John Garrett

For the past 40 years, John Garrett has been applying textile technologies and imagery to various materials. Early on in his art career, Garrett began exploring alternatives to traditional fibers. From hardware stores he selected hardware cloth (a welded wire grid) and aluminum flashing, nearly anonymous industrial products. Developing unique personal methods based on needlepoint and embroidery techniques, he created flexible rectangular components that he manipulated into dynamic forms. Other materials he chose to use were found in thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, dumpsters, curbside on trash days, roadside and in empty lots. From this varied detritus of an affluent society he created patchwork vessels that presage less abundant times. Simultaneously, he focuses attention on the beauty of the discarded and overlooked.

Selected collections:
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Art Museum, Little Rock; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan; Erie Museum, Pennsylvania; High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota; Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin; Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC.