Photographed by B. Handzel
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2019 Philadelphia Museum of Art, “American Art to Wear”, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2017 -2023 Tuskulenu Memorial Park, “Bride/Widow of War”, Vilnius, Lithuania
2016 Arka Gallery, “International Textile Biennial”, Vilnius, Lithuania
2014 Tek Chok Ling Monastery, “Yeshe Tsogyal, Queen of Tibet”, Kathmandu, Nepal
2009 Rockefeller Center, “Amelia’s Flight”, New York, NY
2005 Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, “Artwear – Fashion and Anti-Fashion”, San Francisco, CA
Museum of Art and Design, “Kimono Variations”, New York, NY
2000 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Made in California – Art, Image & Identity 1900-2000”, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Juile Artisans Gallery, “Gallery Artists, 25th Anniversary Exhibition”, New York, NY
1996 The Textile Museum, “The Kimono Inspiration”, Washington, D.C.
1994 Gallery Langas, “Silk in Space”, personal exhibition, Vilnius, Lithuania
Longbranch Arts Center, “Passage of Illumination”, Nassau, Bahamas
1993 California Crafts Museum, “Pacific Rim Japan”, San Francisco, CA
1992 American Craft Museum, Soviet Union and East European Tour, “Craft Today USA”, 1989-1992
1990 Gulbenkian Foundation Museum, “Traje: Um Objecto de Arte?”, Lisbon, Portugal
San Jose Art League Gallery, “Group Nine”, San Jose, CA
1989 American Craft Museum, European Tour, “Craft Today USA”, 1989-1992
School of Visual Arts Museum, “Beyond Craft”, New York, NY
The Costume Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Art Forms for the Body”, Wittenborn-Hollingsworth Productions, Los Angeles, CA
Kurland-Summers Gallery, “Art forms for the Body”, Wittenborn-Hollingsworth Productions, Los Angeles, CA
1987 Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, “Art to Wear”, Cleveland, OH Institute for Design and Experimental
Art, “Introductions”, Sacramento, CA
American Crafts Council, “Crafts at the Armory”, New York, NY
1986 American Crafts Museum, Inaugural Exhibition, “Craft Today – Poetry of the Physical”, New York, NY
DeCordova Museum/Mobilia Gallery, “Wearable Art”, Boston, MA
Bowling Green University, “Material Images”, Bowling Green, OH
1985 British Crafts Council, “American Handmade Clothing”, London, England
American Crafts Museum & USIS, All Asia Tour, “American Art to Wear”
American Institute of Architects, “California: Line on Design”, San Francisco, CA
California Crafts Museum, “Beyond Wearables”, San Francisco, CA
1984 Harbourfront Gallery, Canadian Tour, “A Sense of Occasion”, Toronto, Ontario
American Crafts Museum, USA Tour, “New Handmade Clothing”
1983 American Crafts Museum, “New Handmade Clothing”, New York, NY
Richmond Arts Center, “Wearable Art National Invitation”, Richmond, CA
1982 San Francisco International Airport, “Airborne Art”, San Francisco, CA
American Craft Museum, “Pattern”, New York, NY
Holsten Gallery, “Craft”, Palm Beach, FL
1981 Textilkunst Rasmussen Gallery, “Art Clothing”, Berlin, West Germany
1980 Fashion Institute of Technology, “Surgace Design ‘80”, New York, NY
Kohler Museum, “Maximum Coverage”, Sheboyge, WI
1979 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “Art for Wearing”, San Francisco, CA
Meyer, Breier, and Weiss Gallery, “Wearable Art IV”, San Francisco, CA
1978 Fiberworks, “Fabrications”, Berkeley, CA
San Jose State University, “Six West Coast Craftsmen”, San Jose, CA
1977 American Crafts Museum, “The Dyer’s Art”, New York, NY
MAJOR INSTALLATIONS
Bride/Widow of War, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2017-2023
Tuskulenu Memorial Park, honoring victims of a brutal Soviet occupation.
Yeshe Tsogyal, Queen of Tibet, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2014
TCL Monastery, an operatic performance and art installation celebrating the arrival of Buddhism to Tibet, was created in collaboration with Watermoon Arts.
Amelia’s Flight, New York, NY 2009
Rockefeller Center, Top of the Rock Observation Deck, an art installation and musical performance in tribute to Amelia Erhart’s life and passion, created in collaboration with Patricia Burgess.
Genocide, Kaunas, Lithuania, 1995
St. Michael’s Cathedral, a commemorative event and art installation honoring the Lithuania victims of the Soviet genocide, is a multi-media project created and produced in collaboration with V, Zamalyte, and R. Mikutavicius of Lithuania.
Passage of Illumination, Huahine, French Polynesia, 1992
Hotel Hana lti. A series of 15 backlit paintings designed as fabric window sections, produced in association with R. Lovdal / CaribConsult.
Fanfare, Dallas, Texas, 1985
Interfirst Plaza, an installation of 10 suspended sculptures, painted fabric and stainless steel, in a 4-story atrium, commissioned by Bramalea Ltd.
Racing Dragons, Atlanta, Georgia, 1984
Landmark Concourse, a suspended, tension sculpture of an 8-story atrium, commissioned by The Landmarks Group.
Tropical Dancers, Tampa, Florida 1983
Spectrum Building, 18 suspended, painted fabric sculptures, in a 4-story atrium, commissioned by The Landmark Group
Trys Motinos, Orlando, Florida, 1983
Landmark Center, 3 suspended, painted fabric sculptures in a 6-story atrium, commissioned by The Landmarks Group.
Seven Sisters, Atlanta, Georgia, 1982
Ashford-Green Building, 7 suspended, painted fabric sculptures in a 6-story atrium, commissioned by The Hartford Corporation.
BOOKS
Artwear, Fashion and Anti-fashion, Melissa Leventon,
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 2005
Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity 1900-2000,
University of California Press, Los Angeles, CA, 2000
Some O Manabu,
Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, Japan, 1998
The Kimono Inspiration,
The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., 1996
Silk Painting, Susan Moyers,
Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, NY, 1995 Seidenmalerei und Modedesign, Brita Hansen, Falken Press, Germany, 1990
Traje: Um Objecto de Arte?,
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, 1990
Handtuch des Seidenmalerei, Brita Hansen,
Dumont Art Press, Germany, 1988
Seidenmalerei in Vollendung, Rudolf G. Smend,
Falken Press, Germany, 1988
California Fashion Designers, Douglas Bullis,
Gibbs M. Smith, Inc, Layton, UT, 1987
Art to Wear, Julie Schafler Dale,
Abbeville Press, New York, NY, 1986
Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical,
American Craft Council, New York, NY 1989
VIDEOS
Art to Wear, produced by KQED/PBS, San Francisco, CA, aired internationally, 1990
FanFare Installation, produced by I. Kozel, Dallas, TX, 1985
Racing Dragons Installation, produced by Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 1984 Racing Dragons Installation, produced by PM Magazine, Atlanta, GA, 1984
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Invitational residency, Wind Art, International Explorations,
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL. 2003
Grant recipient, ArtsLink, for collaborative projects in the former Soviet Union, 1994
Panelist, Surface Design Conference, Berkeley, CA, 1986
Featured artist, American Craft Council National Conference, Oakland, CA, 1986
Featured artist, Slide Series: Wax Resist by Tina Martin, Fiberworks,
Berkeley, CA, 1986
Member, Fine Arts Guidelines Committee (Downtown 1% Plan), San Francisco, CA, 1985
Winner, Women in Design International Competition, 1983
Artist in Focus, Surface Design Conference, Arrowmont School, Gatlinburg, TN, 1983
Juror, Rhinebeck National Crafts Fair, Rhinebeck, NY, 1982
Q&A
Informal Questionaire for
Obiko Gallery Archive
Ina Kozel at her Oakland, California studio, circa 1980
Q: When did you first become aware/interested in batik/wax resist/rozome? A: In 1969-70, while living and traveling in SE Asia and India, I was deeply moved by the beauty of the fabrics of the region – all fabrics not just batik. The thrill of looking at luxurious color saturation on a piece of silk started next to a Thai dye vat and still thrills me today. At the time I was a recent graduate of a good art school (Cleveland Inst. of Art) but the textile department had not been inspirational: a loom, a silkscreen and a dull Scandinavian aesthetic. In the mid sixties, the expressive potential of textiles had not yet exploded onto the American scene. Q: When did you first try it/study it--where and with whom? A: I taught myself. As an art school graduate, I had the skill and confidence to explore my new interest, dyed fabric. I started with a white handkerchief and never stopped. I put Easter egg wax on the handkerchief and dipped it in the Easter egg dye. Wax resist became my medium-of-choice. I just liked the process I guess. I quickly lost interest in immersion dyeing because it limited the color range and expressive abilities. I started to paint the color on. In the early 70’s I developed my own path in isolation, which, in retrospect, was a good thing. Free of influences, I found my own style, my own voice. After a few years of solitary, enthusiastic experiment, my work began to attract attention, culminating in an invitation from Paul Smith to exhibit in NY at the historic “Dyer’s Art”. It was cosmic timing. My interest in art fabric coincided with the new zeitgeist’s interest in the same. Though pleased and encouraged, I felt a need for a stronger foundation, for inspiration, for education. Instead of graduate school, in 1976, I chose to go to Kyoto to learn from the masters. Q: Who were/are your most influential and inspiring teachers? A: My Japanese teachers and colleagues, by far. As a freelance student, I found my own teachers and learning experiences. There were many. Kyoto was a rich environment for the dying arts, kimono was king. I studied all of the dyeing techniques a little, katazome, yuzen, roketsuzome. But more importantly, I was after a comprehensive understanding of what made fabric into art. The teacher who most furthered my search was Kunihiko Moriguchi, a master of yuzen, through many hours of interesting dialogue, yuzen itself becoming a mere metaphor. Michie Yamaguchi, a peer and friend, inspired me with her talent and skill in the medium that we shared. My year in Kyoto was priceless. In the end, it showed me how spirit and craft are both integral to the art process, how excellence and respect nurture it. Q: Whose work inspired you? A: Besides the Japanese, mentioned above, in the 70’s the feminist artists were inspirational, for example, Judy Chicago. Feminism and textiles had a great symbiotic relationship at that time. Also Issey Miyake, Christo, the monumental weavers of east Europe, Larsen’s books, Knodel’s atriums, so much more......... Q: Who else did you know working with batik at this time? A: almost nobody. In the 70’s I appreciated a book by Noel Dyronforth. His work was the first contemporary batik I had seen. Q: how would you describe your evolution using the medium? A: after my return to US from Japan, I had a great desire to paint silk in the form of a garment, not a kimono. Cultural translations are tricky. I chose to use my favorite medium, wax-resist now in the form of roketsuzome, I chose Japanese brushes, dyes, tools and attitude. And then I started to search for the perfect translation, something “in the spirit of”. With another act of cosmic positioning I had landed in the Bay Area, a hot bed of new textile thinking in the late seventies. Interest and support for my painted silk garments appeared almost immediately. In 1979 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibited “Art for Wearing” (I was included) and the Art to wear movement was on its way. It was a fabulous run. There was so much energy. Galleries, museums, books, magazines, television, collectors, schools, stores – enormous interest. Among so many, a few stand out for their consistent and enduring influence and support of the movement. For me, they would be Sandra Sakata of Obiko, Julie Dale of Julie, and Paul Smith of the American Craft Museum. From the late seventies till the late nineties, I painted silk garments, one by one, with intense focus and happiness. I resisted all temptations to enlarge my studio and production. I wanted to paint with my own hand, at my own pace, alone with my own intuition. I found that with a mastery of my craft, I was left free to indulge in every color-whim or shape-whim that came to me. The garments were designed in simple forms so as not to interfere with the main event: painting. But I painted garments because there was something extraordinary about a painting-in-the-round and moving. My technique was/is extremely exacting, slow and labor intensive but I use it anyway because it’s the only way I know how to control dye on porous fabric and get the imagery I want. During that era, wax removers and steamers, those requisite, but rare, services were available in the bay area. Nonetheless we all know batik is a high-maintenance habit. I sold a lot of my work but my unavoidably slow production did not generate much profit. It did though pay for my studio and my habit. During that same 20 yrs, I had several large-scale, architectural- context commissions which propelled me to stretch my abilities. The clients asked me to hang something in their corporate atriums that resembled my batiked silk clothing. I constructed, painted, and suspended very large kite-like forms, up to 40 ft in dimension. Because scale changed everything, I used synthetic strong fabric instead of silk, masking tape and paper stencils instead of wax, and sprayed textile paint instead of brushed dye. I faked it. From the distance, in that scale, they looked like my roketsuzome on silk. All that ”stretching” broadened my repertoire. I began to explore other materials, other applications, other contexts for my painting. Today I am painting on wood and concrete, tomorrow maybe leather or any other porous surface. But the constant element, batik, always remains the same. I still use stains of transparent color, layered over waxed areas. I just like the process I guess.