The Patchwork Healing Blanket – Virtual Exhibition
The Patchwork Healing Blanket:
Piece by Piece and Country by Country
Virtual Gallery Exhibition – Opening August 8, 2020 4pm PST
Live on Youtube! Patchwork Healing Circle
The Patchwork Healing Blanket: Piece-by-Piece and Country-by-Country is an international textile art project that unites generations of women in a global movement against gender-based violence and the destruction of Mother Earth. In 2019 a group of women artists from Oaxaca and Mexico City, led by Founder/Director Marietta Bernstorff, started working together to develop the Patchwork Healing Blanket/La Manta de Curacíon in response to an outrageous increase in the murder of women in Mexico that year. The artists began to invite women from all over Mexico and the world to participate in making a patchwork cloth piece that speaks out against the violent crimes we are all witnessing through news outlets and social media. The result was tremendous – 600 patchworks were sent to Mexico City from San Miguel Allende, Tijuana, Oaxaca, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Brasil, Germany, Greece, England, Spain, Canada, and the United States. The patchworks were sewn together to create large blankets that were displayed in the Zócalo in Mexico City for one day in February 2020, creating a powerful public art installation and a celebration of healing with artists, educators, healers, women, children, and allies.
The Patchwork Healing Blanket will be on view for the public through a virtual art gallery by SPARC from August 8 to September 19. Join us in the virtual gallery for an installation of patchworks by feminist artists, survivors, and advocates from ten countries as women, children, and allies across borders call for an end to the global pandemic of gender-based violence.
“We believe that the problems we are facing towards women and children are connected with the abuse and rape of Mother Earth. Our land, our water, our air are being destroyed due to greed and power. We believe we are all interconnected with nature, and respecting our surroundings and our communities is respecting others and ourselves. We need to come together to make conscious efforts to change our communities and countries to help us understand the importance of Mother Earth and all species that inhabit this planet.”
– Marietta Bernstorff, Exhibition Curator and Founder/Director of Patchwork Healing Blanket
Join the Patchwork Healing Blanket – Click here to learn more!
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The Patchwork Healing Circle – Sept 19, 2020 at 2pm PST
Saturday, September 19th
Virtual Event on Zoom
2:00-3:30 PM Pacific Standard Time
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Virtual Walkthrough and Artist Panel – August 8, 2020 4pm PST
We are proud to invite you to a virtual gallery opening for The Patchwork Healing Blanket on August 8 at 4:00 PM PST. Join curator Marietta Bernstorff, and artists Lourdes Almeida, Jimena Cancino, Marianne Sadowski, and Dorothy Thursby for a panel on gender-based violence and textile art as a form of resistance. The panel will be followed by a virtual gallery tour led by the curator. This is a free public event open to all.
About the Speakers
Marietta Bernstorff | Founder/Curator of The Patchwork Healing Blanket
Oaxaca
Marietta Bernstorff is a cultural promoter, artist, and curator who utilizes her 30 years of experience in the arts, in both Mexico and the United States to help build bridges so that people can communicate through the arts on important issues that we face today in both countries. She develops innovative and creative art exhibitions and educational programs that deal with complex social issues in both countries such as migration, environmental, racism, and sustainability in social art projects. She has developed over 35 exhibitions in numerous cultural institutions and museums in both countries and is currently working on a traveling exhibition for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca, Mexico (MACO) with Oaxaca Artisans and artist from the United States. She is the founder of the Women’s Collective MAMAZ (women artists and maize) which is a global internetwork of women artist in Canada, Mexico, USA, and Cuba who work on environmental issues such as native seeds, Founder of the Tanivet Project in Oaxaca, Mexico, and ArtNetwork.
Instagram: @patchworkhealingblanket
Marianne Sadowski
Los Angeles, California
Marianne Sadowski is a visual artist born in Mexico City, currently working in Los Angeles, CA.
Her prints, mixed media works and socially engaged art practises reflect her concern for social justice and humanity. Elements of nature are always present in her art and often work as symbols that convey the fine line of life itself. Her art has been exhibited throughout the United States, Mexico and Germany.
Marianne Sadowski organized a group of women in October 2019 at Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles, to create pieces for the Patchwork healing project. Her piece is a cry to put an end to all the femicides that have been occurring in the past years in Mexico.
Instagram: @mariannesadowski
Lourdes Almeida
Mexico City
Lourdes Almeida is one of the most versatile authors of contemporary Mexican photography. A thesis in Art History and two essays have been written about her work. Ten monographic books have been published with her author work. Since 1978 to date she has had more than 100 individual exhibitions in important museums in Mexico, Latin America, the USA, Europe and Asia. She has obtained several national and international awards.
Lourdes has been an active participant in the Patchwork Healing Blanket project, not only making her personal piece but also assembling blankets from other authors.
Instagram: @lourdesalmeida
Jimena Cancino
Mexico City
Jimena Cancino is a Mexican artist who started her career with stained glass for almost 15 years before transitioning to creating murals and painting furniture. In 2010, Jimena went to live in London for 8 years and started ceramics, printing, patchwork and digital textile.
When she returned to Mexico 2 years ago, Marietta Bernstorff invited her to participate in this incredible project of the Patchwork Healing Blanket, not only as a participant but also to help her with the ongoing project.
Instagram: @jimenacancino
Dorothy Thursby
Mountain View, California
Dorothy Thursby holds a B.F.A. from U.C. Irvine and an M.F. A. from the New York Academy of Art, NYC. Always interested in the connection between spirituality and art, Dorothy also attended the School of Sacred Arts in NYC to learn traditional art techniques such as egg tempera painting and manuscript illumination. Combining her interest in Judaism, art and textiles lead to a body of work that combined traditional needlework, drawing and quilting. Bima quilts and torah covers, some works in collaboration with others, can be seen at Etz Chayim Congregation in Palo Alto, Ca and at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School. Dorothy’s work was also shown at the San Jose Museum of Quilt and Textiles in 2003.
The image Dorothy used for the Patchwork Healing Blanket project, expresses both the spiritual and physical, a woman standing strong, protecting her child and grounded in the earth.
