Re-collections: Found Object Quilts by BZ Reily at the Michele & Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts

Re-collections: Found Object Quilts by BZ Reily

January 18, 2011–April 10, 2011 D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts » First Floor » Community Gallery

Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Community Gallery, First Floor

A series of found-object quilts inspired by traditional quilting patterns from cultures as diverse as the Gee’s Bend quilters’ collective in Alabama, the central Pennsylvania Amish, and Underground Railway quilters. In the tradition of women who have, for centuries, taken little bits of what’s left over or what’s been thrown away to enhance the visual environment, Reily pieces together collections of three-dimensional found objects to create her sculptural quilts. A self-described “artistic archaeologist,” she transforms things as diverse as matchbooks, coins, sea glass, postage stamps, hats, tins, shells, baseball gloves, scout patches and board games into works of art that are whimsical and fun.

Reily lives in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, and is an art teacher at Shutesbury Elementary School.