Wednesday, January 24, 2024
The textile arts were the backbone of the local economy for generations and played a role in the working lives of many New Englanders. For Rhode Island artist Deborah Baronas, textiles are a fine art medium that brings impressive results and shares powerful stories about bodies at work. The fusion of concepts around fiber and labor makes for a strong solo exhibition of Baronas’ work on view at the Jamestown Arts Center through March 16.
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Titled “Dropcloths: Tales of a Process,” Baronas’ show features an array of textiles created between 1983 and 2023. The show charts the productive decades-long career of a singular artist and shows off the remarkable effect of works created on and with cloth. Primarily focused on figures and work, the towering pieces in the exhibition have the effect of tapestries that aim to capture and share histories. An immersive installation brings viewers close to Baronas’ art, inviting a walk through artistic creation.
One of the most impressive fiber-based artists in the region, Deborah Baronas, graduated from RISD with a BFA in Textile Design. She has paired years of work in the textile industry with an active practice as a fine artist for years. From her studio in Warren, she has continuously created large scale textile art pieces that have received acclaim. Prior to her current show in Jamestown, she has been the subject of solos at the Bristol Art Museum, the Newport Art Museum, the American Textile History Museum, and others. She has earned multiple grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts as well as the Rhode Island State Council for the Humanities and was the subject of a NetWorks artist documentary. In 2024 she will be artist-in-residence in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia as part of a bi-national study of the textile industry in Australia and the United States.
Hinting at this international element of her practice in her artist’s statement, Baronas states, “Sharing common experiences through the visual arts opens doors to conversations about our history, the future and how we fit into the global community. My goal is to broaden the scope of my work into a more universal exploration, visually portraying shared stories of cultural and economic change in other cultures, opening doors for conversations that build multinational relationships and understanding.”
Experience is a central element of the work Baronas is sharing. In her textiles, she documents the experience of laborers in various industries and focuses on bodies as the hallmark of that labor. These figures are presented as silhouettes, often against the backdrop of expressive and abstractly dyed and painted substrates. Although the work on view spans 40 years, it is impressively cohesive in style and technique.
Describing her interest in documenting lives and histories in her artist’s statement, Baronas says, “Based on my own experiences and working-class heritage in farming and textiles, I commenced work on studies of the history of these industries. This was inspiration for subsequent work on other industries, as well as systemic societal afflictions such as the opioid crisis and slavery, which have been the focus of my work. Through the work, I discovered my passion for history, recording stories and visually sharing them through immersive sculptural installations. I also enjoy making visible forms, developing color stories and layering surfaces.”
While much of the work in her exhibition in Jamestown focuses on figurative expression, one of the most impressive textiles on view is a vast and wall-spanning piece that illustrates company housing and the architectural impact of industry. The piece employs the diaphanous and multi-layered technique that has become a hallmark of Baronas’ production. Multiple panels of fabric are overlaid, creating effects of transparency, depth, and playful illusionism.
In viewing Baronas’ exhibition, visitors will experience a remarkable collection of fiber work and an unusually immersive show. Walking through Jamestown Arts Center’s main gallery is a journey into the artists’ mind and practice. For those interested in textiles and the fiber arts, the exhibition is a must see.
Deborah Baronas’ solo exhibition “Dropcloths: Tales of a Process” is on view at the Jamestown Arts Center through March 16, 2024. The JAC is located at 11 Valley Street in Jamestown and gallery hours for the exhibition are Wednesday – Saturday from 11am – 3pm or by appointment. Learn more and plan your visit at www.jamestownartcenter.org.
Learn more about Deborah Baronas at her website, www.baronasart.com.
Michael Rose is a multi-talented fine art professional based in Southern New England. Since 2014 he has served as the gallery manager at the historic Providence Art Club, one of the nation’s oldest arts organizations. Through his current freelance work he advises collectors and artists, provides appraisal services, teaches, and completes curatorial projects.
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