City Gallery Exhibit E PLURIBUS Celebrates the Many Colors of Patriotism
Featuring Art Flags that Celebrate Diversity by Fiber Artist Muriel Stockdale
Muriel Stockdale’s renowned United States flag series, E PLURIBUS, celebrates the many colors of patriotism found every day in the United States. A special showing of her work, including a new flag to honor our 250-year anniversary, will be on view at City Gallery, August 7 - August 23. The Opening Reception will be held on Friday, August 7, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., with an Artist Talk starting at 4 p.m.
The E PLURIBUS flags are exquisitely hand crafted in the U.S.A. from typical fabrics representing diverse cultures that make up this American mosaic. As an immigrant, Muriel is awed by the harmonious co-existence of Americans who celebrate their freedom in all possible ways. “This country was created by dissension and protest against oppression, and out of that the people forged superb documents and mandates that guarantee freedom and hope for all people,” she says. “In the United States, patriotism is multifaceted, multicolored, and multidimensional.” Her series of surprising U.S. Flags invites a broader look at what patriotism is and can still be in the future.
Since 2003, Muriel has continually created additions to her culturally celebrative art series of USA flags. Currently, 16 E Pluribus flags are installed permanently in the lobby of 315 Hudson Street, New York City. Installations of her flag series have been presented at BRIC Media Arts (Brooklyn, NY), the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut (Danbury), the Monroe C. Gutman Library Gallery of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Boston, MA), ARC Fine Art (Fairfield), Martha Stewart’s American Made Summit, and at Charlotte’s Place, a Trinity Church Community Center where she was commissioned to oversee construction of a community art flag to honor the tenth anniversary of 9/11. The flags have been seen in over 30 venues and galleries in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut, and the New Britain Museum of American Art now owns the original E Pluribus African flag as part of its permanent collection.
Originally from the United Kingdom, Muriel Stockdale earned her BS from the University of Vermont with a BS in Nutrition, and her MFA New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Design Department. Over the last 40 years, while maintaining a successful career in costume design, she has directed shows in NYC and in New England, performed onstage, crewed backstage, managed costume shops, designed and painted scenery, and taught aspiring designers. She is a Reiki healer, a writer, teacher, media consultant, and artist.
Muriel has enjoyed an extensive and varied career in the entertainment industry, creating scenery and outstanding costumes for film, TV, and live entertainment including Disney, Children’s Television Workshop, NBC, CBS, PBS, ABC, Universal Television, and dozens of US and European regional theaters. Muriel has worked with world-renowned, award-winning performers, directors, writers, and composers such as Richard Adler, Colleen Dewhurst, Adriana Trigiani, Kermit the Frog, Tony Roberts, S. Epatha Merkeson, Lynn Redgrave, and Edward Albee. She has spent over 20 years working with Jim Henson Productions, building and designing costumes for puppets and people.
The exhibit E PLURIBUS and the Opening Reception and Artist Talk are free and open to the public. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.
