October 31st, 2023
A local artist with national connections is now exhibiting in Regier Art Gallery – “Motherhood” comprises textile works by Eden Quispe, who teaches art at Newton High School.
The exhibition in the gallery inside Luyken Fine Arts Center on campus will run through Nov. 17, with the artist reception Nov. 16 from 6-8 p.m. at the gallery.
Regular gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 2-4 p.m. There is no admission charge.
“My fascination for textiles started out when my mother opened up an old chest in our basement and started pulling out intricate textiles that my grandmothers and aunts had created and passed down,” says Quispe.
She began to study the pieces, thinking about ways to make them part of her art practice, she says, in order “to consider women in the past who did not have the option to work outside the home or be acknowledged as academic artists.”
All the tapestries she creates are done so “in a chaotic environment. My children stick their hands in my fabric dyes, scribble on my work and lose pieces of fabric that I intended to use, all over my home.
“These cut, painted, printed and found textiles are stitched together to reveal a female figure interacting with her home environment.”
Eden Quispe lives with her Peruvian husband and four young children in a 170-year old country home in Newton.
She has an MFA in painting from Fort Hays State University and has exhibited in national exhibitions in Brooklyn, New Albany, N.Y., St. Louis and Cincinnati, as well as in exhibitions all over Kansas.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel ranks at #23 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest” for 2023-24. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
-30-