Darcie Shively: A Woven Channel
August 26, 2024 - February 2, 2025 @ Frasier
A Woven Channel takes a closer look at the journey Darcie Shively has taken to develop her practice as a weaver, highlighting three series of tapestries that explore the concept of chance. It all started when the artist moved to Boulder from Los Angeles in 2010. Shortly after settling, Shively created a project called “52 To Do,” a self-led initiative where she reconnected with her creative side by learning something new each week for a year. Inspired by the world of fiber art, Shively found herself at Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins, a beloved Boulder shop and community where she met Judy Steinkoenig, a local master weaver, who taught her how to weave.
After learning the basics of the craft, Shively started exploring tapestry on her own and realized how much she could express through the warp and weft. From the very beginning, her work was about rekindling a relationship with the unknown and disrupting patterns, both in weaving and in life. Inspired by the “chance operations” of Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, she created a series of tapestries titled Records of Chance that utilized chance objects, such as coin flips, Magic 8 Ball consultations, and dice rolls. She translated these objects and operations on the grid of the loom into random forms and colors, allowing something beyond just personal intention to come through.
As her work progressed and she found herself spending more time in nature, Shively looked for ways to represent the beauty of the unknown organically. This led her to create her next series of tapestries, Color Memories, which captures how color comes together in the landscapes and skyscapes of Colorado and northern New Mexico.
In her next series, Energy Weavings, Shively sought to further loosen the grip of order and break out of geometric forms in her work in order to capture more of an aliveness and embrace serendipity. Her Change circular tapestries, with their organic cocoons that shift in random ways on the surface, remind us that nothing is static and that we are always evolving.
Opening Reception
Monday August 26, 2024 at Frasier’s Canyons Gallery
6:00 - 7:30pm public reception
6:30pm Q&A with the artist
Free and open to the public
Exhibition runs from August 26, 2024 to February 2, 2025 and is open to the general public Tuesday - Sunday from 11am - 5pm. More info here.
BMoCA at Frasier is a collaboration between Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and Frasier Retirement Community. Curated by BMoCA, this series of exhibitions in The Canyons Gallery is an extension of the museum’s exhibition schedule. Each exhibition is complemented by a series of education programs
Image credit: Darcie Shively, Color Memory: Great Sand Dunes, 2020, Handwoven romney wool tapestry. Image courtesy of the artist.