Bathers Library Summer Symposium: Artist Talk with Susie Taylor
2300 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
August 21, 2025
When it comes to visual art, pure form is something I’m irresistibly attracted to. I love the intentionality and intellectual considerations behind pieces that present not only an abstract idea, but the precision and care in realizing those concepts into formal shape. So when I heard that fabric artist Susie Taylor was giving a talk as part of the Bathers Library Summer Symposium at Johansson Projects, I jumped at the chance to hear her discuss her work and process. And I was surprised at the number of people who also showed up: a good two dozen or more attendees who leaned against the gallery’s archway portals or sat on its floor. The audience was engaged and asked good, often technical, questions. Who knew formal fabric art was so popular?
Standing in front of a Miguel Arzabe piece—“Untitled weave (Autumn)”—Taylor asked, “Does anyone know what the primary colors are?” No one raised their hand, although it was clear most everyone there knew the answer. Was this some sort of trick question? Finally someone piped-up and Ms. Taylor went on to talk about color complementarity in general, and in terms of her own work. It seemed a good intro into a talk that was filled with a lot of esoteric jargon on weaving techniques and methods I didn’t always understand (though it seemed many attendees did, most likely artists in their own right). But Taylor’s professorial, lecture-like approach to speaking on what informs her work was fascinating. “I’m nerdy about weave structure,” Taylor remarked at one point. But obsessiveness about geometric form requires such nerdiness.
Once a Bay Area resident, Taylor now makes her home in Rochester, New York. Her fascination with formal shape began at 5 years of age when Taylor’s father arranged for a man to come to their house as part of a cultural exchange program. He taught her paper folding, something she revisited with her own children. Her work evolved, and origami art remained an inspiration and practice she often returns to. Bauhaus was a major influence on her, as well as Black Mountain College. “The weaving from the Bauhaus flowed through into Black Mountain College,” she remarked. Artists who use optical illusion—trompe-l'œil—are also sources of inspiration.
One of Taylor’s six pieces on exhibit at Johansson Projects (she’s represented by the gallery), “Impression Study Green,” is a beautiful hand-dyed linen weaving that demonstrates Taylor’s understanding of form and color theory. Finely and tightly woven, it possesses an exquisite depth where orange and blue become green with hints of red and purple; the geometric shapes give it an almost three-dimensional quality. The colors blur and diffuse, unifying in one’s eye like a pointillist painting. It’s a piece whose simplicity belies its rich sophistication.
Diptychs “Phantoms” & “Pretzel” and “Zigzag Box” & “See Through Box” were my favorites, especially the latter pair, in black and white with subtle golden yellow elements. Each duo features geometric shapes that interlock with one another, almost Escher-like. They’re mesmerizingly nuanced and I spent a good deal of time examining their fastidious exactitude.
I was surprised to learn that Taylor works using a computer to design her pieces before she weaves them. “A painter paints and responds in real time,” Taylor said. “How can I realize what I’m seeing on the computer screen?” She’s “grid-minded” she says, and that the computer model serves as a guide before she works on a loom. “I’m a hardcore shaft loom weaver,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s talk was engaging and deeply interesting and left me with a much deeper appreciation of the foursquare definitude that makes her work so compelling. Non-sonic, but with a similar determinacy, weavings are almost like geometric musical scores: they hit on a subtle register—visually refined, formally entrancing, and elegant.
