Informed by long histories of textile production - with its orientations to pattern and decoration - Shelley Socolofsky’s work explores the material, conceptual, and poetic nuances of ‘craft’ through a hybridized practice incorporating digital and analog hand processes. Exploring intersections of materiality, folklore, and feminist vernacular, Socolofsky considers ‘weaving’ a noun, and, as such, an interlacement of opposing systems. Ultimately, her works materialize as protest banner, prayer rug, and warning signage.
Recent residencies include the Civita Institute (Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy) and the Jacquard Center (Hendersonville, North Carolina). Her work can be found in numerous public collections. Recent exhibitions include The Material Turn (Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, CA); World Tapestry Now (curated by Wlodzimierz Cygan/Strzeminkski Academy of Fine Arts, Lodz, Poland); and The Art is the Cloth (New Hampshire Institute of Art, NH; George Town New School, PA, and von Auesrsperg Gallery, Deerfield, MA). Recent online and printed features include Digital Weaving Norway, Artist Magazine of Taiwan, Interior Design Magazine, and CODA. Shelley’s longtime practice incorporates her passion for teaching with recent professorships at of Oregon College of Art & Craft, PNCA/OCAC’s Dual graduate AC&D program, and is currently on the faculty of Portland Community College’s Dual Credit Visual Arts Programming and Tigard High School’s Visual Arts International Baccalaureate faculty and Advisor.
Shelley is currently the president of the American Tapestry Alliance.