Cooper Hewitt says...
Tim Harding is a textile designer and fiber artist. After working in painting and photography in college, Harding became intrigued by the textural, tactile richness of textiles as well as the culturally complex role of the medium. His work is based on exploring the vulnerability of fibers and textiles. He employs techniques he learned from painting such as light, figure, and perspective to create the illusion of three-dimensional space within the picture plane of the textile. Harding’s use and layering of vibrant and rich colors gives his work a pixel-like quality. He draws upon many cultural influences for his work including kimono, Impressionist paintings, color portraits by Chuck Close, and the color field paintings of Mark Rothko and Jules Olitsky. He also is interested in the connection between modern painting and ethnographic artifacts. Harding’s work investigates fiber as a medium which has been traditionally outside Western culture’s hierarchy of fine art and suggests that textile arts should be considered in terms of their beauty and function.
Tim Harding also works as a collaborative design team with his wife Kathleen Harding creating wearable art. The Tim Harding Studio is one of the oldest wearable art creators in America. Their creations have been the subject of special showings at department stores including Bergdorf Goodman and Niemen Marcus.
