I have been unable to get to any tapestry shows in the last few years for various reasons. But I am an avid collector of catalogs because I find it a great source of inspiration for my own work and I love to see what other people are doing in tapestry. The catalogs below are recent acquisitions.
Catalogs are definitely not the perfect representation of a piece of art, but I find them very useful for getting ideas, celebrating artists I do know, and learning about artists I didn’t know about. I have quite a collection and I find that when I’m stuck for ideas for whatever reason, going back through old catalogs is really helpful!
I hope this brief review of these catalogs is inspiring enough for you to get your own copy and perhaps start your own catalog collection!
Here are four catalogs in no particular order. Please forgive the photography. These are just snapshots taken by me to give you an idea of the layout. Please order your own copy to appreciate the photography completely.*
Murmuration Collaboration
Cover of the Murmuration Collaboration catalog
This project is stunning. You can still see it in the UK and if you can go, please do and tell me what you thought! Information about where to go is on the Nearly Wild Weaving website HERE. The subject of the artwork is a starling murmuration. Twelve tapestry artists designed and wove a shaped tapestry that is displayed as one piece. I find this astounding actually. This group had done one prior project, the Waterline Project, so they had some experience working together, but the number of things that had to come together to create this gorgeous tapestry from 12 very different tapestry artists is quite notable!
No only did they have to design the piece together, but they had to get the neighboring tapestries to match in terms of form, shape, and colors when none of the weavers lived very close to each other. The result deserves admiration and a resounding standing ovation.
The catalog starts with essays about the design, weaving process, and some of the challenges they encountered along the way. There is a gorgeous fold-out panel featuring the entire tapestry. This is followed by a spread from each of the artists with a full photo and a detail of each of their panels. I really appreciate catalogs like this that are clean with clear images, essays, and some idea about the process for the project.
There is a free talk online about the project on October 18th. Sign up HERE.
The group has done a Substack with many entries about the project. Think of it like a blog. You can read it HERE.
There is a great description of their process in the catalog which can be purchased from the instructions HERE.
Irene Evison wrote an essay about their process
An example of one of the weaver’s pages
“Just like the starlings that come together as individuals to form a unique, flowing pattern in the sky, we as weavers joined forces to create something that could only come to life through the collaboration of the entire group.”
Heallreaf 5
Cover of the Heallreaf 5 catalog
I have not yet managed to get over the pond to see one of the Heallreaf exhibitions, but they are consistently full of amazing work. Margaret Jones curated Heallreaf 5. She was also a juror along with Anne-Elise Angas. You can see images of the show online HERE. You’ll find if you hover over the thumbnails that the sizes are indicated in cm. Clicking on those photos brings up a full image.
The artists represented are international with work in many different styles and themes. The work is so engaging and I wish I had been able to see the show in person.
In terms of the physical object, this catalog is A4 size (the European equivalent of a letter sheet of paper in the USA). I like the large paper size for the photos.** Each work has a full image and a detail. The sizes of the tapestries are not indicated anywhere. It is very hard to tell in a print publication whether a piece is meters wide or very small. I ended up going to the page on the website linked above and writing the dimensions of each piece in my catalog.
That said, catalogs are a huge amount of work to produce, and we should always be grateful when there is a catalog at all! The show doesn’t have a particular theme so you’ll find all sorts of imagery included. The statements from the artists (though written in third person in the catalog) give you a bit of a window into their thoughts and process. I’m always drawn to Anna Kocherovsky’s work for example and part of her statement for Star Light Star Bright is below.
“Anna’s process is free-flowing and incremental, with a nuanced approach to selection of colours. This way of thinking allows her to arrive at the final result without pressure to repeat any cartoon or image. She uses materials, techniques, and slow rhythm of gobelin weaving to concentrate on emotional and open-ended aspects of abstraction.”
There are some wonderful short videos on the Heallreaf website about three of the artists and their work HERE. There is important work represented here and I recommend getting a copy of the catalog and they studying it next to your computer as you bring up the images from the website to study the work in more detail.
You can purchase the catalog online on the Heallreaf website HERE.
What’s Going On?
What’s Going On? catalog cover
This juried show by Tapestry Weavers West is full of intriguing work. By the time this goes up, the show will have come down, but if you didn’t get to see it, you can likely still get a catalog (see below).
I am a member of Tapestry Weavers West and I appreciate this group’s commitment to shows and to tapestry weaving in general. They also produce some gorgeous work.
This is a small format catalog, 7 x 7 inches. But they have maximized the space for the images. The challenge posed to the membership is stated in the catalog as below:
“What’s going on today? How does the relentless 24-hour news cycle affect, influence, and inspire your work? How do we respond to the dramatically charged and rapidly changing issues of our time? ...”
Catalog front page; the show was at the Mills Building in San Francisco last summer.
I was unable to see this show in person, but it is clear from the catalog that the artists took a wide variety of approaches to the brief. There are pieces inspired by politics (or just plain old shocking events like the reversing of Roe vs Wade) and there are pieces that look for peace in nature and everything in between.
I found the work in this show inspiring and the statements by the artists gave me a place to explore the work from. No artist speak here, they are approachable statements about what the work meant to the artist.
Stephanie Hoppe’s artist page from the What’s Going On? catalog
See the Tapestry Weavers West website HERE or get your own copy of the catalog on Blurb HERE. And if you’re not one to collect paper catalogs, TWW has set their Preview to include the entire catalog. You can go to the link above and click the word PREVIEW and read the essay and see the work right online.
There is so much here that is fascinating. Please take a look!
Homage to Audrey Moore
I am not sure if this work was in one show, but this catalog from the Damascus Fiber Arts School and the Willamette Tapestry Artists is well worth getting your hands on. Audrey Moore was the founder of Damascus and she was influential for so many tapestry artists in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
Audrey was the founder of the Damascus Fiber Arts School and she passed away in 2020 at 94 years old. Her 50-year tapestry career. She often wove images of textiles whether that was Diné inspired imagery or her famous The Ladies dress series.
Audrey founded the Damascus Fiber Arts School when she was 80 years old. Never say you’re too old for anything! She taught for her whole tapestry career and the last 15 years at Damascus she taught on a Navajo loom alongside Terry Olson. As Kiki Dembrow, a studio member, discusses in her essay excerpted below, Damascus is a supportive place for weavers of all levels to work together. Before Audrey passed, she and members of the school worked to create a not-for-profit so the school could continue after she wasn’t here any more. And that is exactly what has happened.
“But each weaver, new or experienced, received the same respect. Audrey encouraged us to think of ourselves as tapestry artists.... In this positive and supportive environment, we learned from Audrey to support and help one another.”
Audrey was a special person. I only met her once, but reading this catalog, seeing her work again, and admiring all the tapestries woven in memory of her makes me wish that I had been able to sit in her school and learn from her myself.
This is a full sized catalog which has two essays at the beginning and then reproductions of some of Audrey’s tapestries. Then there is a section of tapestries woven in her honor by Damascus weavers. I find Audrey’s work full of joy and perhaps it is to be expected that her students are also full of joy as their work clearly shows. The last section in the catalog includes head shots and bios of the weavers.
The tapestries throughout are reproduced quite large and include titles, sizes, and materials.
This publication is full of images of Audrey’s work. You can see an online exhibition on the ATA website HERE as of October 2025. Note that there is a link there to the curator’s statement with more information in PDF form.
Works by Audrey Moore
Works in memory of Audrey by Pat Price and Kiki Dembrow
I love this publication. What a wonderful tribute to an amazing teacher and artist. You can get a copy from Damascus Fiber Arts School HERE.
Do you have favorite catalogs or other printed tapestry resources you treasure? Which ones are the most useful to you?
*I was hoping to have the American Tapestry Biennial 15 catalog on this list, but I’ve had difficulty getting one even after ordering, so I’m going ahead without it!
**I’m not as thrilled about the light photograph behind the text and other photos and do wish given the size of the pages that the images could have been larger.