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Visiting Studio Artist, August-October 2018
As a contemporary response to the textiles and the collection at the Gardner Museum, Shane Maxwell developed a series of garments that were exhibited in the Bertucci Education Studio in fall of 2018. Maxwell’s pieces captured the essence of a particular space in the Museum. A wall hanging complimented each robe and illustrated the diverse uses of textiles throughout the Historic Palace.
As part of his collaboration with the Gardner, Maxwell also worked with the Museum in the development of a fiber arts-themed Saturday Open Studio workshop series, taking inspiration from the special exhibition Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time.
Maxwell says this about the Saturday Open Studio workshop series developed in collaboration with the Museum:
By repeating simple actions, patterns form. Humanity relies on the patterns woven throughout history to maintain safe, predictable environments in which we can thrive. And although the tapestries of our societies have grown extremely complex, the basic principles of weaving have not changed.
It was my hope that this fiber arts-themed Studio workshop allowed museum visitors to experience the emergence of complex patterns through simple repetition and to become more aware of the patterns we follow and rely on in our everyday lives.
About the Artist
Shane Maxwell is a Boston-based craftsman with a passion for any form of art that can be worn. Most of his time is spent painting and dyeing costume fabrics for Boston Ballet and The Santa Fe Opera. The rest of his creative energy is put towards collecting natural materials and found objects to incorporate into jewelry and wearable sculpture.