Press Release

NEW ORLEANS - Heriard-Cimino Gallery presents “Tickle: New Works” by Shawne Major. The exhibition will be on view from May 1 through May 31, 2010. An opening reception to meet the artist will be held Saturday, May 1st from 6 to 8 p.m. The public is invited. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 5, or by appointment.

Shawne Major’s magnificent wall hangings and wedding cake sculpture are brilliant in their colors and textures, and richly layered in metaphorical and contemporary cultural references. Chains, hair curlers, horses, soldiers, ducks and dice, butterflies, fake fur, wire, rope, circuit boards, Christmas lights, metal skulls, doves, keys and chili peppers are sewn piece by piece, embedding object upon object to create masterful abstractions and American mandalas. Major, focusing her attention, creates a new context for her materials through her deconstruction of clothing. The redefined shapes and patterns allude to ancient tribal cloaks, wall hangings and animal skins. Utilizing society’s cosmic junk, she methodically sews thousands of objects together, creating an astonishing and wondrous unified whole.

Shawne Major was born in New Iberia, LA. She received her BFA from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette and her MFA from Rutgers University. She was selected along with 85 international artists to exhibit her tapestries in the Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial, Oct. 2008-Jan. 2009. Major’s work can be found at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, and the Paul and Lulu Hilliard Museum of Art in Lafayette. Her work has been shown in New Orleans, New York, Washington D.C., the Textile Arts Center in Chicago, and the West Coast. Shawne Major lives and works in Louisiana.