Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective

If the very thought of a quilt show triggers memories of touring the dusty state fair crafts exhibits with your grandma, take a few steps back to the world of women’s crafts before the advent of Michael’s and the Hobby Lobby. In Gee’s Bend, Alabama, a black community pretty much cut off from the outside world, six generations of women developed an astonishing quilting style that utilizes eye-popping color juxtapositions and carefully erratic compositions. In fact, some of them have an uncanny resonance with the abstract paintings that (mostly male) artists were creating in New York and other big cities. The Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art a few years back became an unexpected—and unexpectedly moving—blockbuster, one that ended up traveling to a half-dozen cities. In other words, don’t miss the opportunity to see some of these works right here at home. 2123 21st St. W., Minneapolis; 612-377-4669; www.bockleygallery.com