A Stitch in Jewish Time: Provocative Textiles

Coat of the Agunah - Andi Arnovitz

Middle Matzah - Leslie Golomb and Louise Silk

An amazing exhibit is currently on display through June 30, 2011 at the Hebrew Union College's Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (located at Brookdale Center, One West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012).

This exhibit "...explores how exceptional contemporary artists apply their skillful creativity to the ever evolving understanding of Jewish values. Individually addressing issues of memory and reflection, interpretations of history and ritual, and links between the past and present, they delve into aspects of the Holocaust, war, patriotism, celebration, prayer, feminism, and sexuality, frequently through the inclusion of Biblical texts and sometimes challenging traditional forms."
http://huc.edu/ckimages/files/Digest/August%2026,%202010/Press%20Release%20-%20A%20Stitch%20in%20Jewish%20Time.pdf

More Info About Some of the Artists:

Leslie A Golomb and Louise Silk - "Deez Nites Be All the Same to Me" : These two artists have created a series of quilts depicting the linked story of a Jewish slave-owning family, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Lyons Moss, and their run away slave boy.
http://www.lesliegolomb.com/deezlobby.html

Blog Post to The Jewish Chronicle by Louise Silk - Why Don't Jews Quilt?
http://thejewishchronicle.net/pages/full_story/push?blog-entry-Why+Don%E2%80%99t+Jews+Quilt-%20&id=10679000

Andi Arnovitz - Unchained: While Trying on New Artistic Hat, Artist Develops Series of Paper Coats:
http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/26293/unchained/#3

"One series of coats is devoted to agunot, the so-called “chained women,” who, according to Jewish law, cannot remarry due to their husbands’ refusal to grant a divorce, or inconclusive evidence of a husband’s death. Arnovitz obtained and photocopied hundreds of ketubot (marriage contracts), and tore them into small pieces. With thread she affixed the fragments onto massive paper coats. The sleeves, hems and collars were sewn shut, and the threads, evidence of her painstaking process, were left hanging, a metaphor for the agunah, herself."

Robert Forman - String Pictures - "Forman's work is about the journey-his, theirs, ours. It is about transparent shadows of the real world, shifting as we shift, fortelling our own ephemerality even as they document us for posterity, playing tricks on our vision like Puck, like the trickster spirits of every culture. It is about surface, but also about deeper layers and juxtapositions-of thread, form, subject matter, symbol and meaning."
Website: http://www.glueyarn.com/site/Home.html

Robert Forman: The Journey of Self and Other (Surface Design Journal - Spring 2000)
http://www.glueyarn.com/site/Surface_Design.html

Jacqueline Nicholls - "...uses art to explore traditional Jewish ideas in untraditional ways. This website shows the variety of media I use in my work - paper-cuts, embroidery, corsetry, drawings & print, clothing - and explains some of my thinking behind each piece."
http://www.jacquelinenicholls.com/ 

Blog - http://jacquelinenicholls.blogspot.com/

Nancy Koenigsberg

Jane Sauer Galleryhttp://www.jsauergallery.com/sagemoon/MainPages/BasketryInPerspective2009.html#NK

Snyderman-Works Galleries
http://www.snyderman-works.com/artists/nancy-koenigsberg

Elaine Reichek - combines "...vintage and current photography with stitching..."
http://www.elainereichek.com/
.
Adam Cohen - "Embroidery offers me a way to explore imagery while still feeling connected to the piece through my hands."

Snyderman-Works Galleries
http://www.snyderman-works.com/artists/adam-cohen