Each piece is an intricate world which the viewer almost feels she can walk into. Epic in scale, intimate in detail, the tapestries of award winning fiber artist Sola Fiedler are wondrous works of art. ART Santa Fe is pleased to welcome Canadian fiber artist Sola Fiedler to this year’s fair.

Born in Britain in 1936 and raised in London during and just following World War II, Fiedler grew up surrounded by the importance of reusing and recycling materials for use in everyday life. This ethos found its way into her art. The tapestries she creates are all constructed of yarns and materials which were found in thrift stores and estate sales. In 1973, Fiedler was awarded the prize for Best Fiber Artist in Vancouver, Canada which prompted her artistic career to take off. Her work began to appear in notable corporate and private collections. Over the next two decades, Fiedler traveled widely (as far off as Sydney, Australia), weaving in public and on location.

Although Fiedler creates brilliantly colored abstract works (both large and small) she is best known for her large-scale cityscapes, honoring sites which have hosted the Olympic Games (such as Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and Sydney). Her landscapes and cityscapes require immersion in the location, with multiple visits to sites all across the city (including high up on the tops of sky scrapers) to be able to create the detail and accuracy which makes these works so mesmerizing. With their subtle textures and varieties of thread, each building, street, tree, and mountain comes to life.

ART Santa Fe is thrilled that Fiedler will be bringing two of her large landscapes with her: Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. In 2002, Fiedler was in Salt Lake City during the Winter Olympic Games to create her seven foot by ten foot tapestry. The piece gives a view from about 15,000 feet in the air of the snow-covered Wasatch Mountain Range and the city and lakes. Each mountain is intricately re-created—showing the geologic folds and traces of ancient glaciers.

The seven and a half by eleven foot Las Vegas shows a nighttime view of the frenetic city. The famous strip dominates the foreground and the Spring Mountains loom beyond the bright grid of the city in the background. Fiedler spent months working near the Hard Rock Hotel, making pilgrimages to parking structures and the tops of buildings to achieve her accurate portrayal of the buildings and attractions of the Las Vegas Strip. With glittering metallic threads woven in, this portrait immortalizes a moment in the ever-changing cityscape of Las Vegas.

Sola Fiedler’s monumental tapestries promise to add scope and texture to this year’s ART Santa Fe. The tapestries will be on view from 9-12 July as part of the ART Santa Fe fair.


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