FANTASTIC FIBERS is an international juried exhibition that seeks to showcase a wide range of outstanding works related to the fiber medium. One of Yeiser Art Center’s most engaging, innovative & colorful international exhibits, Fantastic Fibers is an inspirational must see for fine artists, quilters, and textile art enthusiasts across the globe.
Now in its 35th year, this year’s Fantastic Fibers exhibition features work from five different countries, seventeen states, and forty nine different artists!
Dates
April 19 – June 18, 2022
Award Winners
Best of Show: Karla Rydrych, Reliquary; with these hands
First Place: Nikka Wolfenbarger, hard to let go
Second Place: Itala Aguilera, The Housewife
Third Place: Susan Hensel, Firmament
DOWNLOAD 2022 FANTASTIC FIBERS CATALOG
Participating Artists
Itala Aguilera |
Madison Hendry Susan Hensel Janet Jaffke Toni Kersey Jill Kerttula Erin King Nancy Kozikowski Hattie Lee Sung Ji Lee Ryan Lewis Viviana Lombrozo Elaine Longtemps |
Niraja Lorenz |
Vicki Sue Stone Tiziana Tateo Karin Täuber Olivia Thompson Angela Tong Amy Usdin Betty Vera Sharon L. Vitt Jessica Walton Nikka Wolfenbarger Yaleika Evian Zukas-Oguz |

Matt Collinsworth is the CEO of the National Quilt Museum. He has also served as the Director of the National Music Museum and Director of the Kentucky Folk Art Center. Matt has curated and co-curated dozens of exhibitions during his 19 year career in the museum field. He received his MFA degree from Ohio State and resides in Lower Town with his family.
JUROR: MATT COLLINSWORTH
“The threads that bind this world together above the darkness have frayed again. Disease, war, environmental decline, anxiety, and anger have chewed like rats at the corners, yet the knots and seams hold still. We sway at the edge of an unknowable future – our hands and hearts making good works, our eyes fixed hopefully on the gauzy light.
“The extraordinary works of fiber art included in this exhibition are well-wrought and exceptionally expressive. They exemplify the trials of our age. These pieces were made by artists of remarkably different backgrounds and experiences from this country and other continents. In these works, the viewer will find representations of the artists’ struggles (to exist, to be understood, to be affirmed) and, if they look carefully, reflections of their own concerns and hopes.
“For all of that, these works collectively tend toward hope through invention, color and texture. Millenia ago we traded animal skins for textiles that we made ourselves. Those objects provided comfort, protection and decoration. Sometimes they ascribed status or indicated ceremony. But, more often than not, they were articles of care or affection, like swaddling for an infant or a shroud for a deceased loved one. The artists in this exhibition have given us such gifts. While we cannot wrap ourselves in them, they are now ours to enjoy and to ponder. You should carry these artists’ visions with you long after you have taken your leave.”