March 10 - May 31, 2018
 
Fielding Connections transformed the gallery at ISP into a community space for art making and educational opportunities exploring the biodiversity of our local region through fiber arts and fiber systems education.

Artist Matt Katsaros organized a series of events and projects in collaboration with fifteen other participating Bay Area artists, designers, and educators. Inspired by his background as a fiber artist and natural dyer, these events demonstrated techniques used in his work and also drew connections between his artistic practice and its related pursuits. In addition to programmed workshops, talks, classes, and collaborative projects, a series of pamphlets, maps, and other printed educational materials were available for pickup outside the gallery throughout Matt’s project.

An opening reception was held Saturday, March 10th from 11 - 3 pm and featured a collaborative weaving project by artist Travis Meinholf. Other scheduled events, most of which were free to the public, included dye classes, community clothes mending, plein air drawing, experimental tapestry weaving, sewing instruction and more.

Fielding Connections was supported by funding from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and was included in the INTERSECT SF Series, funded by San Francisco Grants for the Arts and Intersection for the Arts.

Matt Katsaros is a multi-disciplinary artist based in the Outer Sunset district in San Francisco. His process-based artworks center around natural dyes and textiles sourced from his immediate environment, frequently made on an entirely local scale. He works in partnership with Fiber Shed, an organization dedicated to developing regional fiber systems that build soil and reduce pollution caused by synthetic textile manufacturing and dye processes. His work has been included in exhibitions at venues including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The Perish Trust, and Mollusk. In addition to his fine art practice, he is the founder of Flint Outdoors.