Maggy Rozycki Hiltner

artist statement

One of my favorite activities when visiting a new city is to scour the antique shops for embroidery. I collect mainly flowers and foliage but am especially drawn to the animals that are meant to be cute but instead come off with a sinister snarkiness. There’s a sadness to antique shops, and for me, especially in the embroidery - the many hours that were devoted to stitching these now discarded treasures. I like to think that in using these found bits and pieces in my work, I’m giving them a new life, a way to be precious once more.

And I’m fascinated by how memory works. Why do some scenes and stories stick and others are only vaguely available to me? Why are some of my most recurring memories so emotionally charged while others are thoroughly mundane. I’ve found that in recreating these moments in my work, they change in how I hold them in my mind. My hope is that if the image I’ve created feels true, it will transmute for the viewer, evoke a recognition in them. Our anxieties, insecurities, joys and pains are oddly common.

‘Is it autobiography if parts of it are not true? Is it fiction if parts of it are?’---Lynda Barry

I love to create images that at first appear whimsical or vibrantly happy but on closer inspection are not quite so. Sometimes it’s a malicious undertone to the relationships, or a lack of self-control on the part of the characters, or maybe an otherworldlyness hidden in the everyday. I like how this subtext works against the comfortable and innocuous medium of fabric and stitching.

solo exhibitions

2010
Cruel Truths / Kind Lies
Toucan Gallery, Billings, MT

2009
Maggy Rozycki Hiltner: Familiar Faces
Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
See photos and work from the Familiar Faces exhibition

2008
The Seditious Stitch, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner
The Center, Hailey, ID

2007
One Way Or The Other
Steckline Gallery, Newman University, Wichita, KS

2005
Maggy Rozycki Hiltner
Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI

Sweet and Strange Narratives
Earle Wright Gallery, Cowley College, Arkansas City, KS

2004
Domestic Plastic
Friendship Gallery, McPherson College, Mcpherson, KS

Subversive Stitches
Western Illinois University Art Gallery, Macomb, IL

2003
Domestic Plastic
Steckline Gallery, Newman University, Wichita, KS

2002
Maggy Rozycki Hiltner
Trish Higgins Fine Art, Wichita, KS

2001
Nine-Patch
Clayton Staples Gallery, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS

1999
Mixed Media Textiles
The Wellness Center, Billings, MT

1998
Few, Some, Many: Stitched Imagery and Sculpture
Northwest Gallery, Powell, WY

1997
Symbols and Vestments
Westcott Community Center, Syracuse, NY

selected exhibitions

2010
By Design: Threads
Custer County Art Center, Miles City, MT
visit the Custer County Art Center exhibition website

Out of the Wild
Art Star, Philadelphia, PA
visit the Art Star exhibition website

More Than Fiber: A Creative Approach to Material
Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA
visit the Googleworks exhibition website

2009
Generously Odd: Craft Now
Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY
visit the Generously Odd exhibition website

Raised In Craftivity
Wignall Museum, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
visit the Raised in Craftivity exhibition website

It's Just Like I Never Stopped Being There
My House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

XX/4
FischHaus Studios, Wichita, KS

2008
Figuratively Speaking
Visions Art Quilt Gallery, San Diego, CA

Red Dot Art Fair (w/Tinlark Gallery)
New York, NY

Time Flies
Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2007
Traditional Skills, New Thinking
Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk, England

The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel (w/Tinlark Gallery)
Portland, OR

Raised in Craftivity
Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO

Modern Fables
Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Gender Stitchery
Carleton College Art Gallery, Northfield, MN

Sugar Buzz
Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY

Pins and Needles: Maggy Rozycki Hiltner and Melissa Haviland
Lederer Gallery, SUNY Geneseo School of the Arts, Geneseo, NY

Back to the Fifties
Heidi Cho Gallery, New York, NY

2006
Embroidered Stories/Knitted Tales
Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA

Art In Textiles/ 3 Perspectives
shack up, Bozeman, MT

Summertime
Judy Saslow Gallery, Chicago, IL

Needle Culture
Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ

New Embroidery
Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery, Portland, OR

Deconstruction and Reconstruction: The Family Experience
Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

2005
The Subversive Stitch
Reynolds Gallery, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA

Extra/ordinary: fiber artists rethinking art…
The Cube at Beco, Kansas City, MO

Surfaced
Byron C. Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO

Constants & Variables
Lynn Foundation Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2004
Cross-Stitch: Craft Redefined
The Bank/Urban Culture Project, Kansas City, MO

River Market Regional Exhibition
Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO

New Directions in Fiber
CORE New Art Space, Denver, CO

2003
Scope Miami (w/ Byron Cohen Gallery)
Miami FL

Short Stories
Byron C. Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO

Fiber Focus 2003
Art Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO

Taking Shape: 10 Artists Reveal Their Processes
Salina Art Center, Salina , KS

2002
Gone Wrong CityArts, Wichita, KS
Fiber Arts 2002 Gallery 510, Decatur, IL
Small Expressions 2002 Pendulum Gallery Vancouver, BC, Canada

2001
Kansas Artist Craftsman Invitational Delmar Riney Gallery, Pratt, KS
Director’s Show 2001 CityArts, Wichita, KS
Fiber Directions 2001 Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, KS

2000
CRAFTFORMS 2000 Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
Fiber & Textile Exhibit Crossman Gallery, UW-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI
Natürlich Trish Higgins Fine Art, Wichita, KS

1999
Small Works ACME Gallery, Wichita, KS
USA Craft Today 99 Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT

1998
Arrowmont Summer Assistants Exhibition Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
Feats of Clay XI Lincoln Arts, Lincoln, CA
Seeing Red Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
Women, Art, Change Westcott Community Center, Syracuse, NY

1997
Hunger ArtSpace/Lima Center for the Visual Arts, Lima, OH
Monarch National Ceramic Competition Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, Florence, AL

1996
Stitchery at Syracuse Central New York Embroidery Guild, Liverpool, NY
Inspired By Nature Thousand Islands Craft School, Clayton, NY
Healing Works Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
Blueroom, Installation with Jenny Kanzler and Elise Kendrot The Drawing Room, Syracuse, NY

1995
White Swelling, Installation with Jenny Kanzler The Drawing Room, Syracuse, NY
Dimension Dementia Printmaking Council Gallery Somerville, NJ

publications

2010
"Fiber artist puts new spin on homespun."
Billings Gazette, (Feb. 12)
see the original article

2009
Ashley McLean Emenegger. "Season Openers." Editors' Picks
THE magazine, (Sept.)

Stacy Davies. "Macrame Made Hip."
Inland Empire Weekly, (Feb.)
see the original article

2008
Rachel Abrahamson. "Dreamweavers, The substance of textile arts."
Boise Weekly, (April 2)
Karen Bossick. "One Way or the Other - a unique look at nostalgia."
The Wood River Journal, (Feb. 19)
Laura Caruso. "Maggy Rozycki Hiltner at The Center, Hailey."
SunValleyonline, (Feb. 15)

2007
Martha Schwendener. "Sugar Buzz."
The New York Times, (May 11)
Prudence F. Roberts. "New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma's Doily."
Selvedge, Issue 14
Bean Gilsdorf. “New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma’s Doily.”
Fiberarts, (Jan./Feb.) p 60, 61
Caitlin Fawcett. "Pins and Needles Exhibit Integrates Dual Artistic Visions."
The Lamron, (Feb. 1)
Shirley Dawson. "Exhibit Looks At Women's Traditional Roles."
Rochester Demograt and Chronicle, (Jan. 28)

2006
Robert Taylor. “Yarn art gets a modern makeover at Bedford.”
ContraCostra Times, (Sept. 28)
Natasha Boas. “Modern Landscapes.”
domino, (September) pp 66 -69
Jessica Hemmings. “Child's Play.”
Embroidery, (March/April) p 16-19

2005
Liz Good. “Under the Surface.”
Fiberarts, (Sept/Oct) p 80
Theresa Bembnister. “Fiber exhibit tackles contemporary themes.”
The Kansas City Star, (July 1)
Rebecca Braverman. “Extra/Ordinary: Fiber Artists Rethinking Art and Everyday Life.”
The Pitch, (June 9)
Cover Image. “Summer Scouts.”
F5, (April 28) p 1
Blair Shulman. “Future Stitch.”
Review, (March) p 46

2004
Theresa Bembnister and Gina Kaufman. “Cross Stitch, Craft Medium Redefined.” The Pitch, (Nov. 5)
Robin Trafton. “Midwest Visions.”
The Kansas City Star, (July 30) p 31
Jonathan Hicks. “A Stitch in Time.”
The Western Courier, (April 8)
Fiberarts Design Book 7,
Asheville, NC: Lark Books, Spring 2004
Maria Buszek. “Riddles of the Self.”
Review, (Feb.) p 57

2003
Kate Hackman. “Pop culture inspires ‘Stories’ exhibit.”
The Kansas City Star, (Dec. 12) p 21
Chris Shull. “Maid in Wichita.”
The Wichita Eagle, (Jan. 24) p 24C
Nancy Hull. “The Process of Art.”
The Salina Journal, (Jan. 17) p 1,7D

2002
Staff Writer. “Maggy Rozycki Hiltner.”
Portfolio, American Craft, (Dec./Jan.) p 62

2001
Chris Shull. “A Stitch In Time.”
The Wichita Eagle, (Feb. 4) p 8D

2000
Victoria Donohoe. “Three area venues host national exhibits.”
Philadelphia Inquirer, (Dec. 31) p 1
Marie Fowler. “CraftForms 2000 honors local artists in Wayne.”
Arcade, (Dec. 7)

1999
Michael Carmichael. “The Road to Art.”
Veranda, (May-June) p 132

1998
Staff Writer. “Fiber Art on Display in Powell.”
The Billings Gazette, (Nov. 6) p 12D

1997
1997 Sally Vallongo. “Probing Hunger Through Art.”
The Blade: Toledo, Ohio, (Nov. 5) pp 37, 39

education

1997
BFA, Cum Laude, Sculpture, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

1998
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Studio Assistant, Fibers and Textile Design, Gatlinburg, TN

2007
Anderson Ranch, Color For Clay, Michael Corney and Jodi Guralnick, Snowmass Village, CO

	artist statement One of my favorite activities when visiting a new city is to scour the antique shops for embroidery. I collect mainly flowers and foliage but am especially drawn to the animals that are meant to be cute but instead come off with a sinister snarkiness. There’s a sadness to antique shops, and for me, especially in the embroidery - the many hours that were devoted to stitching these now discarded treasures. I like to think that in using these found bits and pieces in my work, I’m giving them a new life, a way to be precious once more. And I’m fascinated by how memory works. Why do some scenes and stories stick and others are only vaguely available to me? Why are some of my most recurring memories so emotionally charged while others are thoroughly mundane. I’ve found that in recreating these moments in my work, they change in how I hold them in my mind. My hope is that if the image I’ve created feels true, it will transmute for the viewer, evoke a recognition in them. Our anxieties, insecurities, joys and pains are oddly common. ‘Is it autobiography if parts of it are not true? Is it fiction if parts of it are?’---Lynda Barry I love to create images that at first appear whimsical or vibrantly happy but on closer inspection are not quite so. Sometimes it’s a malicious undertone to the relationships, or a lack of self-control on the part of the characters, or maybe an otherworldlyness hidden in the everyday. I like how this subtext works against the comfortable and innocuous medium of fabric and stitching. solo exhibitions 2010 Cruel Truths / Kind Lies Toucan Gallery, Billings, MT 2009 Maggy Rozycki Hiltner: Familiar Faces Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA See photos and work from the Familiar Faces exhibition 2008 The Seditious Stitch, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner The Center, Hailey, ID 2007 One Way Or The Other Steckline Gallery, Newman University, Wichita, KS 2005 Maggy Rozycki Hiltner Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI Sweet and Strange Narratives Earle Wright Gallery, Cowley College, Arkansas City, KS 2004 Domestic Plastic Friendship Gallery, McPherson College, Mcpherson, KS Subversive Stitches Western Illinois University Art Gallery, Macomb, IL 2003 Domestic Plastic Steckline Gallery, Newman University, Wichita, KS 2002 Maggy Rozycki Hiltner Trish Higgins Fine Art, Wichita, KS 2001 Nine-Patch Clayton Staples Gallery, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 1999 Mixed Media Textiles The Wellness Center, Billings, MT 1998 Few, Some, Many: Stitched Imagery and Sculpture Northwest Gallery, Powell, WY 1997 Symbols and Vestments Westcott Community Center, Syracuse, NY selected exhibitions 2010 By Design: Threads Custer County Art Center, Miles City, MT visit the Custer County Art Center exhibition website Out of the Wild Art Star, Philadelphia, PA visit the Art Star exhibition website More Than Fiber: A Creative Approach to Material Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA visit the Googleworks exhibition website 2009 Generously Odd: Craft Now Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY visit the Generously Odd exhibition website Raised In Craftivity Wignall Museum, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, CA visit the Raised in Craftivity exhibition website It's Just Like I Never Stopped Being There My House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA XX/4 FischHaus Studios, Wichita, KS 2008 Figuratively Speaking Visions Art Quilt Gallery, San Diego, CA Red Dot Art Fair (w/Tinlark Gallery) New York, NY Time Flies Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2007 Traditional Skills, New Thinking Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk, England The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel (w/Tinlark Gallery) Portland, OR Raised in Craftivity Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO Modern Fables Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Gender Stitchery Carleton College Art Gallery, Northfield, MN Sugar Buzz Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY Pins and Needles: Maggy Rozycki Hiltner and Melissa Haviland Lederer Gallery, SUNY Geneseo School of the Arts, Geneseo, NY Back to the Fifties Heidi Cho Gallery, New York, NY 2006 Embroidered Stories/Knitted Tales Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA Art In Textiles/ 3 Perspectives shack up, Bozeman, MT Summertime Judy Saslow Gallery, Chicago, IL Needle Culture Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ New Embroidery Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery, Portland, OR Deconstruction and Reconstruction: The Family Experience Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 2005 The Subversive Stitch Reynolds Gallery, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA Extra/ordinary: fiber artists rethinking art… The Cube at Beco, Kansas City, MO Surfaced Byron C. Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO Constants & Variables Lynn Foundation Gallery, Kansas City, MO 2004 Cross-Stitch: Craft Redefined The Bank/Urban Culture Project, Kansas City, MO River Market Regional Exhibition Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO New Directions in Fiber CORE New Art Space, Denver, CO 2003 Scope Miami (w/ Byron Cohen Gallery) Miami FL Short Stories Byron C. Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO Fiber Focus 2003 Art Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO Taking Shape: 10 Artists Reveal Their Processes Salina Art Center, Salina , KS 2002 Gone Wrong CityArts, Wichita, KS Fiber Arts 2002 Gallery 510, Decatur, IL Small Expressions 2002 Pendulum Gallery Vancouver, BC, Canada 2001 Kansas Artist Craftsman Invitational Delmar Riney Gallery, Pratt, KS Director’s Show 2001 CityArts, Wichita, KS Fiber Directions 2001 Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, KS 2000 CRAFTFORMS 2000 Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA Fiber & Textile Exhibit Crossman Gallery, UW-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI Natürlich Trish Higgins Fine Art, Wichita, KS 1999 Small Works ACME Gallery, Wichita, KS USA Craft Today 99 Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT 1998 Arrowmont Summer Assistants Exhibition Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN Feats of Clay XI Lincoln Arts, Lincoln, CA Seeing Red Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI Women, Art, Change Westcott Community Center, Syracuse, NY 1997 Hunger ArtSpace/Lima Center for the Visual Arts, Lima, OH Monarch National Ceramic Competition Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, Florence, AL 1996 Stitchery at Syracuse Central New York Embroidery Guild, Liverpool, NY Inspired By Nature Thousand Islands Craft School, Clayton, NY Healing Works Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL Blueroom, Installation with Jenny Kanzler and Elise Kendrot The Drawing Room, Syracuse, NY 1995 White Swelling, Installation with Jenny Kanzler The Drawing Room, Syracuse, NY Dimension Dementia Printmaking Council Gallery Somerville, NJ publications 2010 "Fiber artist puts new spin on homespun." Billings Gazette, (Feb. 12) see the original article 2009 Ashley McLean Emenegger. "Season Openers." Editors' Picks THE magazine, (Sept.) Stacy Davies. "Macrame Made Hip." Inland Empire Weekly, (Feb.) see the original article 2008 Rachel Abrahamson. "Dreamweavers, The substance of textile arts." Boise Weekly, (April 2) Karen Bossick. "One Way or the Other - a unique look at nostalgia." The Wood River Journal, (Feb. 19) Laura Caruso. "Maggy Rozycki Hiltner at The Center, Hailey." SunValleyonline, (Feb. 15) 2007 Martha Schwendener. "Sugar Buzz." The New York Times, (May 11) Prudence F. Roberts. "New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma's Doily." Selvedge, Issue 14 Bean Gilsdorf. “New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma’s Doily.” Fiberarts, (Jan./Feb.) p 60, 61 Caitlin Fawcett. "Pins and Needles Exhibit Integrates Dual Artistic Visions." The Lamron, (Feb. 1) Shirley Dawson. "Exhibit Looks At Women's Traditional Roles." Rochester Demograt and Chronicle, (Jan. 28) 2006 Robert Taylor. “Yarn art gets a modern makeover at Bedford.” ContraCostra Times, (Sept. 28) Natasha Boas. “Modern Landscapes.” domino, (September) pp 66 -69 Jessica Hemmings. “Child's Play.” Embroidery, (March/April) p 16-19 2005 Liz Good. “Under the Surface.” Fiberarts, (Sept/Oct) p 80 Theresa Bembnister. “Fiber exhibit tackles contemporary themes.” The Kansas City Star, (July 1) Rebecca Braverman. “Extra/Ordinary: Fiber Artists Rethinking Art and Everyday Life.” The Pitch, (June 9) Cover Image. “Summer Scouts.” F5, (April 28) p 1 Blair Shulman. “Future Stitch.” Review, (March) p 46 2004 Theresa Bembnister and Gina Kaufman. “Cross Stitch, Craft Medium Redefined.” The Pitch, (Nov. 5) Robin Trafton. “Midwest Visions.” The Kansas City Star, (July 30) p 31 Jonathan Hicks. “A Stitch in Time.” The Western Courier, (April 8) Fiberarts Design Book 7, Asheville, NC: Lark Books, Spring 2004 Maria Buszek. “Riddles of the Self.” Review, (Feb.) p 57 2003 Kate Hackman. “Pop culture inspires ‘Stories’ exhibit.” The Kansas City Star, (Dec. 12) p 21 Chris Shull. “Maid in Wichita.” The Wichita Eagle, (Jan. 24) p 24C Nancy Hull. “The Process of Art.” The Salina Journal, (Jan. 17) p 1,7D 2002 Staff Writer. “Maggy Rozycki Hiltner.” Portfolio, American Craft, (Dec./Jan.) p 62 2001 Chris Shull. “A Stitch In Time.” The Wichita Eagle, (Feb. 4) p 8D 2000 Victoria Donohoe. “Three area venues host national exhibits.” Philadelphia Inquirer, (Dec. 31) p 1 Marie Fowler. “CraftForms 2000 honors local artists in Wayne.” Arcade, (Dec. 7) 1999 Michael Carmichael. “The Road to Art.” Veranda, (May-June) p 132 1998 Staff Writer. “Fiber Art on Display in Powell.” The Billings Gazette, (Nov. 6) p 12D 1997 1997 Sally Vallongo. “Probing Hunger Through Art.” The Blade: Toledo, Ohio, (Nov. 5) pp 37, 39 education 1997 BFA, Cum Laude, Sculpture, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 1998 Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Studio Assistant, Fibers and Textile Design, Gatlinburg, TN 2007 Anderson Ranch, Color For Clay, Michael Corney and Jodi Guralnick, Snowmass Village, CO