Janis Kanter (American, b. 1959), Second City Traffic Syndrome

1993, handwoven fiber tapestry with neon, mounted on wood panel shadowbox with acrylic panels and buttons, includes engraved title plaque and Fiberarts Magazine article featuring the artist and this artwork.

53 1/2 x 47 x 5 in.

The Contemporary Art Collection of Francine & Benson Pilloff, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Published in Fiberarts Magazine, Janis Kanter: Combining Cool Neon with Warm Textiles, March-April 1994, pg. 18.

Janis Kanter is a textile artist living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Her work is represented by McCormick Gallery located in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago.

As a child Janis Kanter spent hours cutting and pasting paper collages of pictures and text. She had ideas and opinions that realized a physical outlet in her artistic efforts. Five decades later her ideas and opinions are still flowing and her studio practice has evolved in size, sophistication and reach, but the critical eye she put on the world as a child hasn’t really changed.

Kanter started out as a photographer and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Maryland. After apprenticing in Maryland with weaver Suzanne Hubbard on the loom in 1987, Kanter was hooked on this newfound artist medium. Now, her ideas are made material through the tat-tat-tating of her sewing needle as she creates bold narratives of fascinating and often unlikely scenarios. Kanter sews her heart and soul into these amazing artworks. Searching high and low, she sources interesting and unusual fabrics and, collaging them together, constructs humorous landscapes, both familiar and unexpected. She coyly invites the viewer to explore a multi-layered universe of oddly incongruent components—a world both light-hearted and serious. She believes in the textile medium, and sees it as offering the most welcoming portal for one to visit. No RSVP required!

Overall good condition; neon operational at time of evaluation.