June, 2019
Renie Breskin Adams is an artist and author with many years of experience creating award-winning pictorial works in fiber. She taught drawing and fiber art as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northern Illinois University and conducted workshops throughout the United States. In retirement her focus has turned to computer art: Renie has produced several print editions of her digital pictures and written, illustrated, and designed a children's book in her computer, Catato and Friends, which received a Creative Child 2012 Preferred Choice Award. She has created other digital art books and is currently writing
and illustrating a second children's book.
Renie's narrative embroideries won 26 awards—11 of these, first prizes—in juried exhibitions with a national or international call for entries, such as: the 8th Annual Vahki Exhibition '86, Galeria Mesa, AZ (first and second prize); Needle Expressions '90, Littman Gallery, Portland State University, OR, traveling MS, HI, IL, NY, KY, Alberta, Canada (first prize); and Fiberart International '91, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA (first prize).
In time Renie served as a juror for such exhibitions and continued to show her own works in major invitational exhibitions, including:
Contemporary Fiber Art, A Selection from the Permanent Collection, The Art Institute of
Chicago, 2010-11.
Threads on the Edge, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA, 2004.
Miniatures 2000, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, touring Finland, 2000.
The Renwick at 25, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1997.
U.S. and Us, Barbara Lee Smith, curator, touring New Zealand,1996-97.
Knots and Nets, Universal Connections, Ellipse Arts Center, Arlington, VA, touring U.S., 1994-95.
Au Fil du Temps: Exposition Internationale d’Oeuvres du Fil, touring Japan, 1994.
Celebrating the Stitch, Newton Arts Center and Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA,
touring U.S., Canada, England, and Japan, 1992-95.
Knots and Nets, Spiritual Connections, United States Information Agency, Arts America Division,
touring Africa, 1992-94.
Inside Out: Works by Renie Breskin Adams,
sponsored by Mobilia Gallery, 1996-98,
traveling to Baylor University, Waco, TX;
Arts Gallery, School of Fine Art, Indiana
University, Bloomington; Arizona State
University Art Museum, Tempe; Kohler
Arts Center, Kohler Village, WI; Gallery of
Design, University of Wisconsin-Madison;
Northern Illinois University Gallery, Chicago;
Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA.
catalog © Mobilia Gallery 1996, 32 pages in color, 11" x 8-1/2"
Many of Renie's works in fiber are in public collections including: The Art Institute of Chicago, IL •
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI • The Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY • The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA • The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. • The Racine Arts Museum, WI.
 |
| Bookmark © Highsmith Inc. 2004 Illustration by Renie B. Adams: Fare Well, Sky Chicken (detail). |
Aimone, Steven. DESIGN! A Lively Guide to Design Basics, Lark Books, Asheville, NC, 2004.
___________. Expressive Drawing, Lark Books, Asheville, NC,
2009.
Au Fil du Temps: Exposition Internationale d’Oeuvres du Fil,
exhibition catalog, DMC, Paris, France, 1984.
Blakley Kinsler, Gwen. The Fine Art of Crochet, AuthorHouse,
2013.
Smith, Barbara Lee. Celebrating the Stitch, Contemporary
Embroidery of North America, Newton, CT, 1991.
Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition, exposition
catalog (Mobilia Gallery artist), The Lakeside Group, Inc.,
Chicago, IL, 1993.
Fiberart International ’91, exhibition catalog (with front cover
reproduction), Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA, 1991.
“Embroidering the Truth” in The Chronicle of Higher Education,
Washington, D.C., September 27, 1996.
European Coats Viyella Sponsor Prize for Modern Embroidery
Design , MEZ AG, Freiburg, Germany, 1990.
Fiberarts Design Book, and Fiberarts Design Book Two, -Three,
-Four, -Five, and –Six, Lark Books, Asheville, NC, 1980, '83,
'87, '91, '95, '99.
Held, Shirley E. Weaving: A Handbook for Fiber Craftsmen, Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, New York, NY, 1978.
Highsmith Library Catalog, cover illustration, accompanying
poster and bookmark illustrations, Highsmith, Inc., Fort
Atkinson, WI, 2004-2005.
Knots and Nets, Spiritual Connections, exhibition catalog,
curator, Nancy Neumann Press, Arts America Program of
the United States Information Agency, 1992.
Koplos, Janet. “Renie Breskin Adams at Synopsis” in The New
Art Examiner, Chicago, IL, 1982.
Miniatures 2000, exhibition catalog, curator, Helen Drutt,
Artprint, Helsinki, Finland, 2000.
Morrell, Anne. Contemporary Embroidery. Cassell, London, England,
1994.
“Renie Breskin Adams” in “Stickkunst”, ed., Beatrijs Sterk, in Deutsches Textilforum, Hannover,
Germany, March 1987.
Sommer, Elyse and Renie Breskin Adams. Pillow Making as Art and Craft, Crown, New York, NY, 1978.
