Shelley’s passion for tapestry weaving began as a young student abroad. A weekend visit to Musée national du Moyen Âge Cluny in Paris changed the course of her life when she encountered the Unicorn tapestries, woven between 1495-1505. After that chance encounter, Shelley went on to study with Gobelin tapestry masters in France and Jacquard weavers in Italy before earning an MFA in textiles. Today Shelley’s practice engages both ancient haptic and contemporary digital methods of tapestry production.
Her current work is rooted in philosophies of Shintoism, exploring ideas of impermancene, transformation, and the interconnectedness of the animate to the inanimate. The ritual, rhythmic process of weaving and the networks created through the interlacement of systems offer up a language of thread connecting past, present, and future, reminding us of our place within larger systems.
Shelley’s work has been exhibited at venues including FOFA Gallery Millieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, Concordia in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester; Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids; Praxis Gallery, Cleveland; Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt, Nashville; Bellevue Art Museum, Seattle; San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose. Recent residencies include the Civita Institute, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy and The Jacquard Center, North Carolina; with fellowships awarded from the Oregon Arts Commission National Endowment for the Arts, the Astra Zarina Fellowship of Seattle, and the Chenven Foundation of New York. Her work can be found in public collections and publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Taiwan, and Italy.
Currently the President/ Director at Large of American Tapestry Alliance, a non-profit international organization with membership spanning 28 countries, Socolofsky lives and works in Portland, Oregon where she is on the faculty at Portland State University in the School of Art + Design.
Join tapestry artist Shelley Socolofsky for La Romita’s first workshop in the fiber arts! You will begin your workshop by sourcing local plants and sheep’s wool from the Umbrian landscape, then dye the wool using the very recipes dating back to the 10th century. The natural dyeing of wool and linen during Medieval Europe regularly […]
As La Romita School caters to multiple levels of instruction and various forms of the arts, prices will vary by session, season, instructor, and offerings.
