Photos of the artist at work during her 2022 residency at the 18th Street Arts Center. Photo credit: Tony Pinto.
Bio
Amy Ahlstrom is a textile artist creating conceptual pop art quilts from cotton and silk. She began hand-sewing at five, machine sewing at ten, and sewed her own clothes in her teenage years. After graduating with a BFA in Fiber Arts from Northern Illinois University, she continued her studies, earning a Master of Fine Arts in Fiber from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ahlstrom has quilts in the permanent collections of Google, Capital One and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and has exhibited at the de Young Museum, Modern Eden, Sylvia White Gallery, Pro Arts, Root Division and the StARTup Art Fair. Her pop-art style is influenced by her experience with silkscreening and her background as a graphic designer and comic book illustrator. Ahlstrom has been nominated for the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award from the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art and for the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship. In 2016, she was the inaugural artist for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles Artist In Residency (AIR) program, and in 2020 her work was selected for exhibition in the first de Young Open. Ahlstrom is a former co-chair for the ArtSpan Open Studios Committee and served as a member of the Exhibitions Committee for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.
Statement
I am a textile artist creating modern, conceptual pop-art quilts. The common thread in my quilts is often text; I utilize words to convey meaning and as visual elements. My background as a graphic designer and illustrator informs my process; I design my work digitally, then make patterns and cut images to create appliquéd quilts. They are fused together and quilted using hand-guided machine quilting; I “draw” on the quilt with thread, guiding the quilt under the needle. My first quilts featured collaged images of cities; I remixed images from my street photography to design urban landscapes both real and imagined. My most recent body of work, All Or Nothing, honestly addresses mental health while celebrating creativity and resilience. I created visual representations of my personal experience with anxiety and depression in hopes that viewers with mental health conditions would feel validated. I wanted to create a space in which mental health could be discussed openly, free from stigma and judgment. Depression and anxiety rates increased greatly during the global pandemic, and there is an urgent need for societal acceptance and equitable access to affordable treatment. Mental health is health. It is part of us, but it does not define us. Currently, I’m working on a solo show about artists’ personal experiences during the initial period of the global pandemic. The exhibition will include quilted portraits of the artists and installations featuring their stories, and a larger, interactive wall quilt. With my work, I hope to challenge the idea of what a quilt can be, and to inspire the viewer to contemplate the deeper meaning I am conveying through cotton and silk.
CV
Education
Master of Arts in Fiber, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Bachelor of Arts in Fiber, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL.
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
All or Nothing
The Drawing Room, San Francisco, CA.
August 7-27, 2021
Not Bad: Amy Ahlstrom and Margaret Timbrell
Ampersand International Arts
San Francisco, CA.
October 4-26, 2018
Space_Invaders: Modern Urban Quilts by Amy Ahlstrom
Hotel Biron
San Francisco, CA.
June 22-August 7, 2017
Decade: Ten Years of Urban Quilts
Solo exhibition as Artist in Residence
The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose, CA.
October 7-November 19, 2016
The Mission And Beyond: Urban Quilts by Amy Ahlstrom
The Pretty Pretty Collective, San Francisco, CA.
June 13-August 14, 2015
Selected Group Exhibitions
FourSquared 2022
Arc Gallery & Studios, San Francisco, CA.
August 27-October 1, 2022
45th Anniversary Exhibition: New Directions
The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose, CA.
February 9-September 25, 2022
Skate
Mirus Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
January 14-February 27, 2022
Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition 2021
Curated by Christine Koppes, Curator and Director of Public Programs,
Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA. April 9–May 16, 2021
48 Pillars 2021
Arc Gallery & Studios, San Francisco, CA.
February 27-April 3, 2021
Discolandia
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
December 1, 2020-February 14, 2021
The de Young Open Exhibition
DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA.
October 10, 2020-January 3, 2021
Sanchez Art Center Annual 50/50 Show, Curated by Patricia Sweetow
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA.
September 18-October 11, 2020
New Growth
Modern Eden Gallery
San Francisco, CA.
March 7–April 2, 2020
Resolution
Palette Gallery
San Francisco, CA.
December 20, 2019–February 28, 2020
Microcosm
Modern Eden Gallery
San Francisco, CA.
October 12–November 1, 2019
Language And Letters, Curated by Rhiannon MacFadyen
San Francisco Women Artists SFWA Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
September 10th – October 5th, 2019
F213: Juried group exhibit by the Northern California Women’s Caucus For Art
Arc Gallery & Studios, San Francisco, CA.
April 13-May 11, 2019
Interplay: Craft, Art and Design
South Bay Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA.
November 10-December 22, 2018
Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition 2018
Curated by Claudia Schmuckli, The Fine Arts Museums Contemporary Curator
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA.
April 13–May 20, 2018
Loved To Death
Modern Eden Gallery
San Francisco, CA.
October 6–28, 2017
Flower Child
Modern Eden Gallery
San Francisco, CA.
August 12–September 2, 2017
On The Tilt
Wonderland SF, San Francisco, CA.
November 20, 2015
ArtSpan’s Selections 2015
SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA.
January 23-25 2015
6th Annual Summer Juried Show Part II
Sylvia White Gallery, Ventura, CA.
September 21-October 19 2013
Character Profile
Root Division, San Francisco, CA.
July 10-July 27 2013
Dis/Order: Pro Arts Juried Annual 2013
Selections by Naomi Beckwith, Curator at MCA Chicago, IL.
Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA.
December 7, 2012-January 11 2013
Selected Permanent Collections
Capital One National Art Collection at the San Francisco Digital Lab
101 Post St, 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
Google San Francisco
345 Spear St, San Francisco, CA. 94105
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
520 S. 1st Street, San Jose, CA. 95113
Selected Awards and Nominations
Fleishhacker Foundation Nominee, 2017-2019 Eureka Fellowship
Juror’s Choice Award, SF Open Studios Exhibition at SomArts, October 2016
Selected by Maria Jenson, Executive Director, SomArts
Artist in Residence, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, 3 month residency and two exhibitions.
October-December 2016
2010 Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award Nominee, San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art