Review: Offramp Gallery samples stitched, woven and wrapped works

Thread lines are the through lines in “Sampled,” an enjoyable group show at Offramp.

Anita Bunn guest-curated the selection of works stitched, woven and wrapped. All 10 artists are based in Southern California, but resonate with a broader trend toward incorporating processes and materials traditionally associated with craft or women’s handwork.

At last, in this poly-disciplinary moment, such practices are moving from margin to center.

In many of the works here, thread joins forces with sculpture, painting, or photography to create hybrid forms, richly textured and resourceful. Tree bark shows up, as does bubble wrap, stone, wax paper, and what looks like a section of rusted lawn furniture.

Meg Madison hand-stitches fragmented lines into her photographs, accentuating directional movement or echoing some shape within, forcing a simultaneous read of each print as both image and surface. The bits of printed text embedded in Joan Weinzettle’s small, hauntingly delicate thread grids seem like trawler’s catch, compromised but also precious.

Echiko Ohira forges dense marriages of paper and thread, secrets and their binding. In one stirring piece, she tucks a plethora of folded, bundled scraps into a paper box, itself wrapped in thread and mounted on the wall, open side out, a seductive, private archive.

Melanie Ciccone’s two embroideries on tea-stained squares of linen are quiet, little heartaches. One bears a loose scatter of stitched, colored lines and the other a constellation of sewn dots in white, blue, flamingo. Against the shroud-like, stained fabric, the markings read as intimate maps, notations literally stitched into memory.

Offramp Gallery, 1702 Lincoln Ave., Pasadena, (626) 298-6931, through March 29. Open Friday through Sunday. www.offrampgallery.com