Anne Marie Kenny
Born Orange NJ
Raised Indianapolis IN
Home & Studio Exeter NH
1983 B.A. Fine Arts Indiana University
1978-1979 Purdue University
1988 1989 Vermont Studio Colony
My Industrial Quilts have been influenced by industry and technology both aesthetically and conceptually. The methods and materials I use in my quilts are nontraditional. The repetitive format and industrial materials are used for their standardized, manufactured appearance. The Amoskeag Textile Mill history in New Hampshire and the "mill girls" continue to inspire my work.
I try to emphasize the contrasts between machine-made and hand-made objects. I attempt to make reference to both industrial and post-industrial mechanization while retaining the personal and expressive aspects of traditional quilt making. The contrasts of machine-made versus hand-made are designed to complement each other, yet provoke the controversy surrounding the way things of value are made.
The quilt is a very personal image to me and by working with unconventional materials in this format I am better able to make references to the world I live in. Art parallels progress, modern industry, and invention. These influences create new forms of expression and aesthetics. I am exploring these forms and new ways of seeing. My quilts are suggestive of a new aesthetic which combines tradtional and nontraditional quilt making.
Bio
Anne grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts/Textiles from Indiana University, Bloomington in 1983. After college, Anne moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Anne began exhibiting her textile art and “art quilts” in galleries and museums in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, California, Washington and Indiana. Her early inspiration came from the Pop Artists, the Abstract Expressionists and the artists who “created in the gap between art and life” and a new way of seeing. Around 1987, Anne moved to New Hampshire. The Amoskeag Mills in Manchester, NH and the Lowell Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts profoundly changed the personal, aesthetic, and philosophical approach to her “art quilt” work. Anne took a two year sabbatical to research the mill girls, and the Industrial Revolution. The mill women moving from the farm to the factory was a specific inspiration for her. She traveled to mills in New England, Canada, and France for further study. Anne's mother's family immigrated from Limerick, Ireland to Indiana in the 1950's. Anne's mother was a fine fabric seamstress and Anne's grandmother was an expert knitter of fine Irish sweaters. Growing up, Anne was surrounded by textile handwork. The mill women reminded Anne of her family history and the intimate nature of handwork versus textiles becoming machine, factory produced. The factory work changed women's lives dramatically and Anne wanted her work to reflect that.
Exhibits at the Smithsonian including “The Art of the Personal Object” inspired her to create her new aesthetic and new work that she titled “Industrial Quilts” in 1990. The contrasts of hand-made versus machine-made became an aesthetic designed to complement each other yet provoke the controversy surrounding the way things of value are made. With progress, what we may lose and what we may gain are part of her message.
The technology industry in the mills in Manchester, NH in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s provided Anne with cast-off computer and electronic parts, including microchips, salvaged at an area Metal Salvage yard. She discovered them by accident. It was several years before they found their way into her quilts. The innovation, circuitry, patterns and mystique of the parts intrigued her. She describes “the inside of microchips as having a quilt-like aesthetic combined with a resource to carry information, much like a quilt has done throughout history”. The contrast of hand-made and machine-made became even more pronounced in her current work.
Anne feels the history and materials she is surrounded by, in addition to modern life, are evident in her “Industrial Quilts”. Her quilts are suggestive of a new aesthetic which combines traditional and non-traditional quilt making.
Anne’s Industrial Quilts have been exhibited throughout the United States as well as Internationally including Japan, Taiwan and Europe. Her Industrial Quilts are included in the permanent collections at the Museum of Arts & Design, NY and the Currier Museum of Art Manchester, NH. Curator at the Museum of Arts & Design, Ursula Ilse-Neuman, included Anne’s Industrial Quilt installation in the exhibit “Six Continents of Quilts” from the MAD permanent collection of art quilts and wrote an article which included Anne’s work titled “The Art Quilt Takes the World Stage” , 2002.
Artist Statement II
I began making my “Industrial Quilts” ︎™ in 1992 after taking a sabbatical of sorts from my textile work to spend more time visiting museums, galleries, and mills throughout the country. After invigorating trips to Washington D.C., NY City, and various tours through textile mills in New England and Canada, I began a more personal and thoughtful relationship with my textile work. Several exhibits and historical tours* strongly influenced my evolving aesthetic and conceptual thoughts towards my work. The conceptual nature of my “Industrial Quilts” ™ have been influenced by the textile mills of the Industrial Revolution. The changes brought about by machines (power looms) in producing fabric and the movement of the women workers/craftspeople from the home to the mill influenced my departure from more traditional fiber work.
Additionally, Oceania artifacts, African art objects, the Abstract Expressionists, and the Pop Artists (Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns), “who created in the gap between art and life”, have also influenced my thoughts and aesthetics. The MoMA collection of Industrial Objects by Industrial Designers was another venue I visited frequently in my early years.
In my work I am continuing to create pieces that reflect my feelings about the changes and imminent progress of our society and the costs as well as benefits associated with progress such as aesthetics, handwork, creativity, and touch. I am interested in that uncomfortable line between automation and human touch, nature and the machine. I have completed several series of quilts which include themes of nature, domestic objects, abstract paintings, and industrial objects.
Currently, I am incorporating salvaged computer and electronic cast-off parts (from the late 1980’s, early 1990’s) from the New England metal salvage yards into my quilts which have moved my work towards a “post industrial”, technological aesthetic. I find the aesthetics of these salvaged materials complementary to my sense of design and indicative of the technological industry that surrounds me. I am exploring circuitry (the “integrated circuit”/microchip) as an aesthetic influence. I am intrigued by the patterns, layering, and mystery associated with technological parts and their manufacture. I am interested in creating a quilt suggestive of production, assembly, and standardization.
My “Industrial Quilts” ™ are created to make a connection between the past, present, and future. I hope to create quilts that reflect 21st century influences on craftspeople, industry, invention, and aesthetics.
Vitae
Education
Indiana University Bloomington
BA 1983 Fine Arts/Textiles
1978-1979 Purdue University
Vermont Colony Residency VT 1988 1989
Exhibits
2024 38th Lassonde Exhibit, Juried NH
2023 2022 Currier Museum of Art NH
2023 Newburyport Art Assoc. Juried Exhibit
2023 NH Art Assoc. Biennial One, Juried
2023 2022 Art Up Front Street Gallery NH
2021 2022 George Marshall Store Gallery ME
2020 2021 Art Up Front Street Gallery NH
2020 2019 - ODETTA Gallery NY NY
2019 2020 - Art Up Front Street Gallery NH
2013 - Katonah Museum of Art NY
2008-2011 - McGowan Fine Art NH
2008 - New England College Gallery NH
2006-2011 - McGowan Fine Art NH
2005 - National Museum of History Taiwan
2005 - National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
2005 - Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
2005 - Tokyo International Quilt Festival Japan
2005 - Museum of Arts & Design NY
2005 - Carl Solway Gallery Cincinnati OH
2005 - Apartment 48 NY NY
2004 - AAF Contemporary Art NY
2002 - American Craft Museum UBS Gallery NY
Six Continents of Quilts Exhibit
2002 1995 - Currier Museum of Art NH
2002 2001 - McGowan Fine Art NH
2001 - Penn State University Gallery PA
2000 - Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth NH
2000 - Synderman/Works Gallery PA
2000 - Plymouth State College NH
1999 - Artists Circle Ltd. Potomac MD
1999 - ERL Originals NC
1998 - Yeiser Art Center Paducah KY
1997 - Connell Gallery Atlanta GA
1997 - Colorado College CO
1997 - Indianapolis Museum of Art IN
1996 - Anderson Gallery Pontiac MI
1996 - St. Anselm College NH
1996 - Finer Side Gallery MD
1995 - ACC Craft Exhibition Baltimore MD
1995 - Quilt National Exhibit OH
1994 1995 Center for the Visual Arts Denton TX
1993-1995 - Currier Museum of Art NH
1994 - Huntingdon College Gallery AL
1994 - League of NH Craftsmen NH
1993 - The University of NH Art Gallery
1993 - Rivier College NH
1992 - Keene State College NH
1990 - Louisiana Crafts Council Gallery
1990 - NH Art Association Levy Gallery NH
1989 - IDIA Center for the Arts Intervale NH
1989 - Springfield Art & Historical Gallery VT
1989 - Manchester Institute of Arts & Science Gallery NH
1989 - America House Gallery NJ
1988 - Elizabeth Fortner Gallery CA
1986 - Louisiana State University Gallery
1986 - Clyde Connell Gallery LA
Lectures
ODETTA Gallery NY NY 2019
Currier Museum of Art NH
University of NH Manchester NH
Museum of Arts & Design NY
University of NH Art Gallery
New England College NH
Huntingdon College AL
McGowan Fine Art
IDIA Center for the Arts NH
Film TV Podcast
NH Chronicle WMUR TV NH 2002
Japan Public TV 2004-2005 International Quilt Festival at the Tokyo Dome
An Artist Story | film by Natasha Stoppel
Exeter NH TV 2018
Creative Guts Podcast feature episode 2021
Book & Exhibit Publications
2013 - Katonah Museum of Art Beyond the Bed
2005 - The Museum of Arts & Design Six Continents of Quilts Perm Quilt Collection NY
2005 - Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival
2002 - SOFA NY 2002
2002 - Currier Museum of Art NH Gloria Wilcher Exhibit Uncommon Threads
2000 - Snyderman/Works Galleries Surface Strength Structure: Pertaining to Line
2000 - Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth College
The Art of Craft
2005 - Art Quilts: 400 Contemporary Quilts Lark Books
1995 - Quilt National 1995
1995 1996 - Fiberarts Design Book Five & Six
Magazine Publications
Art New England Sept/Oct 2018
American Craft Magazine Oct/Nov 1998
Surface Design Journal Spring 1996
Fiberarts Magazine Mar/Apr 1996
Art/Quilt Magazine Issue 4 &10 1995 1998-99
New Hampshire Magazine Profiles July 1989
ACE Baltimore Show MD 1995
Grants & Awards
2002 - Gloria Wilcher Memorial Exhibit, Purchase Award, Currier Museum of Art
2000 - NH State Council on the Arts, Grant Recipient, Professional Development
1995 - Fiber Award , Thorne Sagendorph Gallery, 20th Annual Juried Exhibit
1994 - NH State Council on the Arts, Fellowship Finalist, Grant Recipient
1994 - Edith L. Grodin Collaborative Award, Living With Crafts Exhibit
1993 - Chubb LifeAmerica Award for Creativity, Currier Museum of Art
1992 - NH State Council on the Arts, Fellowship Finalist , Grant Recipient
1988 - McGowan Fine Art Design Award, 14th Juried Exhibit, UNH Gallery
1985-1987 - Purchase Awards, Calcasieu Arts & Humanities Council Lake Charles, LA
1986 - Award of Excellence, Baton Rouge Arts & Humanities Council, LA
1985 - Best of Show, LA Art & Artists' Guild Juried Exhibit, Baton Rouge, LA
1985 - Honorable Mention, Masur Museum Art, Monroe, LA 1985