"Passage: Textile Work by Hillary Steel"

Thursday, May 12, 7 PM

This event is free and open to the public. RSVP requested. For more information visit Facebook or call 703.790.1953.

Hillary Steel is an artist who specializes in weaving and resist dyeing, incorporating ikat and plangi pattern and technique into hand woven wall pieces. In this exhibition she presents monumental works that blend abstractionist color studies, structural explorations and knowledge of global textile traditions into works both subtle and commanding.

In our Emerson Gallery, Hillary will speak about the development of her work highlighting her unique process and international influences.

Hillary Steel is a teacher and artist whose work has been influenced by travels throughout Cote d’Ivoire, Peru, Chile, and Mexico. Since 2006, she has been studying with a documenting the work of Mexican master rebozo weaver Don Evaristo Borboa Casas, producing hand woven rebozos on a backstop loom and making a short film about his work. Hillary presents her textiles in a wide variety of venues, both national and international. Her work has been displayed at the North American Cultural Center in San Jose, Costa Rica; the American Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico; and at the United States Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Hillary’s textiles have also been the subject of solo shows at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery, the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, and the Rosewood Centre Arts Gallery. Her work is held in private and public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. As an educator, she has taught in public and private schools. Hillary earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo; studied textiles, studio art and art history via post-baccalaureat course work at Buffalo State College and the University of Pittsburgh; and received a Masters in Teaching degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) is a leading contemporary visual arts non-profit organization located within the McLean Community Center at 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, VA. For more information, visit http://www.mpaart.org or call (703) 790-1953. MPA is supported through grants from the Arts Council of Fairfax County, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Virginia Commission for the Arts and other generous sponsors and individuals.