American conceptual artist Michael C. Thorpe’s approach to art-making uniquely redefines the traditional practices of both quilt-making and assemblage art. Collectively, the body of work illustrates the range of his practice and process over the past three years; and, represents the trajectory of his emerging vision as a process-based artist. 

Thorpe’s work challenges our expectations or traditional understanding of the quilt as a functional object. These quilts are constructed and presented as fine art objects, and demonstrative of his working practice focused on process, not usability. His use of color and interrelated forms speak to specific messages, but not those associated with the intention and meaning of conventional quilts. Traditional quilting documents marriages, births, and coming-of-age celebrations which are constructed primarily of patterning.

Thorpe was raised in a family of prolific and skilled quilt makers who mentored and trained him throughout his life. Rather than abandon this medium in favor of a fine art material, he embraces it. A key element distinguishing Thorpe from his predecessors (and his family) is his choice of materials and how he addresses subject matter. His unique style is one that is derived from his formal training in photojournalism and selection of medium – quilting cotton and thread. Experimenting with the flatness of the quilt material and documentary subject matter, his figurative work recalls the painting techniques of Henri Matisse, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence. Thorpe is an avid consumer of knowledge, art history and contemporary culture, and finds inspiration in the lives and work practices of other conceptual artists such as Bruce Nauman, Ed Rucha, and especially the late German artist Martin Kippenberger.

As a process-based artist, his subject highlights the way a work unfolds. Using a large format, manually-operated sewing machine, multicolored threads outline cross over - moving in and around forms. Within his process, there are identifiable genres that are revealed: still life, assemblage, portraiture and text. He is not bound to a series of related subject matter nor style, but rather works simultaneously on multiple pieces at a time. His figurative and still life pieces function as a snapshot might, the text art are relics or his daily muses – art history books, poetry, vintage magazines. Abstractions are expressions, and through an irregular application of cotton swatches to the backing material, Thorpe intentionally disregards the planned patterning and straight lines of a traditional quilt-making process; they are expressive and function as a wide brushstroke might paint a canvas.

Thorpe sees possibility in the evolution of his practice and in advance of sewing, he sketches an intended direction. But once his work begins, the piece takes on a life of its own, ultimately fulfilling its maker’s desire for experimentation, active learning and progress. Like an abstract painter pushing the boundaries of a canvas, Thorpe’s expressive gestures in cotton swatches surpass the implied flat quality of a quilt; texture and movement of forms, unstructured layering and overlapping and adjusting the backing material serve as a means of expression and chance.

It is the means to the end, not the final product that drives his passion to work. Completed pieces are the product of Thorpe’s eagerness to work, and begin again. He is consigned to the result. For Thorpe, practice makes perfect. 

Beckler Family Gallery

Michael C. Thorpe describes himself as a painter working in fabric and thread with a foundation of drawing (which he views as the evolved practice of mark-making akin to the stitches of quilt making). 

Thorpe challenges himself to work with every mark he makes – “no erasing, no regrets,” he says. His compositions are born of long-term projects in which Thorpe is engaged – quilted paintings and works on paper that explore his surroundings, abstraction, letters and words as subjects; sculptural constructions created by combining found objects and quilting debris; and performance pieces emerging from the dedication to an idea. The result is a figurative and conceptual art that is as ingenious as it is uniquely contemporary. Thorpe tells stories about his world in works composed with colorful geometric fabric shapes and textures made of stitched lines. Thorpe’s painterly quilts transport us into the richly diverse community he inhabits and endeavor to prompt a dialogue between people from all walks of life. In his art, Thorpe presents communities that live together harmoniously and with a generosity of spirit.