About the Gallery
Welcome to the only gallery in the Southwest devoted to contemporary tapestries. Our gallery opened in April of 1987. Until recently, we have only shown the work of New Mexico artists. However, we have decided to show weavers of the Southwest, whose work and techniques are often derived from the Southwest tapestry techniques used in the past in this area. These tapestries are unique for collectors who want contemporary rather than traditional weavings.
Our new website presents to you a selection of current and available contemporary tapestries from from the Southwest. Each artists page contains every piece they have at Weaving Southwest, so that in essence, by browsing through this site, you will be virtually visiting our gallery and then some.
Many of the artists will do a commission if what you see here is tempting but not just right for your office or home. Many of these artists do large corporate commissions and have works hanging in public places.
In the last decade of the 20th century contemporary tapestry has flourished in New Mexico. Weaving Southwest has seen some of these tapestry artists grow from their beginnings in the 70s and 80s to become some of the country's finest tapestry artists. Now in 21st century we are proud to represent these artists whose work is unique in the world of tapestry.
Collectors have usually known Southwest tapestries by other names: the Saltillo Serape, the Navajo Blanket, and the Rio Grande Blanket. These works of art are, in technical terms, true tapestries. The word tapestry actually refers to a specific weaving technique of constructing many color areas in a fabric by weaving back and forth in small sections with different colors of yarn (technically: "discontinuous weft"). In a complex tapestry there can be scores of separate yarns that are used to build the overall image or design.
Read more about the history of tapestry weaving in the Southwest.