Dance Doyle
The world had been delivered when I found tapestry as a multi-disciplinary artist in 2006. I visually record urban narratives through woven, shaped, mixed-media tapestry created on large 4-harness floor looms. The visual translation of thought and memory, on and off the grid, helps usher in a re-negotiation of my past and accords me with a sense of power I once thought had vanished.
Self-taught through trial and error, I had no rules because I’d never been taught any; this absolutely allowed me the freedom to develop techniques and shape my work the way I imagined it, tempting the traditional forms of tapestry to follow infinite directions. I use the slit tapestry in order to achieve straight lines and create disjointedness throughout the landscape of the tapestry. Though I use mostly hand-dyed natural materials like wool, silk, cotton, and linen, I also use unconventional materials that are either found or re-purposed to enhance the narrative. Growing up in Oakland during the peak of the crack epidemic of the 1980’s and 90’s, I was surrounded by the vibrance of camp/hip-hop fashion, urban decay covered by street art, abandoned apartment stores, pigeon and human shit, crime, busted car windows, the best music blasting everywhere, and a stunning—foggy bay backdrop. My translations into tapestry have all been informed by that beautiful, heavy environment.
Dance Doyle is an Oakland-based artist with years of ceramic sculpture and hand-building experience. Doyle completed artist-in-residence programs at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY, the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE. They have served as vice president of Tapestry Weavers West, and are a member of the American Tapestry Alliance and the Textile Arts Council at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, CA. Their work has been shown at the Legion of Honor Museum, the De Young Museum in San Francisco, Minnesota Street Projects (San Francisco), Johansson Projects (Oakland) and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. In 2020, they were published in Textile Fibre Forum Magazine, the American Tapestry Alliance’s CODA Magazine, and featured twice in Fiber Art Now Magazine. In 2021, Doyle was published in Untitled Magazine’s Innovate issue and was a Chenven Foundation Grant recipient. In 2022, they were nominated for the Outstanding Student Award, granted by the Surface Design Association, and awarded the 2022 All-College Honors Scholarship from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Doyle was awarded both the Jack K. & Gertrude Murphy and an Edwin Anthony & Adalaine Boudreaux Cadogan Award in 2022, and the Barclay Simpson Award in 2023. Doyle was an Open Studio Resident at Haystack in Maine and has started a year-long Graduate Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA. Currently, they are a Meantime Artist in Residence at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, CA.
A Festival of Fiber Art | December 6, 2023 by David M. Roth
“…it’s heartening to see another East Bay institution, Johansson Projects, mount an exhibition that reflects a similar ethos, seen in current (2022-23) works by Dance Doyle, Terri Friedman and Susie Taylor — artists whose approaches to weaving are as radical as they are unalike.” LINK
