A & E

To have the work of renowned quiltmaker Nancy Crow fill the three flawless floors that are the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University is a rare treat indeed, but a seemingly odd juxtaposition to say the least. After all, why would one find what many view to be merely handicraft in a place known to display cutting-edge contemporary art?

Well, considering that Crow is a master colorist who many argue single-handedly revolutionized quilt making, it's easy to understand why.

The show, which presents 50 works created in the span of two decades, is the largest-ever sampling of her oeuvre. Organized by Petra Fallaux, the former director and current interim director of the gallery, who herself is a quiltmaker, the exhibition is a homage in a way to her own teacher.

Fallaux, since first retiring as gallery director in 2002, has attended several of the workshops the artist conducts at a barn studio on her 90-acre farm in central Ohio. Each time, Fallaux has gained new understanding of a much more artistic approach to quilt making than say, cutting patterns and stitching straight lines.

"I'm a lifelong sewer," Fallaux says. "But when I discovered her work -- it's so contemporary, so fresh that I signed up for a class, -- and it was unbelievable. She is a phenomenal teacher, and I have returned to her barn every year since to take classes."

Looking at the three floors of brightly colored, intricately designed quilts, it's easy to agree. Crow has taken a traditional craft and pushed it into the realm of high art through innovative color use and personal style.

And, what may surprise you upon close examination of one of Crow's quilts is her equally innovative technique. For starters, while her designs appear geometric and rigid, all of the fabric is cut intuitively by hand: No perfectly straight edges here. And all of the fabric is hand dyed, laying bare a full rainbow of possibilities.

Fallaux says that when Crow started her career 35 years ago, she was very rigid in her execution, using cardboard templates and striving for perfection, as most quilt makers do. But it all changed between the years 1988 and 1992, when Crow was striving to create her own voice with her work. "That's when she let go of the ruler and only used exclusively her own hand-dyed fabrics," Fallaux says.

Rather than assembling a "greatest hits" compilation or chronological survey of Crow's career, Fallaux has organized the works with an eye toward uncovering the artist's process of discovery in those pivotal years, as well as Crow's continual explorations up to the present day.

For example, the piece "Double Mexican Wedding Ring #1" (1988) is an early example that shows a rigid adherence to symmetrical design, while works from her much later "Constructions" series show an almost complete departure from such stringent guidelines.

1990 was a pivotal year for the artist. Prior to that, Crow had been progressing from the more familiar color blocks and wedding-ring patterns of traditional quiltmaking to templates with bow-tie shapes. But in 1990, she found the need to break away from the strictures of the past and move forward, altering shapes and colors as much as possible.

Part of the reason was a trip to China, where she had witnessed the execution of a group of about 60 young men accused of minor crimes. That's when she got the idea for her "Chinese Souls" series, one of which -- "Chinese Souls #5" (1992) -- is on display here. In it, multiple swirls of color, each representing a soul, are grouped into 25 blocks. The piece is just as striking from a distance as it up close, with undulating lines and intense colors that seem to throb in combination with one another, as if trying to break free of the blocks.

Works from her "Bow Tie" series are less thematic and even more exploratory. In some, like "Bow Tie #1" (1991) a reliance on pattern is more obvious, being comprised of specific blocks and opposing diagonals, but in "Bow Tie #6" (1992) the quilt can be seen as a singular plane comprised of irregular shapes stitched together with unusual color combinations.

The exhibition also includes examples of Crow's "Linear Studies" series, as well as more than 30 works from the "Color Blocks" and "Constructions" series, including new quilts that have not yet been exhibited or published.

When viewing them altogether, one thing is clear: Crow has taken control of the color luminosity of her fabrics, while freeing herself from the straightedge of the ruler. By exclusively mixing her own dyes and applying them in multiple applications, she manages to bring out the utmost intensities and subtleties of color values and hues.

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