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Alicia Merrett MSDC

Stitched & Constructed Textiles

About Alicia
Alicia is a textile artist creating wallhangings based on the quilting tradition. Her inspiration is varied and her techniques are improvisational piecing and fused collage. Her current work is mostly about maps and aerial views. Alicia’s passions are colour, line and texture; she loves the shapes and lines offered by maps, those interpretations of our earth, and represents them using her personal colour palette, adding texture with dense quilting. Alicia exhibits world-wide, lectures and teaches workshops, works to commission, and has had work published in a number of books and magazines.
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Biography Back to top

Alicia has been stitching and working with fabric from an early age, but started quilting in the mid-1990s. She has a degree in Sociology, and studied Photography, but in her textile work she is mostly self-taught, learning what she wants from books and from attending courses with artists and teachers she admires. Her preferred technique is improvisational piecing but she also uses the techniques of fused appliqué and fabric collage.

Alicia’s maps are sometimes loosely based on historical or contemporary maps, but a lot of them are imaginary, inspired by features of real maps, interpreted by her imagination and vision. Alicia is fascinated by maps and believes they are an ancient and important part of mankind’s need to interpret and understand the world. They have a long-lasting appeal even on these days of SatNavs.

Resumé Back to top

Awards

Art Quilt Elements at the Wayne Arts Center - The Heartstring Quilters Award, 2016.

Judge’s Choice, Festival of Quilts 2010

Polly Weiss Prize for Best Use of Colour, Society of Designer Craftsmen, 2008

Innovative Small Category, Festival of Quilts, 200

Best Use of Colour, Quilters’ Guild, 2002 and 2003

Second Prize in Best of British, World Quilt and Textile, 2001

Second place in Popular Vote, Rise and Shine, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, 2001

Silver Award, Fourth Horizon, 2000

Second Place in Autumn Tints Challenge, 1999

Award in Novice Category, National Quilt Championships,1994

Membership

MSDC

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associat Juried Artist Member

Contemporary Quilters West

Viewpoints 9 International Group

Somerset Guild of Craftsmen

Comissions & Collections

Private commission - map quilt of a Devon garden – 2014

The Quilters’s Guild and Quilt Museum York – 2012 - commission to celebrate the

of the granting of its charter to York City.

The Quilt Collection, 2004

College of Pathologists, London

Numerous private collections.

Curatorial, Jurying, Committee Membership, etc

2018-onwards: Curator, SAQA Made in Europe 3.

2016-2018: Member of SAQA International Advisory Committee

2016-2017: Member of SAQA Membership Committee

2015: Juror for “Interpretations: Celebrating 30 years” at Visions Art Museum, San Diego, California

2015: Guest Curator for SAQA online gallery “Graphic Colour”

2015: Member of SAQA’s JAM review panel

2014: One of three European members of SAQA featured in a Webinar about their work.

2014: Curator, SAQA Wide Horizons IV

2014: Juror, SAQA Redirecting the Ordinary

Books Published

Mapping the Imagination - a book/catalogue about map quilts - 2014 - out of print, now available free of charge in issuu

Darling Alicia - edited by Vernee Samuel - 2009

Quilts featured in a number of books, from 2000-present

Several books on other craft disciplines.

Selected Magazine Publications

Fiber Art Now, Excellence in Fibers Winter Supplement, 2016

Patchwork Professional (German magazine), 2016

Machine Quilting Unlimited - 2015

Popular Patchwork Designer Showcase - 2014

SAQA Journal 2014

Pretty Patches, 2014

Klude Magazinet, 2013

Quilting Arts, 2012

Patchwork Ideen, 2012

Handwerken Zonder Grenzen, 2011

Patchwork Professional, 2011

Arte Patchwork, 2011

Quilt Italia, 2011

Magic Patch, 2010

Quilt & Zo, 2009

Norsk Quilteblad

The Quilter (in several occasions)

Popular Patchwork (in several issues)

Patchwork and Quilting magazine

Covers of magazines, books and CDs; calendars; brochures and advertising. For quilt shows and festivals, and for Bernina Sewing Machines.

Selected Exhibitions

DESIGNER CRAFTS 2018 - ‘Hand of the Maker’ – SDC exhibition at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

SOMER INSPIRATIONS – at the Wells and Mendip Museum, Wells, Somerset, 2018

DUSK TO DAWN - SAQA exhibition at the International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, November 2018.

VIEWPOINTS 9 – LIVING PLANET – exhibition at the International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, November 2018.

SEASON AFTER SEASON – SAQA exhibition, Texas Quilt Museum, 2019.

UNFOLDING STORIES III - Contemporary Quilters West exhibition at the Harbour House Gallery, Kingsbridge, Devon, and at The Festival of Quilts, Birmingham NEC – 2018.

KOREA BOJAGI FORUM - Seoul, 2018.

VIEWPOINTS 9 - ‘WORD’ - Horizons of Art Quilts 2018 - National Tainan Living Art Center, Tainan City, Taiwan.

CONCRETE AND GRASSLANDS / SAQA - Grant’s Pass Museum of Art, Oregon 2016; 9th Asia Quilt Festival, Shanghai, China, 2017; The Festival of Quilts 2018, Birmingham, UK; the Knitting and Stitching Shows, UK, 2018.

SAQA MADE IN EUROPE 1 and 2 – two exhibitions touring the US and Europe from 2016 to 2018.

HERstory – International Quilt Festival,, Houston, Texas, November 2017; touring and book, 2017 onwards.

‘TRACES REVEALED’ at Glastonbury Abbey - An exhibition of artwork in cloth, tile and clay, inspired by the Abbey. By Alicia Merrett, Kate Rattray and Hiro Takahashi. 2017/2018.

MARSHWOOD ART AWARDS 2017 - one of nine finalists in the Applied Arts category. Exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset, UK, 2017.

FINE ART QUILT MASTERS - The Festival of Quilts, NEC Birmingham, 2017.

LUXEMBOURG - exhibition in Wilwerwiltz, Luxembourg, 2017.

EXCELLENCE IN FIBERS - Exhibition at New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, 2017.

NEW QUILTING - exhibition at the Rheged Centre Gallery, Penrith, Cumbria, 2017.

VIEWPOINTS 9 - ‘WORD’ - group exhibition at the International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, USA, 2017.

a matter of time - touring textile art exhibition, through Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA, 2015 to 2017.

EARTH STORIES / SAQA - touring USA. Venues: University of Central Missouri Gallery of Art and Design, Warrensburg, Missouri, 2015; Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 2015; San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA, November 6, 2015; 2016; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, 2016; Erie Museum of Art, Erie, PA, 2017.

ART QUILT ELEMENTS - The Wayne Arts Centre, Philadelphia, USA, 2016.

MAPPING STORIES - Solo gallery at Nadelwelt Karlsruhe, Germany, 2016.

SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL - Kearsney College, Bothas Hill, KwaZuluNatal, 2016.

MAPPING STORIES – with Kathryn Chambers, at Ilminster Art Centre, Somerset, 2015.

INTERNATIONAL PATCHWORK FESTIVAL – Sitges, Spain, 2014.

FANTASTIC FIBERS - International Juried Exhibition at Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY, USA, 2015..

QUILTS=ART=QUILTS - Schweinfurth Arts Centre, Auburn, New York, USA, 2015.

20th ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION BY EPM ARTISTS - European Patchwork Meeting, Ste Marie aux Mines, Alsace, France, 2014.

AN EXHIBITION NAMED TOR – Strode Theatre and Art Gallery, Street, Somerset, 2013.

BLACK SWAN ARTS OPEN EXHIBITION - Frome, Somerset, 2013 and 2015.

RADIATION – exhibition at the International Conference Centre, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014; at the European Patchwork Meeting, Alsace, France, 2014, and touring in Germany, 2015/2016.

EUROPEAN QUILT TRIENNIAL - Heidelberg, Germany, and touring, 2012-2013.

acCent! - British Art Quilts, American Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky, 2012.

THROUGH OUR HANDS – Leamington Spa Museum and Art Gallery, Warwickshire, 2012.

COLOUR CONNECTIONS - The Bishop’s Palace, Wells, Somerset, with glass artist Nina Gronw-Lewis, 2012.

BOJAGI AND BEYOND - Museum of Crafts and Folk Art, San Francisco, California, USA, 2011.

INTERPRETATIONS 2011 - Vision Arts Museum, San Diego, California, USA.

MAPPING CONNECTIONS - European Patchwork Meeting, Ste Marie aux Mines, Alsace, France, 2011.

PRAGUE PATCHWORK MEETING – Czech Republic, 2011.

ELEMENTAL RAINBOW – Birdwood House Gallery, Totnes, Devon, 2012.

MAPPING THE FUTURE – The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre, Taunton, Somerset, 2011.

THE VIEW FROM HERE – ColourFX Textile Art, The Framers’ Gallery, London, 2011 and touring.

SOUTH WEST TEXTILES AT THE CHAPEL - St Ives, Cornwall, 2010.

INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE EXHIBITION, Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL QUILTING SALON - Museo Romulo Raggio, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009.

TOKYO INTERNATIONAL GREAT QUILT EXHIBITION – Japan, 2006.

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