California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber Opening August 15

Our newest exhibit,  California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber, will open August 15 at The Huntington Beach Art Center in Huntington Beach, California. The exhibit will continue through October 24. There is an opening reception on Saturday, August 22, from 6:30-9 PM, and an “Art for Lunch” artist talk on Thursday, September 24, from 11:30 AM-1:30 PM.

Carrie Burckle, What the Body Keeps 1; Screen print on cotton muslin with textile inks, markers, stitched, silk organza

Suzanne Isken, the juror, writes that “California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber invites viewers to consider fiber as a form of communication—one that speaks through structure, material, and process. Throughout history, textiles have carried stories, encoded cultural knowledge, marked identity, and recorded human experience. If the syntax of fiber’s language is structure, then texture, rhythm, pattern, and form are its diction. The exhibition shows how contemporary artists continue that conversation, expanding textile traditions into new forms of abstract visual expression.”

Charlotte Bird, Hand Towel - Urban Discards; Mixed media: collected flattened drink cans and junk, barbeque vegetable holder, melted plastic bags, cotton fabric, threads/ artist-constructed holder, machine sewn, machine quilted, hand attached junk

California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber features the work of twenty members of California Fibers, including Sandy Abrams, Charlotte Bird, Ashley V. Blalock, Carrie Burckle, Doshi, Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Lydia Tjioe Hall, AniFaye Korngute, Brecia Kralovic-Logan, Mônica Lóss, Chari Myers, Carol Nilsen, Marty Ornish, Michael F. Rohde, Rebecca Smith, Cameron Taylor-Brown, Elise Vazelakis, Debra Weiss, Peggy Wiedemann, and Aneesa Shami Zizzo.  

Elise Vaselakis, DROPPED OUT; Loom woven fiber, brass and copper wire

California Fibers: The Languages of Fiber is part of Handwork 2026, Craft in America’s nationwide semiquincentennial collaboration showcasing the importance of the handmade and celebrating the diversity of craft that defines America.

Doshi, The Wind Stirs the Leaves; wool, botanical prints of red plum leaves, acid dye, organza, appliqué                                                                         

About SUZANNE ISKEN

Suzanne Isken served as Executive Director of the Craft Contemporary from 2011 through 2023. Under her direction, the museum presented landmark exhibitions that highlighted the careers of under-recognized craft-based artists. Previously, she served as the Director of Education at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Awards include recognition as the 2004 Pacific Region Art Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association. Isken has authored articles in Academic Medicine and School Arts and contributed the essay “Art and Cancer in the Public Space” to Cancer and Creativity (2019), edited by Esther Drifuss-Kattan. Most recently, Isken contributed to the book Handwork, which will be released in July 2026 by Phaedon Books. She is a board member of the Center for Craft in North Carolina and Textile Arts Los Angeles.

About HUNTINGTON BEACH ART CENTER

The Huntington Beach Art Center (HBAC) is a community arts and cultural center serving Huntington Beach and the Southern California region. The Art Center opened its doors to the public in 1995 and presents the works of artists producing in all media. Through exhibitions, performances, film/video screenings, lectures, and educational programming, HBAC serves to advance public awareness and understanding of cultural, historic, and contemporary perspectives. The Art Center is located at 538 Main Street in Huntington Beach, CA. Center hours are Tuesday from noon – 8pm, Wednesday through Thursday from noon-6pm and Friday and Saturday from noon-5pm. Admission is free.

About CALIFORNIA FIBERS

California Fibers, founded in 1970, supports artistic growth and professional advancement for contemporary Southern California fiber artists. The imagination and superb craftsmanship of these artists place them in the highest echelons of their fields. The group has an extensive exhibition history in the USA and abroad. Many of its members are well-represented in museums and private collections and are recipients of prestigious awards from around the world. Their creative expression includes weaving, basketry, sculpture, quilting, embroidery, felting, surface design, knitting, crochet, wearables, and mixed media. 

What We're Working On...

Every once in a while, we check in with members to see what they’re working on. This is one of those moments…

Elise Marks Vazelakis says, “Lately I’ve been making my own bioplastic yarn and experimenting with twining, crochet, and weaving to see how the material behaves.  Working with a biodegradable material feels very different than the post consumer plastics I usually use, and I’m excited to experiment with materials that could become part of a more sustainable future. Testing it through traditional textile techniques that I work with in my practice has opened up new possibilities and continues my interest in material experimentation.“

Brecia Kralovic-Logan has been working on a series of four large weavings based on the elements: Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. She also relates them to the creative process and has titled them: Imagine, Ignite, Nurture, and Flow.  She completed three of the weavings and is currently working on the weaving Imagine (stay tuned for a future update on Imagine).

For each weaving, she creates sketches or paintings for inspiration and then gathers materials. She uses both commercial yarns and yarn she hand dyes, as well as her own hand-dyed silk fabrics (see to the right). The weaving is all done on handheld looms made from soda straws and string. This is the same weaving method that she used for her international weaving project, Women's Woven Voices. Learn more here: www.womenswovenvoices.com

Above you can see the bottom piece during creation, using the soda straws in the weaving process.

Below you can see the first three pieces completed.

Kathy Nida has been experimenting with dye painting as a different way to create work. Last summer, she made over 10 dye paintings on an artist residency in Temecula.

In the last few months, she started finishing them into quilts, adding hand applique, beading, and embroidery to embellish the pieces.

She appreciates the slower, more contemplative nature of making these quilts, plus the challenge of deciding how to embellish them.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about a recent meeting where members shared their work in progress.

New Member Mônica Lóss

California Fibers is pleased to present our newest member, Mônica Lóss.

Mônica presenting her work at a recent California Fibers’ meeting.

Mônica writes, “My artistic practice begins with textiles and a sensitive attention to materials that already exist in the world, guided by the poetics of transformation and by traces that carry memory. I believe my practice aligns with the work of California Fibers’ members, whose research reflects depth, experimentation, and an expanded understanding of fiber as a contemporary language.”

Work presented at a recent California Fibers’ meeting.

In her own words: “I spin time, unravel memory, weave fictional territories, embroider organs for imagined bodies, and stitch inner landscapes as practices of reinvention and resilience. I understand art as a way of producing knowledge, a way of observing the world as a vast network of interconnections.”

Expanded Interior II

Lóss’ research begins with the use of textile materials, accessories, packaging, and household objects that are donated, discarded, or found in thrift stores and garage sales. Through weaving, sewing, crochet, and embroidery, she creates sensory and wearable objects that interact with space and unfold into soft sculptures, photographs, performances, videos, and installations. Lóss’ use of rejected materials highlights urgent issues related to consumption, accumulation, luxury, and status, prompting reflection on what society considers valuable and what is relegated to irrelevance. It also questions the responsibility inherent in the act of consuming and in how we deal with what no longer serves us.

Despite the Fragility

Lóss’ work develops through simultaneous projects and series that guide her toward both collective memory as symbolic heritage and individual memory as a place where experiences, dreams, and traumas become spaces for processing and naming loss. She investigates the ritualistic dimension of handcraft practices, understanding them as ancestral forms of knowledge and, at the same time, futuristic practices committed to sustainability and continuity.

Nest

Lóss navigates the genealogy of identities, seeking intersections between past, present, and future. This process begins with a confrontation with her personal history and her place of origin in southern Brazil. Colonization and immigration experiences are marks that accompany her and resonate in her positioning as a Latin Brazilian artist in the North American context.

Glu Glu

Lóss creates fictions about territories, landscapes, bodies, and other natures that emerge from the feeling of non-belonging triggered by migratory processes, imagining other worlds and spaces of resistance. Her practice is nourished by the habit of collecting insignificances, dispossessions, and accumulations, both her own and those of others, driven by an interest in the memory embedded in materials and in the possibilities of altering the fate of things, reflecting on passage, permanence, and the transformative potential of these experiences.

One of Mônica’s pieces found in downtown San Diego’s Hey Books! book store during the recent San Diego Book Crawl.

We look forward to seeing Mônica’s work in future California Fibers’ exhibits!

Mônica at the opening of a 2-person show including her work at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Homo Faber Showcases California Fibers' Members

Homo Faber, a global cultural movement designed to celebrate and promote international contemporary craftsmanship and its diversity of makers has just launched in the USA. 212 artists from many craft media were invited to participate, and only a fraction of them are textile-based. Four are members of California Fibers!

Kathy Nida makes quilt art; her work is found here on the Homo Faber site.

Cameron Taylor-Brown is a weaver; her work is found here on the Homo Faber site.

Michael F. Rohde is a tapestry maker; his work is found here on the Homo Faber site.

Annette Heully is a weaver; her work is found here on the Homo Faber site.

We’re excited to see what comes out of this international promotion.