By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — Chelsea's bustling gallery community displays art of all varities. Now, quilting will work itself into the fabric of the neighborhood art scene.
City Quilter will expand to offer the city's first-ever gallery devoted exclusively to the art form. The ArtQuilt Gallery will open April 5 with an exhibit by New York-based artist Daphne Taylor, who grew up in the Quaker tradition.
For co-owners Dale Riehl and Cathy Izzo, who are married and longtime Chelsea residents, their goal is to counter misconceptions that quilts can't be high art.
"It's this very accessible art form, but not really seen as 'art' by the art world," said Riehl, a former television producer and consultant. "Too many people think, especially in urban centers, that it's just white, Midwestern women."
In fact, Riehl said, the biggest quilting market outside of the U.S. is in Japan, where every year, approximately 250,000 people attend a 10-day quilting convention in Tokyo. The craft is also popular in Australia, Canada and continental Europe.
At the 14-year-old City Quilter, next door to the new gallery at 133 W. 25th Street, customers (who can sign up for classes in addition to buying materials) include doctors, lawyers, investors and journalists, Riehl said.
While only a tiny number of clients are men — perhaps 2 percent — Riehl said that proportion still dwarfs the number (virtually zero) at most of the nation's quilting stores, which tend to be located outside of big city centers. Chicago has a small quilting store, but Los Angeles, Boston and Houston do not.
The City Quilter also markets to business travelers and tourist. Since quilting patterns typically go out of print within six months, Izzo and Riehl have taken to designing their own — which feature design elements including 1930s postcards of New York City and the MTA's subway map.
Over the years, Riehl himself has only stitched one quilt (the subject of his follow-up will be a tower at his alma matter, Williams College). Izzo, on the other hand, is an avid quilt maker.
But though he doesn't often participate in the craft himself, Riehl said that he is constantly impressed by both the creativity of the artists and hobbyists, as well as the intellectual challenges involved in the process.
"It forces you to do a certain amount of math… figuring out how triangles get folded is not a trivial thing," Riehl said. "I'm just always amazed at what people can do."
Daphne Taylor's show "Quilt Drawing" will run through May 28 at the ArtQuilt Gallery at 133 W. 25th St.
