bio

Barbara Brandel
Biography:

Barbara’s work has evolved from weaving to 2-D and 3-D mixed media assemblages with buttons (keeping one foot in the fiber art world), 2-D mixed media paintings, acrylic paintings on canvas, and works in paper collage with postage stamps.

Having studied studio art at the U of Iowa and the U of Arizona where her focus was on figure drawing, Barbara took a one semester class in weaving, and in 1972, decided to work exclusively in fiber art. Well known for her tapestry garments and wall-pieces, her work has been shown and collected nationally. Awards include the Pat Mutterer Award at the Tucson Museum of Art’s “Arizona Biennial” in 1993 (1st Prize) and 1997 (3rd Prize), and she was a Tucson/Pima Arts Council Fellowship winner in 1995. Her tapestry work has been featured in Fiberarts, American Craft, Ornament, Surface Design Journal, and Fiberarts Design Book Five. More recently, her button assemblages were featured in The Desert Leaf (January ’05), Fiberarts Design Book 7, and in Phoenix Home & Garden (March ’05) in the Masters Of The Southwest edition, as an “emerging artist”. The Tucson Weekly has reviewed her recent exhibition of paintings in Tucson.

The button assemblages honor and transform the common button, and bring to mind mosaics and quilts with inter-generational components, and the hundreds of people who might have worn the buttons. In the sculptural series, she has combined wire with the buttons, and brings unusual gardens to life.

The paintings on paper (Paintings From the Antiquities Series) convey her love for the hand made object, as they often depict ancient textiles, sculpture or ceremonial objects from all cultures from the past. With the paintings, she pays homage to the makers of art objects, which were made to be used. She has been known to paint a portrait of an ancient Peruvian textile or a Persian carpet.

Barbara’s abstract paintings on canvas are reminiscent of textiles, landscapes, and shrines, and are concerned with layers of light and color, space, and gesture. Exploration is also ongoing with collage, and she has a series in progress. Barbara’s work in all of these areas has been widely collected.

Barbara’s March 2005 solo exhibition at Chandler Center for the Arts (Arizona) included tapestry garments and wall-pieces, button assemblages, and paintings of textiles. In 2006, she had two solo exhibitions of her mixed media paintings on paper: “Paintings From The Antiquities Series” at the Alliance Bank of Arizona’s gallery (Tucson), and “Cultural Compositions”, at Clarke & Clarke Art + Artifacts (Scottsdale, AZ). In 2007, she had two solo exhibitions at the Tucson International Airport.

Barbara lives to make art in Tucson, AZ.