Mon 1 Mar 2010
Reis Niemi and Sheila Klein at Punch Gallery
Posted by Marlow Harris under Art , Exhibits , OpeningsNo Comments
Sheila Klein and Ries Niemi met in 1972 in a class on screen-printing on fabric.
They had both been working in textiles for several years at that time.
They were married in 1978.
They are still both working in textiles, among many other mediums, today.
They each maintain their own careers and art trajectories.
Between the two of them, they have tied hundreds of thousands of knots.
Ries Niemi is a maximalist. Too much is never enough for him.Niemi has been sewing and embroidering since 8th grade, and still at it today, defying sexual stereotypes. Once, in a grocery store checkout line, a nice old lady told him “Honey, don’t you grow up and be one of THOSE kind of girls”.
He has heeded that advice.
Sheila Klein made her first artwork in Grade One. It was the beginning of performing with materials. The teacher was mean and wouldn’t allow erasers. Klein figured out that she could erase the paper with her rubber-soled gym shoes.
She got caught.
Sheila and Ries’s show at Punch Gallery opens Thursday, March 4th from 5 to 8pm.
