Rachel Meginnes

Tracey Morgan Gallery is pleased to present Snapshot, an exhibition of new work by artist Rachel Meginnes. This is Meginnes’ second exhibition with the gallery. A reception for the artist will be held Friday, July 21 from 6-8PM.

Snapshot is a collection of deconstructed quilts and discarded textiles woven on a digital loom, utilizing images sourced from Meginnes’ surrounding environment. From graffiti-covered surfaces on Mission Street in San Francisco where she used to live, to her now neighbor’s yard art in North Carolina, Meginnes transforms casually collected photographs into boldly colorful and highly textured abstract weavings. The works are part archive, part portal – her unique interpretation of the world around her.

Rachel Meginnes began working in deconstructed textiles in 2004, a process she continued to hone during a three-year artist residency at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina (2012-2015). Using old quilts as her base material, she honors the tradition of quilting by maintaining a dialog with makers of the past through a contemporary lens. Says Meginnes, “There’s so much history in a quilt, from the materials used to make the quilt to the patterns chosen, to the wear and tear embedded in the object over time.”

Her recent work focuses on the reuse of quilts alongside additional unwearable textiles donated to her by Circular Triangle, a flagship organization in the Triangle region of North Carolina that accelerates a just transition to a circular economy. While this new work utilizes a digital loom, the process is still done by hand, in the manner of traditional rag weaving. These pieces strike a harmonious balance between craft and fine art, embracing a strong color palette and an energetic use of line.

Rachel Meginnes received a BA in Art from Earlham College in 1999 and an MFA in Fibers from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2005, spending two years studying traditional Japanese textile processes in Morioka, Japan. In 2012, she was awarded a three-year residency at Penland School of Craft. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in the collections of the United States Art in Embassies Program in Amman, Jordan, the University of Arkansas, the Cameron Art Museum, and others. She lives and works near Bakersville, NC.