(MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN) – Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) is pleased to present Inviting Abundance, an exhibition of quilts and textile works by Milwaukee-based artist Heidi Parkes. The exhibition showcases the practice of quilting as a contemporary art form while remaining deeply connected to its histories of domesticity, family, preservation, and care. Inviting Abundance is on view now at MOWA | DTN inside Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel through November 29.
For Parkes, quilting is both a family tradition and deeply personal form of storytelling. Inspired by her grandmother’s collaborative quilt commemorating her birth, Parkes creates intuitive, richly layered works from domestic textiles, family heirlooms, found fabrics, and materials from the world around her. Additionally, the artist integrates embroidered, stained, dyed, or designed fabric throughout, adding hand stitching that acts like an overlay of drawing, emphasizing the slow and intentional process of construction. She rarely adheres to a set plan, relying instead on intuition and improvisation.
“Parkes’s quilts read like diary entries, full of representations of personal meaning as she processes, reframes, and learns from different events in her life,” says Dr. Jane Aspinwall, MOWA’s Deputy Director. “Her series Abundance Study, uses the quilting process as a means of retraining her brain to appreciate everyday objects as small harbingers of joy.”
Influenced by abstract artists like Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Agnes Martin, and El Anatsui, Parkes begins each quilt with a feeling, place, or theme. Pulling from aerial views, photographs, or objects, Parkes then reconstructs her world, working from multiple viewpoints and moments in time. The resulting works are a collaged layering of material and meaning—an inner dialogue made visible.
Parkes holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at museums and cultural institutions across the country, receiving numerous awards and honors. In addition to her studio practice, Parkes shares her knowledge through lectures, workshops, and educational programs, championing quilting as a contemporary art form.
IMAGE CREDIT
Heidi Parkes, Meuse, Pandemic, Invisible, Sweetheart, 2020