Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields

Dedicated to Sam Gilliam's late-career sewn and collaged fabric works, this publication embraces the artist's restless creativity and visionary approach to abstraction

A pioneering artist who redefined the boundaries of painting, Gilliam (1933–2022) transformed the medium with his radical approach to colour, material and space. Sewing Fields focuses on a lesser-known yet crucial period in Gilliam's later career: that of his sewn and collaged works. His residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo in 1993 reshaped his artistic practice. Far from his Washington, DC, studio, Gilliam embraced new materials, working with pre-stained fabrics that he shipped to Ireland, cutting and layering them into sculptural compositions. A collaboration with a local dressmaker further expanded his process, reinforcing his innovative fusion of painting and textile techniques. Sewing Fields brought these groundbreaking works back to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, nearly 50 years after Gilliam's first Dublin exhibition, positioning him within a broader transatlantic dialogue on abstraction.

108pp thread-sewn softcover publication with flaps, 2 fold-out pages, foil-blocking on cover and laminated with linen structure in response to the artists work with fabric.