Flinn Gallery – Artist Talk with Jeila Gueramian

Jeila Gueramian is a Brooklyn-based artist best known for her large-scale installations in which she connects and combines handmade or repurposed textiles including afghans and other stuffed objects. Through these installations she seeks to instill in the viewer a sense of immediacy, of being present in the moment, reminding us of how we experienced the world as a child. Her work is characterized by lush textures, bright colors and playful motifs. Gueramian began her career constructing props and costumes for film and theater. On the side, she collected vintage quilts, knits, stitched and crocheted artifacts out of which she fabricated inventive stuffed creatures. Her fantastical stuffed creations soon grew in size, eventually morphing into the elaborate, hand-crafted environments that now constitute her full-time artistic practice. She says, “I like to inspire exploration. I create alternate worlds and invite people to lose themselves in them: awaken their senses, feel like a kid, be in the moment, laugh or be a little scared, stop and ask a question, get involved in a fantasy, believe in the magical…The found materials I use… have a sense of comfort and help us recognize things that may have been a part of our childhood or past. This helps the viewer transport back to a time and place and feel those feelings all over again.”