JONATHAN SHANNON: Creativity, Collecting, Controversy
February 2, 2024 - Sunday, April 7, 2024 | Open Fri-Sun 11 am to 5 pm
“I began quilting in 1989, when I wanted make a bed quilt. With no tradition of quilting in my family or no friends who quilted, I took many classes my first two years. I hope that as the first male winner of the AQS Best of Show Award, it will encourage other men to enter the quilt world.” ”
Jonathan Shannon, Amigos Muertos, 1994. Gift of Raymond Wayne Ross.
Jonathan Shannon was the first male winner of the American Quilter's Society Best of Show Award in 1993 with his quilt, Air Show (1992). Both Air Show and Amigos Muertos are considered among the 20th century’s 100 best quilts in The Twentieth Century’s Best American Quilts by Mary Leman Austin (Primedia, 1999).
The artist, now deceased, had a long and varied career in textiles, fashion, and interior design. In his 50s, he turned his attention exclusively to quilt making. Like many beginning quiltmakers, he started by learning basic techniques but quickly developed an original style. Along the way, he studied with some of the best quilt artists who were teaching in the late 1980s and 1990s, collecting works by these artists, including Francoise Barnes, Therese May and Laura Lee Fritz.
Upon his death in 2017, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles acquired the Jonathan Shannon Collection, donated by the artist’s long-time partner Jeffrey Ross. We are thrilled to feature twenty pieces of the late artist’s work, representing virtually his entire body of work, as well as ten pieces from his personal quilt collection, by his contemporaries.
One of the standout works in Shannon’s exhibition is Amigos Muertos (1994), a stunning tribute to those who have died from AIDS and cancer. The quilt won 1994 National Patchwork Championship in Great Britain and is recognized as one of the twentieth century’s best American quilts. However, not everyone agreed. The topic of death rattled many in the quilting community, and Amigos Muertos was rejected from the 1994 American Quilter's Society Show and Contest in Paducah, Kentucky. Creativity, Collecting, Controversy explores the impact of this quilt’s exclusion in shaping public dialogue and issues of censorship and political content in quilts.
Nancy Bavor, Guest Curator
Nancy Bavor is Director Emerita of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. She is the co-author of Art Quilts Unfolding: 50 Years of Innovation and co-curator of the accompanying exhibition Layered & Stitched: Fifty Years of Innovative Art. Bavor has served on the boards of Studio Art Quilt Associates and the Quilt Alliance and currently serves on the board of the American Quilt Study Group and the Advisory Board of the International Quilt Museum. She holds a Bachelors degree in art history from Northwestern University and a Masters degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in the History of Textiles/Quilt Studies emphasis. Her Masters thesis explored the origins and development of the art quilt in California.
Yvonne Porcella: A Look Back
Friday, February 2, 2024 - April 7, 2024 | Open Fri-Sun 11 am to 5 pm
Yvonne Porcella started working as a fiber artist in the early 1960s. She started with hand weaving and dressmaking, especially folk costumes for which she developed patterns. She pieced fabrics for her garments and eventually made art quilts. In 1989 she founded Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA).
A Look Back exhibits objects from the late artist’s personal collection, which are now part of the permanent collection of the Museum. These include folk art costumes from around the world, art quilts from other artists, and her own work. She is known for her bold use of color!
