‘Off the Grid’ Lief Gallery

‘Off the Grid’ installation at Lief Gallery, Los Angeles. / Indigo on Blues and Madder Lace , 60” x 48”, linen, natural dyes, flashe / Untitled , 18” x 24”, linen, natural dyes, acrylic

‘Off the Grid’ consists of a series of work that was created while DuVall was Artist is Residence at the Josef and Anni Albers foundation in 2020. The resulting six work series along with two new large-scale pieces represent a new direction in the artist’s work, reflected by implementing different hand-weaving techniques as she investigates more open weave structures such as Leno, Brook’s Bouquet, and Weft Floats, which are then layered over painted linen. The windows created by these open weave structures interact with the painted color fields behind the weavings themselves to blur the optical relationship between thread, color, and canvas. Each piece uniquely explores this relationship and presents the subtle differences that become visible through the repetition: regularity highlighting the irregular.

“With this work, and with the opportunity to work at the Albers Foundations more broadly, I sought to explore the transparent aspect of my woven works, aiming to push that quality further. My weavings naturally involve optical mixing—where the color of warp and weft overlap with each other. By using different open weave structures and layering this on top of a painted surface, the colors can be pushed in different directions.  The through-line for this series has been a focus on color relationships and subtle hue changes through layering. With this series, I wanted to not only reflect the vernacular borne from the Albers’ legacy by introducing painted color blocks to my work, but also especially honor the techniques and knowledge bound into the textile work developed by Anni Albers.”