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Chris Roberts-Antieau

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The Early Years

Chris Roberts-Antieau began her career in art by walking out of an art class.

On her very first day in art-school, the instructor had given the class an assignment to draw an ink bottle. The other students drew literal, realistic sketches. Chris drew a blocky, childlike bottle that took up the whole page. The professor singled it out for mockery in front of the whole class, asking her, “Who told you you could draw?” Chris walked out and never looked back.

Marriage and the birth of her son, Noah, put her art on hold for a few years. But when Noah was old enough to hold a crayon, the two of them began to draw together. Chris found herself fascinated by the raw childlike vision she saw in her son’s drawings, and it wasn’t long before she herself was ‘back at the drawing board,’ creating fanciful cloth sculptures for regional art shows. Her first sale: a trapeze artist, which took her two days to make, and sold for $18.

Barely a year later, a visiting artist ran across Chris’s work and suggested that she take a crack at creating designs for the then-hopping wearable art market. Chris took her up on it, creating 2 jackets and 3 vests, which the two took to Baltimore, for the American Craft Enterprises event—Chris’s first show ever outside her home state of Michigan.

The response was overwhelming. Buyers crowded a dozen deep around the makeshift booth, elbowing each other for place. When the smoke cleared, Chris had hundreds of orders from stores across the country—including Neiman Marcus.

She returned home, hired a staff of fifteen, and set out to meet her commitments—doing the complicated and time-consuming detailing on each garment herself.

"I’m An Artist"

At the end of that year, Chris had a thriving business, but she was miserable. She wanted to be an artist, not a manufacturer. Wearable art took up an enormous amount of time in management and production. And it wasn’t like other fine art: people didn’t just care about the design--they wanted it to match their new shoes, or favorite sweater, too.

So despite her remarkable success, Chris left the wearable art world and spent the next year exploring other options from her Ann Arbor studio. Again, it was a chance comment from a friend that set her on a new track. Chris had been struggling to find a medium, torn between her roots in sculptural objects, and the freedom she’d found in her flat designs for wearable art. “It doesn’t have to be on a jacket to be flat,” her friend suggested. “Why don’t you make something to hang on a wall?”

Fabric Paintings

The next year, Chris returned to Baltimore’s American Craft Enterprises show with the pieces that have now become her hallmark: “fabric paintings” composed from freehand-cut cloth shapes, hung behind glass in hand-painted frames. Response to these unique pieces was strongly positive as well. Today, a dozen years later, the best art galleries across the country offer her work, which has also won major awards at the prestigious Ann Arbor and St. Louis Art Fairs, and the attention of HGTV, O the Oprah Magazine and Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion Magazine.

True to her roots, Chris’s gaze is still distinctly child-inspired. Her compositions have the delightfully off-kilter feeling of children’s drawings, and the subjects sometimes seem to be a child’s choosing as well: “Playing With Dolls”, “Bad Dog”, or “Bug Jar”. But like her better-known inspirations, Picasso, Miro, and Van Gogh, Chris takes the honesty, freedom, and new perspective of children’s art to a new level. She doesn’t just mimic a child’s style—she applies a child’s eye to adult realities, reminding viewers not to take themselves too seriously, and giving them a chance to remember again the wonder and joy that children find in the everyday.

“People always want to know what my work is about,” Chris says. “But I’m an artist, not a writer. If I could put it into words, then I wouldn’t have to make the pictures.” Everyone who sees her art brings something different to it, she believes, and she’s happy with that.

But while the meaning of a given piece may not be clear-cut, Chris does have some sense of what she’s trying to get across. “My vision of the world is joy-based,” she says. “Even when awful things happen to me, I’ve found wonderful things along the way. That’s what my art is about: the joy and wonder and humor that’s all around us, every day.”

Artist Statement

I’m not sure I really chose to be an artist—I feel more like art chose me. My earliest memories are filled with art: sitting on the living room floor, drawing horses and copying fashion illustrations, or sketching the landscape from the backseat of my father’s car. I’ve always seen the world in pictures, and I’ve always communicated best through images—I think I’ve always been an artist.

I could name influences like Miro and Van Gogh, but in reality, I think I’ve been most inspired by things closer to home—the drawings my son Noah did as a child, the playful and profound tradition of American folk art, and the laughter and wonder of simple “everyday” joys: favorite pets, good wine, close family, great friends.

Often, when people are moved by one of my pieces, they’ll ask me what it means. I like to tell them that it means whatever they see, and I really enjoy it when people take the time to tell me what a piece means to them. It gives me a chance to see my work from a whole new angle.

But while my pieces don’t have any rigid “meanings”, I do hope they express a deep feeling of joy. My parents always taught me that anything is possible, and I’ve seen that come true: I’ve been able to follow my calling, I love what I do, and I’m humbled by the many blessings in my life.

From Then Until Now

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED SHOWS

SELECTED GALLERIES

COLLECTIONS

GRANTS

AFFILIATIONS

PUBLICATIONS

SELECTED HONORS

Sew Far Chris Roberts-Antieau 20 Year Retrospective Book

Oprah Winfrey has discovered an American treasure: Michigan born self-taught artist Chris Roberts-Antieau. In the summer of 2000, Oprah happened upon a little unknown gallery near her home in New Buffalo, Michigan. She came across a series of colorful and sophisticated framed fabric appliqués that immediately resonated with her. From this chance encounter Ms. Winfrey began collecting the work of this little known artist. In the years that followed a true rags to riches story unfolded, and Chris Roberts-Antieau is now one of the foremost fabric artists in America today.

CRA publishing proudly presents Sew Far – Chris Roberts-Antieau: A Twenty Year Retrospective. Sew Far is a sumptuous and colorful first monograph on Chris Roberts-Antieau’s striking hand-stitched appliqués. Vivid, humorous, and sometimes autobiographical, Chris’s work draws heavily from her unique take on pop culture and universal themes. Like her better-known inspirations, Picasso, Miro, and Van Gogh, Roberts-Antieau takes the honesty, freedom, and new perspective of naive art to a new level.

Celebrating this singular visionary, CRA Publishing is thrilled to offer Sew Far as a limited edition boxed set, signed by Chris Roberts-Antieau, each with a original hand stitched framed appliqué created by the artist. Beautifully designed, this impressive large format title includes insightful interviews with Roberts-Antieau, offering rare insight into the mind of a brilliant artist.

English 184 pages 10.5” x 10.5” in decorative keepsake box $550 Includes: limited edition framed fiber appliqué Design: Design Ranch Kansas City, MO Photography: Danny Kline

Roberts-Antieau is as prolific as she is busy, this fall begins with the debut of Sew Far, as well as two museum exhibitions, three international shows, the launch of Chris’s new online gallery store, and the trailer premier of her feature length documentary; A love letter to Tom Waits. Adding to excitement, Chris has been nominated by Governor Jennifer Granholm for the Lifetime Achievement Award in Chris’s home state of Michigan.

Chris Roberts-Antieau’s work has been featured in many museums, galleries, and shows. Over the years her work has been collected by many: The White House, Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Varenne, John Waters, Lyle Lovett, Senator Sam Nunn, and The Boxing Hall of Fame. Roberts-Antieau’s was thrilled be chosen by Rebecca Hoffberger to exhibit at Baltimore’s prestigious American Visionary Art Museum as a part of the permanent collection as well as the current show; The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy. Recently Chris’s work was chosen to show alongside artists such as Basquiat at the acclaimed 21 C museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Smithsonian Institute included her in the small group of top-level contemporary artists featured in their highly competitive Smithsonian Craft Show. She has recently had her work shown at the Bridge Art Fair in London, Art Chicago, and the Basel Show in Miami. Three European shows are scheduled for 2008, including the highly regarded Paris Slick Show and London Scope Show (concurrent with the release of Sew Far). Dozens of galleries across the country, from Mark Milliken Gallery in New York City, to Twist in Portland, Oregon, exhibit her art. Taking the display of her work in an exciting new direction, Chris will launch her much-anticipated online gallery the Chris Roberts-Antieau Store this month.

Chris Roberts-Antieau is self taught and proud to be considered an “outsider artist”. Chris and her work have graced the pages of countless print features, including O, the Oprah Magazine. Her self-designed Ann Arbor-area home and studio were featured on HGTV. A feature length documentary of Chris’s life, career and book Sew Far; Titled Chris Roberts-Antieau: A Love Letter to Tom Waits is currently in production. The release date is summer of 2010.

The Life of Chris Roberts-Antieau A Love Letter to Tom Waits

For media related inquires, please contact Angela Brookbank at [email protected] or [email protected]. Review copies of Sew Far and more information are available at www.chrisroberts-antieau.com.

Current Shows

   RWD. "Bookmark: sew far." Nylon Magazine Mar, 2009.