Amy Ahlstrom creates striking quilts with urban themes, inspired by San Francisco, New York City, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Chicago. She’s currently working on pieces informed by trips abroad to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Seen above: “SFChinatown,” (2007) 29.5″ x 29.5″ Dupioni silk and cotton. From Ahlstrom’s artist statement:
My quilts are influenced by pop-art painters such as Mark Ryden and artists who have referenced a comic-strip drawing style such as Margaret Killgallen, in that I appreciate bold and graphic takes on images that are inspired by urban life. Though it is textile art rather than drawing or painting, my work is most comparable to that of pop, lowbrow and graffiti artists. My quilts are modern art pieces that happen to be rendered in fabric. I take quilts out of a rural context and bring them into present-day urban environments. My ReMix series of quilts are thematically and visually dense, full of sampled layers of meaning. They reflect the experience of city life, as seen through the graffiti, signs, and buildings present in every city. They serve as an anthropological record of an urban neighborhood, in that the images that I capture are constantly in a state of flux.
Amy Ahlstrom: Urban Quilter (Thanks, Sarah Milstein!)