Bio for ART IN EMBASSIES program Summer 2022

While working as a model builder in an architectural office in Cambridge, MA, Alex Friedman took an evening weaving class at the YWCA and became instantly fascinated with the many possibilities of woven textiles. Her enthusiasm led her to a job in New York City weaving shaped tapestries for the bulkheads of a fleet of Pan Am 747 jumbo jets.

From that point on, Alex Friedman has maintained her own active tapestry studio. By manipulating the warp, using eccentric weft, leaving slits and/or adding embellishments she can create a dynamic surface movement which is unique to her style.

She has participated in many solo and juried exhibitions in the US and abroad, including the Textile Symposium in St. Petersburg, Russia, an Artist in Residence in Surrey, England, and as a panelist at a Tapestry Design Symposium in Washington, DC. She has had the opportunity to live abroad and to travel to many places to seek out the broad diversity of textiles has given her a rich insight to the local cultures as well as meeting many other tapestries weavers.

Alex has executed numerous commissions for residential, corporate, and liturgical clients and has exhibited internationally, receiving recognition with many awards. She has evolved her own unique style that continues to receive critical attention. Her work has been published in numerous catalogs and several recent textile books.

Alex is active in many Bay Area based fiber organizations. She continues to promote tapestry through lectures and workshops. She has served as the President and Co-Director of the American Tapestry Alliance, an international organization of over 900 tapestry weavers and she currently serves on the Executive Board of the Textile Arts Council at the de Young Museum.

A native San Franciscan, she returned to the Bay Area and has had a studio at the ICB in Sausalito since 2006.

She is passionate about tapestry and believes that the serene aspects of a woven tapestry has the power to bring peace and harmony into any space.