The decorative arts have long been part of the domestic environment. For centuries, a woman’s artistic talents were applied to projects that were deemed favorable to them—knitting, sewing, porcelain painting, and weaving—and that could be done within their home. The domestic environment has long been perceived as the proper place for women. It was the woman who decorated the home and created a space of sanctuary for the hard-working man who daily encountered the public space. In that sense, the domestic on display in this exhibition is both theenvironment and the object.

Today, female artists have turned those “domestic” skills into fine art. The five contemporary artists in this exhibition use traditional craft media to create works of art. They look beyond the idea of the domestic interior in some cases, and in other cases, they create large, intricate works of art out of materials once considered to be craft.