Art Quilts and Hooked Rugs at Guilford Art Center

Guilford Art Center (GAC) presents two shows running from Friday, July 8 through Aug. 7 in its Mill Gallery: This is a Quilt and On Higher Ground: Contemporary Hooked Art.

This is a Quilt is a trunk show by Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) featuring 30, 8-inch-square art quilts, matted and mounted. They have been created by members of SAQA, an international, 2,800-member, non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development, and documentation. The plethora of quilts in the trunk show represent a huge variety of style, technique, and compositional approaches to the medium.

On Higher Ground presents work by four artists who create contemporary hooked art: Liz Alpert Fay, Leslie Giuliani, Tracy Jamar, and Constance Old. These four artists, all affiliated with Newtown Hooked Art Shows, exemplify a 21st-century approach to working within the highly traditional medium of rug hooking. The technique itself is used in highly personal and idiosyncratic ways as a means of personal expression and of broadening the perception of hooked fiber art today.

The public is invited to an opening reception for On Higher Ground on Friday, July 8 from 5 to 7 p.m. GAC, located at 411 Church Street, is open Monday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call GAC at 203-453-5947 or visit www.guilfordartcenter.org.