Patricia Malarcher

Patricia Malarcher is a textile artist and writer named honorary fellow in 2020 for her scholarship, research, and advocacy as a contributor of articles on craft to the New York Times and the editor of Surface Design Journal, considered the primary thought-leading publication on the contemporary textile medium. As a Renwick fellow, she documented writing on contemporary craft in all mediums. She is also a fiber artist active with the Textile Study Group of New York.
Since the mid-1970s, Malarcher has contributed articles and reviews to periodicals including American Craft, Fiberarts, Fiber Art Now, American Ceramics, and Metalsmith. She also wrote on crafts for regional sections of the New York Times (1980 – mid-1990s). She has written chapters for books including Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America (Schiffer), Objects and Meaning (Scarecrow Press), and Helena Hernmarck: Tapestry Artist (Byggforlaget), as well as essays for exhibition catalogues including Generations/Transformations, American Textile History Museum (1903). She recently compiled and edited materials for Wings of a Ragtag Quest, a limited-edition artist book.
Malarcher has juried exhibitions including “Quilt Visions” and been a panelist at College Art Association and Textile Society of America conferences. She served as critic-in-resident at Penland School of Craft (1989) and other venues.
Wings of a Ragtag Quest by Nell Sonnemann and others, Sans Serif LLC, compiled and edited by Patricia Malarcher, limited edition artist book, 2015
Photo: Peter JacobsSurface Design Journal, sampling of issues edited by Patricia Malarcher
Photo: courtesy of Patricia MalarcherPatricia Malarcher, Alternating Currents, 2003, mylar, fabric, paint, mixed media collage, digital printing, 48 x 48 in.
Collection: Newark Museum
Patricia Malarcher, Passage, 1991, mylar, fabric, paint, military insignia, Army Medical Corps wound pads, 60 x 66 in.
Collection: International Quilt Study Center Museum, University of Nebraska Lincoln
Patricia Malarcher, Lunar Portal, 2014, mylar, fabric, laminated paper, 40 x 40 in.
Collection: International Quilt study Center Museum, University of Nebraska Lincoln
Photo: George PotanovicPatricia Malarcher, Rapunzel Sing the Tiger Rag, 1991, mylar, fabric, paint, mixed media collage, recycled wall mural, gold leaf, 75 x 69 in.
Collection: Museum of Arts and design
Patricia Malarcher, Untitled wall hanging at St. Cecilia’s Church, Englewood, New Jersey, 1990, mylar, fabric, recycled vestments, and wall mural
Photo: D. James Dee