Meike Legler

The versatility of fabrics

Meike Legler is a German artist, who mainly works with fabrics as her medium.

She was born in Alzenau in 1983, a small town new Frankfurt, and holds a BA in fashion design from HTW Berlin, where she lived for 10 years. The move to LA in 2016 marked a turning point in her career when she started making wall art out of different fabrics and turned into a full time artist. Since Novemner 2020, she lives in her German hometown again.

Her works are in private as well as commercial collections in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, New York City, Detroit, Palm Springs, Hawaii, Mar Vista, Connecticut, Berlin, Munich, Madrid, London and other cities in the US and Europe.

Artist Statement:

Coming from a fashion design background, fabrics are to me what paint is for a painter. I use them to create works that are inspired by contradictions, life situations, spirituality, as well as my German and Italian heritage. Often I start with the title of the piece that comes to my mind by listening to the news, into myself, or to the people I am surrounded by. The title determines the shapes, colors, and the composition. Sometimes I also just see a composition in front of my inner eye and then I choose fabrics with different textures to add depth and character.

The surface of my works, that consists of numerous pieces of different kinds of fabrics sewn together, looks even, smooth, and almost flawless – the hidden backside however is raw and messy – an analogy to the facade we tend to keep up to make our lives look good from the outside even if beneath the surface it’s all but perfect. In some pieces, I intentionally integrate the fray edges as an accent on the surface of the piece to create tension between order and rawness.I love using fabrics that have laid outdoors for a long time as the sun and the rain work into the fibers and give it a unique and weathered look.

In another experiment I buried a found bed sheet in the soil of my friends' property in Los Angeles for 8 months. The earth, moisture and microorganisms left almost out of space like patterns on the sheet that I now use pieces of to integrate into my works.

Bleach is another medium that I have started using as it changes the colors of the fabrics in ways that are not controllable and that creates its own irreversible pattern.

I use the coexistence between the destroyed, dirty, rebellious fabrics and the impeccable, new and clean fabrics to depict an analogy to our human existence in a body that is often coined by experiences like being hurt and hurting, trauma, suffering, failure and grief and on the other side our eternal, divine and pure souls.

In the past 5 years I have created a large body of works in which I have constantly explored the medium fabric. I made collages, hand stitched and glued fabric on top of each other, integrated other media such as paper, acrylic paint, dirt, clay, crayon and used a wide variety of fabrics ranging from vintage military tents, latex, fake fur, vintage linen, drop cloth, velvet, upholstery fabric, curtains, bed sheets and wool. I’ve played with pleats, volume, draping, geometric shapes, organic and fluid shapes and am continuing to explore textiles as an incredibly versatile and interesting medium.

Solo Shows and Group Shows:

“Garden”, Group Show curated by Annie Wharton and Taryn Lee, Ladies Room Los Angeles

January 16 - February 18, 2021

Online Show

“Synchronicities”, Solo Show curated by Margot Ross

August 13 - September 10, 2019

Soho House West Hollywood, Los Angeles

“Gémeaux De Minuit”, Group Show curated by Melisa Taylor Metzger

August 2-31, 2019

Stella Ripley Contemporary

Québec, Canada

“Modern Contemporary”, Group Show curated by Margot Ross and Carlos Antonio

July 25 - August 25, 2019

Show Gallery

1515 N Gardner St, Los Angeles, CA

“Get A Loom”, Group Show curated by softcore LA, Claremont Graduate University

April 23 - May 23, 2019

Claremont Graduate University

Claremont, CA 91711

Group Show with Javiera Estrada, Kelly Brumfield and Stephanie Vovas

curated by Saatchi Art

August 19 - 23, 2018

E.P. & L.P.

603 N La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood

Art House LA, Group Show curated by Jacquie Israel

December 02, 2017 - February 28, 2018

Pacific Palisades

http://www.arthousela.com/current-exhibit-3/

"Mutual Affection", Group Show with Kottie Paloma

Art Movement LA

August 11 - 30, 2017

2049 S Santa Fe Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90021

Group Show "Dimensional Circumstances"

curated by Kottie Paloma

May 20 - June 3, 2017 at Nous Tous

454b Jung Jing Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Solo Show "Ignore the Noise"

Opening Reception: April 28, 2017 at The Voyager Shop

300 S Santa Fe Ave t, Los Angeles, CA 90013