Elena Stamberg at home | Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

ELLYN WEISS

Home

GessoHead - Blog

Elena Stamberg at home

October 5, 2009

house as artwork

Elena

I recently visited Elena Stamberg’s studio in Barnesville because I am curating her October solo show at Studio Gallery in Dupont Circle, and it was a treat. Her home and studio are in the Maryland countryside, out past where the townhouses and strip malls squat. The long driveway, unmarred by a house number, goes around a wide bend to reveal a collection of living and deceased automobiles, including some of the best of Detroit muscle cars, several old Cadillacs, a vintage pickup and much more scattered around several outbuildings. You then approach a building that looks kind of like a gingerbread house with several levels and winding staircases. I parked my car and looked uncertainly for a front door. Probably seeing my befuddlement, Elena came out after a few minutes and led me up some stairs and in.

one of Elena's stories in fabric

And what a place! The house, virtually handbuilt by Elena and her husband some 30 or so years ago from part of a large dairy barn, contains a lifetime of aged and lifeworn objects collected by the Stambergs (the cars are her husband’s project). The house is both a work of art and a repository for the makings of thousands of works of art.

Madonnaa in progress

Elena has up to now worked primarily in fabrics, fashioning highly complex "naive" narratives in combinations of stitchery, embroidery and quilting. In her current work, she takes it a considerable step further, combining work in fiber, rope and wire with figural elements. I will not say more about it because the work was not finished at the time of my visit and I want to leave it to Elena in the first instance to speak to her intent.
The show, titled “Madonnas Assembled” opens November 6 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R. ST NW, Washington.

< Prev		Next >