Orly Cogan's work has been a favorite of mine since I saw one of her pieces at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York last December. The show was called "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery," and it was a wonderful collection of work done by contemporary embroidery artists. Cogan's pieces are gestural and exotic, both rare in such a traditional and conservative art form. I love her obsession with the human form and appreciate her use of vintage and found fabric. On her website her artist statement claims, "I work with vintage, printed fabrics and found embroideries made by women of previous eras. I act as a collaborator, modernizing their traditional work and altering its original purpose." The piece above is called "On Hold" and it was hand stitched and painted on a vintage napkin.
