Made from natural sources and transformed through a range of artisanal and industrial processes, quilts carry deep geographical and cultural histories.
Artist and scholar Lauren Bartone traces the social, economic, and cultural histories of plants and trees, transforming them into both material and subject in her hand-dyed linen compositions inspired by landscapes and still-life traditions.
Grounded in a practice of drawing and craft, artist and curator Swapnaa Tamhane collaborates with India-based artisans to deconstruct textile design processes and interrogate their colonial frameworks and genealogies.
Introduced and moderated by curator Julia Smith Eilers, this program invites the artists to share their practices and explore the ways they creatively engage with fibers, dyes, and patterns. Speakers will reflect on the textiles, botanical illustrations, raw fibers, and dye samples on view in the exhibition An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles, while tracing the intertwined histories of craftsmanship, botany, and globalisation.
About the speakers:
Lauren Bartone’s hand dyed and sewn linen compositions intentionally play on conventions from landscape and still life painting, as well as textile history. This work is the product of material experimentation in the studio, alongside archival research about botanics, color, and the development of national identities. Her use of dyes with historical cultural significance, like cochineal, fustic, or indigo, is a reflection of her interdisciplinary approach and curiosity about the complex and sometimes contradictory ways meaning is created through imagery. Lauren Bartone (b. 1979, Greenwich CT) received her BA in Fine Art from UCLA and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, as well as an MA in Education from UC Berkeley. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Italian Studies at UC Berkeley with a designated emphasis in folklore that considers the visual and material culture of the Italian diaspora. Her recent solo exhibitions include Ribbon Rack at Sarah Shepard Gallery (2025) De Rerum Natura at Park Life Gallery (2022) and 16 Tons (2018) at the College of Marin Gallery. Her work with the public involves community dialogue and collaborative map making in projects like A City in Maps (2015) and A Map for the Centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition with the de Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, as well as SF New City Atlas (2016) for the Art on Market Street poster series and Migration Map (2025) with the California Migration Museum and the San Francisco Arts Council. She has enjoyed residencies at sites like the Orto Botanico of Palermo, but also Kala and Art Works Downtown in the Bay Area. Her work has been generously supported with grants by the Pirkle Jones Foundation, the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry, Simpson Fellowship, and the Global, International and Area Studies at UC, Berkeley, as well as the Barbieri Grant at Trinity College. Bartone lives and works in San Rafael, California.
Swapnaa Tamhane’s art practice is dedicated to drawing, making handmade paper, and working with the material histories of cotton and jute, while her curatorial interests explore feminist histories in India. She has an MFA in Fibres & Material Practices, Concordia University, Montreal, where she was recently an Artist-in-Residence, teaching within the Fibres department. Residencies have been held at Cité internationales des arts, Paris, Bemis Centre for Contemporary Art, Omaha, and Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria. She has been supported by SSHRC, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (2009), and she was an International Museum Fellow with the Kulturstiftung des Bundes in 2013. She has exhibited her work at Rajiv Menon Contemporary, Los Angeles, Green Art Gallery, Dubai; Nature Morte, Delhi; articule, Montreal; Sculpture Park Jaipur; A Space, Toronto; and Victoria & Albert Museum, Dundee, Scotland, with solo exhibitions at Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Surrey Art Gallery, British Columbia, and Mead Art Museum, Amherst, opening in August 2025.
Julia Eilers Smith is a curator, researcher, and writer based in Tio’tia:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal. Since 2019, she has served as Curator of Research at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, where she has organized over a dozen solo and group exhibitions, including Ésery Mondésir: Choublak (2024), A Stage for Rebellion (2023) and In the No Longer Not Yet (2019). Previously, she worked at ICA London and SBC Gallery in Montreal, and as an independent curator organized exhibitions and events at Ramapo College Art Galleries and the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts in Mahwah, New Jersey, Galería Liberia in Bogotá, and 80WSE Gallery in New York. Her writing has appeared in e-flux, Public Parking, Le Sigh, and Espace, art actuel. She holds a MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a BA in Art History from Université du Québec à Montréal.
Images
Left: Wholecloth Quilt, c. 1800. Wool; 80 x 80 in. American Folk Art Collection, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson
Middle: Lauren Bartone, cardinal, 2024. Linen dyed with cochineal, sewn, stretched and primed with Rabbit Skin Glue; 48″ x 36″ x 1.5″. Courtesy of the artist.
Right: Swapnaa Tamhane, Mobile Palace, 2019-2021.Mill-made cotton, appliqué, beading, natural dyes; made with Salemamad Khatri and Mukesh, Avdhesh and Pragnesh Prajapati, and Bhavesh Rajnikant; dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. Photograph by Paul Eekhoff/ROM
Registration
Space is limited; advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.
Instructions for joining with a Zoom link and password will be provided by email upon registration confirmation under “Additional Information.”
Closed captioning will be provided in English.
For questions or to request accessibility accommodations, please email publicprograms@folkartmuseum.org.