Although the local arts focus has been on glass this year, fiber also has a dynamic presence in the form of Fiberart International 2007, showing work from 14 countries.

The now triennial exhibition, organized by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, commands, befitting its title, an international reputation as a barometer of contemporary fiber art expression.

The jurors were Lois Moran, until recently American Craft magazine editor in chief, and artists Dorothy Caldwell, an American living in Canada, and Naomi Kobayashi of Japan.

Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Canadian artist Ingrid Bachmann's "Distant Echoes," three 98-inch-high fabric panels, is among several politically inspired works in Fiberart International 2007 at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and the Society for Contemporary Craft. Click photo for larger image. Related articles Diversity is on the agenda as artists from around the world convene for 19th Fiberart International City continues glass celebrations: 7/25/07

Ninety-three works by 94 artists offer a look at the diversity of fiber art being made today, from pieces more akin to paintings to somewhat traditional manifestations of a particular technique. Because of its size, the show is exhibited at both the Society for Contemporary Craft and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Six of the works have sold.

Each incarnation of the International has a different character -- that dependent upon current trends, variety of submissions and jurors -- and this, the 19th, appears less flashy than recent editions. But that's compensated for by several exceptional, quietly jarring pieces.

Adrienne Sloane's "Cost of War," for example, takes a moment to deliver its impact, as the viewer approaches the rows of 14 small forms tacked to the wall. They are knitted bodies, small grayish figures stretched horizontally, with sagging heads, feet and genitalia.

Larger, but again delaying impact until the last of three panels are "read," is Ingrid Bachmann's "Distant Echoes," moving from tumultuous gray clouds to bodies lying in a street.

The viewer also has to stay with Tilleke Schwarz's "Re Do" for a few sentences, but it's time well invested, as this compelling embroidered work appears to represent the struggles of a stroke survivor to regain order.

Formalism is celebrated and/or deconstructed in Mi-Kyoung Lee's egg-shaped, smile-inducing "Untitled" wall installation, comprising 5,000 rubber bands and 2,500 nails.

Rebecca Droke, Post-Gazette "Old Books on Japan," by Yasuko Fujino Click photo for larger image.

And elegance is achieved in Yvonne Wakabayashi's sculptural "Sea Anemone (Gunma Silk)," returning exhibitor Emiko Nakano's wall mounted "Ruins," and Joan Webster-Vore's "Wall of Vessels," 29 tiny white paper forms attached to branches, floating freely in air currents, almost calligraphic in aspect.

Mami Idei's "Reconstruction -- Red Space," Linda Colsh's "Rendered Anonymous" and Toot Reid's "Twenty" are abstract and tactile, inviting visitors to scroll their surfaces, discovering anew at each pass.

Carol Watkins' photo-transferred and sequined, mysterious "Lady of the Wood III"; Leslie Carabas' pieced and quilted, optically illusory "Interior"; and Dorie Millerson's poignant, needlepoint lace "attachments II" illustrate how a variety of techniques, in the right hands, can feed an inspired vision.

Three Guild members are represented, each distinguished by the interpretations they bring to their chosen modes of expression. They are Jan Myers-Newbury, who shows her command of shibori in "Urubamba"; Camilla Brent Pearce, who creates a mini-world combining rust and silk in "Rustbelt Garden"; and Akiko Kotani, whose tri-panel "Octobre en Auvillar #2" almost takes wing (her solo exhibition, "Akiko Kotani: Drawing with Silk and Graphite," is at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art).

Not everything is laudable. Because the bar has been raised so high for this exhibition, average works pale. Also, some appear to have slipped through jurying because they present well on a slide. One piece that mixes media, for example, reads OK as a two-dimensional composition but doesn't jell in actuality. Beadwork has figured prominently in fiber in recent years, but a spider with doll head appears more naive than camp.

Sometimes presentation holds a piece back, such as the chalky mannequin (and title) of Noel Palomo-Lovinski's "Bridezilla"; Kiki Revoir's ruffly "ripple" would benefit from a prop that is more undulating than the rectangle it's draped over.

Still, this is an important and edifying show. And it's a feather in Pittsburgh's cap that it originates here.

The exhibition will travel next to The Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, N.C.

"Fiberart" continues through Aug. 19 (www.fiberartinternational.org). Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 6300 Fifth Ave., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays (suggested donation $5; 412-361-0873 or www.pittsburgharts.org). The Society for Contemporary Craft, 2100 Smallman St., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (admission free; 412-261-7003 or www.contemporarycraft.org). A catalog that illustrates all works in color and provides artist information is $25.

New SCC director

The Society for Contemporary Craft has a new executive director.

Jim Wilkinson, who stepped in as interim when executive director Julie Farr left for Houston in April, officially assumed the position July 1. Wilkinson has served as the Society's board president and is co-chair of The Andy Warhol Museum board and vice-chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony board. His wife, Susanne, is a docent at Carnegie Museum of Art and at the Frick Art & Historical Center and serves on the board of the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

The Wilkinsons moved to Pittsburgh in 1974, when he began law school, and one factor that kept them here was the vibrancy of the arts, Wilkinson says. He also appreciates that arts venues are not exclusionary as they are in some cities. "One nice thing about Pittsburgh," he says, "is that if you want to get involved with the arts, you can get involved with the arts." The Wilkinsons reside in Fox Chapel.