Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea.

Korea has experienced explosive growth in political influence, economics, science and technology since the end of the Korean Conflict. Contemporary art has come a long way over the past half century, particularly in the area of crafts. The first art exhibition of commerce and industry was in Seoul in the 1960s. The Korean Craft Cultural Council opened in the 1970s, the same decade during which fibers as an academic pursuit began. Now, more than 370 Korean writers, artists, cineastes, architects, musicians and materialists are colonizing the Heyri Art Valley. The country has hosted international separate crafts and textile biennials within the past ten years.

Contemporary Korean artists have not been nearly as celebrated as their Asian counterparts in China and Japan. Increasingly, though, Koreans sit at tables where contemporary art is being discussed.

Some of the most well respected contemporary Korean material artists will be represented in the Contemporary Korean Fiber exhibition running concurrently with the symposium. The exhibition is a mix of old guard and emerging artists.

Established tapestry artists Shin-Ja Lee, who created at 130 square foot tapestry depicting a Korean riverside, and Burn-Soo Song, who draws from ancient tapestry forms and techniques to create a fresh approach to fabric art, along with emerging artists like So-Lim Cha and Hwa-Jin Oh are among the 21 exhibition participants. The work of Sung-Soon Lee, Young-Soon Kim, Chung-hie Lee and Kyung Ae Wang represent the reinvigorated interest in the Bojagi (patchwork) movement, in which artists utilize square hemmed cloth of various sizes, colors, and designs to wrap, store or carry things. Bojagi is very practical but artistic and speaks to the aesthetic Koreans seek in all aspects of their everyday lives.

The exhibition will also include installations, mixed media, wall hangings and sculpture by Shin-Ja Lee, Burn-Soo Song, Soo-Chul Park, Kyung-Yeon Chung, Ja-Hong Ku, Kyung-Ae Wang, Kea-Nam Cha, So-Lim Cha, Yeon-Soon Chang, Sung-Soon Lee, Young-Soon Kim, Chung-hie Lee, Kwang-Bin Park, Hwa-Jin Oh, Gyae-Young Song, Phil-Nam Yun, Hyuk Kwon, Soonran Youn, Kyung-Sook Koo, Kyoung-Ah Yoo and Zi-Man Ahn.

In addition to the Korean-focused exhibition at Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, partner institutions across the city will be hosting fiber-themed shows, which will be part of trolley tours from UArts. These galleries include

• Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania    
• Crane Arts Building  
  –Hall Gallery, Nexus Foundation
• DaVinci Art Alliance
• The Design Center at Philadelphia University
• The Fabric Workshop and Museum
• Gross McCleaf Gallery
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Reading Public Museum
• Lawrence Gallery, Rosemont College
• Snyderman-Works Gallery
• University City Arts League
• Wayne Art Center
• The Art Gallery of the William Way Community Center

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News Media Contact: Kevin Kaufman, Media Relations Manager
   215/717-6504 (office), 215/651-6551 or kkaufman@uarts.edu