Andrea Gutierrez
Andrea has been working with needle, thread, and beads for the past twenty years.
She embraces a long tradition of hand work to investigate both contemporary and historical cultural patterns from around the world. Her meticulous technique produces intricate and de-tailed forms with multi-layered meanings. In her body of work, beginning in 2020, Andrea produced a series of small pieces describing the isolation of the pandemic using the imagery of single dwellings and familiar objects. This exploration allowed her to address the changing cultural norms and shifts of the pandemic. She examined the growing perception of the now “essential” worker. Persons, who up until the pandemic were often invisible to many, were quickly highlighted for the crucial role they play in keeping society functioning. The transformation from the unseen worker to the essential worker is but one of many shifts driven by a pandemic that altered the lives of everyone. Her piece Food Bank from this series was recently included in the 61st Annual juried Competition at the Masur Museum, Monroe, Louisiana. Juried by Kerry Inman, owner of Inman Gallery in Houston, Texas.
Her newest series (The Silence Beyond Human Endeavor) of embroidered and beaded pieces of women alone, viewed as faceless figures. - a conversation about the illusions created by social media and the cultural insistence along with the constant evaluation of our worth based on being looked at and being part of another, that can define an existence from birth to death.