A Body of Work: Explorations in Weaving by Renee Baumann
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, October 17, 5–7 PM
EXHIBITION DATES: October 18,19, 25 & 26, 12-5pm
LOCATION: Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, Art Studio Building, 34 Big Hollow Road, Maplecrest, NY
This exhibition showcases new works woven from plant materials harvested in the Catskills, including willow, bark, and cattail. In this body of work traditional techniques, forms, and materials live alongside contemporary artistic expressions, highlighting the interplay of woven form, function, and the human body. Often dismissed as insubstantial, baskets have been crafted by humans for longer than written language or agriculture. Baskets have supported daily life as tools for nearly every use from farming and cooking to construction.
In these new works, Renee draws from the deep well of traditional weaving techniques and material knowledge while exploring woven plants as a contemporary medium, embodying human labor and an intertwined relationship with the natural world. Visitors are invited not only to view the work but also to engage both with raw materials and with the completed woven pieces. Traditional baskets can be handled in the ways they were historically used—straining potatoes, winnowing and more—alongside opportunities to experience the complex processes and beautiful plant materials at the heart of this ancient craft.
Presented by the Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts (Catskill Mountain Foundation). This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by CREATE Council on the Arts.
