LAURETTA CRITES

ARTIST BIO

Lauretta Crites is a textile fine artist known for creating representational wall works that combine fabric, paint, and stitch to produce images of striking visual clarity and material depth. Her work often reads as photographic from a distance, revealing layers of hand construction, texture, and dense stitch upon closer inspection.

Crites holds a BFA in Production and Design Technology with an emphasis in Costume Design from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Her background in costume design informs her sensitivity to surface, structure, and material, shaping a practice grounded in both visual impact and meticulous craftsmanship.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in juried, invitational, and solo exhibitions, including the Visions Museum of Textile Art (San Diego, CA), Quilt Show Reno (Reno, NV), Nigde Art Gallery (Türkiye), and Espaco Quadrasoltas (Porto, Portugal). She has been a finalist in major competitions such as Road to California, the International Quilt Festival Houston, and the Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Her work has been featured on Quilting Arts TV and in Quilting Arts Magazine, and her artwork appeared on the cover of Art Quilting Studio Magazine (Winter 2026 issue).

Having grown up in Los Angeles, California, Crites relocated to Porto, Portugal, where she currently lives and works. Recent bodies of work reflect this transatlantic experience, drawing imagery from both the United States and Europe and exploring themes of place, memory, and adaptation through textile-based imagery. Her work is held in a private collection and is well suited for both residential and institutional environments.


ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores the intersection of place, memory, and material through representational textile wall works constructed from fabric, paint, and stitch. Drawing on imagery from both the United States and Europe, I create layered compositions that read with photographic clarity from a distance while revealing their handmade complexity upon closer viewing.

Working primarily with fabric allows me to build images slowly and deliberately, translating source imagery into constructed surfaces through cutting, layering, painting, and dense stitch. Thread functions as both line and mark-making, enabling me to draw directly into the surface and create depth, texture, and dimensionality. The physicality of the materials invites sustained looking, rewarding viewers who engage with the work over time.

Recent work has been shaped by relocation and the experience of becoming rooted in a new environment. Domestic interiors, still life arrangements, botanical forms, and moments of public spectacle become quiet markers of adaptation and continuity. Familiar subjects are re-seen through a new geographic and cultural lens, reflecting the way meaning shifts as context changes.

While the imagery often feels immediate and accessible, the work resists quick consumption. Layers of fabric and stitch accumulate over time, mirroring the gradual process of settling into place and building connection. Through this method, I aim to create work that offers visual clarity, material richness, and sustained presence - art that holds space within both private and public environments.