Denise L Roberts was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1958. She moved half a dozen times before landing in West Virginia at the age of nine. Moving from the flat land of Minnesota to the mountains of West Virginia made a lifelong impression on her. Denise attributes driving through the curved landscapes of the winding West Virginia two-lane highways as a major influence on her art.
In 2008, Denise and her husband Rick, bought and moved to a farm in Albright, West Virginia, where Denise has happily set up her professional studio.
Denise began her art education in earnest in 2005 after 17 years as a traditional quilter. She studied with Nancy Crow at the Crow Timber Frame Barn in Baltimore, Ohio, and for more than 10 years honed her skills taking workshops with leaders in the fields of improvisational quilt making, composition, and design, fabric dyeing and textile surface design. Starting in 2016, her work began to earn much deserved attention: invitations to participate in two traveling master exhibitions Color Improvisations 2 and Material Pulses: 8 Viewpoints, both curated by Nancy Crow, solidified the maturity Denise’s work had reached.
The path to a firmly established professional art career continued. Denise’s work went on to garner many awards: the “Quilt Japan Prize” at Quilt National 2017; the “Creative Artistry Award” at the 35th Annual New Legacies Contemporary Art Quilts; the “Studio Art Quilt Association Award” at Quilt Visions 2018; honorable mention at the 2018 Form Not Function exhibition; and a “Juror’s Award of Merit” at Quilt National 2019. As part of the 2017 Japan Prize, Denise traveled to Japan that year to teach a workshop and jury the 14th Quilt Nihon International Exhibition. Denise’s first solo exhibition was at the Huntington Museum of Art, in Huntington, West Virginia. On exhibit from January 16 – April 11, 2021.
EXHIBITIONS
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Clay Center, Charleston, West Virginia, June 24 – October 20, 2022
Art Quilt Elements 2022, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, Pennsylvania , March 27 – April 30, 2022
OH +5, The dairy Barn Art Center, Athens, Ohio, January 15, – March 13, 2020
Quilts = Art =Quilts 2021, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY, October 23, 2021 – January 9, 2022
Material Pules: 7 Viewpoints, Barton Community College, Great Bend, KS June 16 – August 11, 2021
Form, Not Function, Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany, Indiana, May 14 – July 17, 2021
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Refurbishment, Kanas City, MO, January 28 – March 16, 2021
Solo Exhibition, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, January 16 – April 11, 2021
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs, Bonita Spring, Florida, November 10 – January 7, 2021
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Stauth Memorial Museum, Montezuma, KS September 1 – October 20, 2020
Artist As Quiltmaker 19th Biennial Exhibition, Firelands Association for the Visual Arts, Oberlin, Ohio, May 16 – July 26, 2020 (rescheduled; May – July, 2021)
Art Quilt Elements 2020, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA, March 29 – May, 2, 2020 (to be rescheduled)
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA, January 28 – March 16, 2020
Color Improvisations 2 ,The Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield OH, January 4 – March 29, 2020
OH+5 2020, The Dairy Barn Art Center, Athens, OH, January 17 – March 13, 2020
Quilt National 19 Tour, Wingate University, Wingate, NC, February 10 – April 10, 2020
Quilts = Art = Quilts, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY, October 26, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Interpretations 2019: Rhapsody, Visions Art Center: Contemporary Quilts and Textiles, San Diego, CA, October 19, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Color Improvisations 2, The Huntington Museum Of Art, Huntington, WV, July 13 – October 13, 2019
Quilt National 19 Tour, Foundry Art Centre, St Louise, MO, October 4 – December 6, 2019
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Charles H MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA, September 1 – October 20, 2019
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Mississippi’s Arts + Entertainment, Meridian, MS, May 25 – August 19, 2019
Quilt National 2019, Juror’s Award of Merit, The Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, OH, May 24 – September 2, 2019
Pushing the Surface 2019, Johnson Humrickhouse Museum, Coshocton, Ohio, May 18 – July 28, 2019
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Mississippi Arts and Entertainment, Meridian, MS, April 6 – August 11, 2019
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Price Tower Art Center, Bartlesville, OK, January 28 – March 16, 2019
Color Improvisations 2 The Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, October 13, 2018 – January 20, 2019
Quilt Visions 2018: Connections, Studio Art Quilt Associates Award, Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts + Textiles, San Diego, CA, October 20, 2018 – January 6, 2019
Quilts=Art=Quilts 2018, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY, October 27, 2018 – January 6, 2019
Material Pulses: 7 Viewpoints, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, October 6, 2018 – January 13, 2019
Responses To Gee’s Bends, McCabe Library Atrium, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, August 14 – October 28, 2018
36th Annual New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts, The Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO, July 6 – September1, 2018
2018 Form Not Function, Honorable Mention Award, Carnegie Center for Arts & History, New Albany, IN, May 25- July 21, 2018
Artist As Quiltmaker XVIII, Firelands Association for the Visual Arts, Oberlin, OH, May 13 – July 29, 2018
Art Quilt Elements 2018, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA, March 16 – April 28, 2018
Quilt National 2017, Quilts Japan Prize, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH, January 25 – April 14, 2018
OH +5 ’18: Ohio Border Biennial, The Dairy Barn Art Center, Athens, OH, January 20 – March 17, 2018
Contemporary Art Quilts 2017, Whistler House Museum of Art , Lowell, MA August 5-Sept. 1, 2017
35th Annual New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts, Creative Artistry Award, The Lincoln Center Fort Collins, CO, July 5 – August 26, 2017
Quilt National 2017, Quits Japan Prize, The Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, Ohio, May 27- September 4, 2017, touring through 2018
Color Improvisations 2 Invitational Curated by Nancy Crow European Tour;
March 11- August 28, 2016 Tuch+Technik Textile Museum Neumünster, Germany
September 14-18, 2016 St. Marie aux Mines, France
April 2 – August 13, 2017 Textile Museum Max Berk Heidelberg, Germany
September 8 – 30, 2017 Hallen and Rhein Schaffhausen, Switzerland
October, 2017 Textilsammlung Max Werk/Kurpfalzisches Museum and Konstanz Council
Building in Konstanz, Germany
Craft Forms 2017, Wayne Art Center Wayne, Pennslvania December 2, 2016 – January 28, 2017
Material Pulses: 8 Viewpoints, Invitational Curated by Nancy Crow, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
May 12 – July16, 2016
Form Not Function 2016, Carnegie Center For The Art and History, New Albany, IN
Art Quilt Elements 2016, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
Quilts = Art = Quilts 2016, SchweinfurthArt Center, Auburn, NY
Exhibition 280 2015, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
Quilts = Art = Quilts 2015, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY
Quilts = Art = Quilts 2014, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY
TEACHING
On faculty at The Crow Timber Frame Barn in Baltimore, Ohio
JUROR
The 14th Quilt Nihon International Exhibition 2017, Tokyo, Japan
PUBLICATIONS
Spotlight News Magazine, December 16 – 31, 2020 (detail MITOTE #10 issue cover)
SAQA Journal Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. 2018|Volume 28, No. 4
Quilt Visions 2018 Connections Published by Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA
Art Quilt Elements 2018 Published by BookBaby
The Artist as Quiltmaker XVIII 2018 Published by Firelands Association for the Visual Arts
36th Annual New Legacies Contemporary Art Quilts 2018 Presented by The Lincoln Center City of Fort Collins, CO
Responses to Gee’s Bend Swarthmore College-2018 Printing by Blurb.com
35th Annual New Legacies Contemporary Art Quilts 2017 Presented by The Lincoln Center City of Fort Collins, CO
The Dominion Post, August 13, 2017, pages 10-11A
Quilt National 2017 The Best of Contemporary Quilts Published by The Dairy Barn Art Center, Athens, Ohio
The 14th Quilt Nihon Exhibition 2017 Published by Quilts Japan
Art Quilts International Abstract & Geometric Martha Sielman Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, 2016
International Invitational of Contemporary Quilts Curator: Nancy Crow, 2016
Art Quilt Elements 2016 Published by BookBaby
GRANTS
Professional Development Grant WV Division of Culture and History WV Commission on the Arts 2019
Professional Development Grant WV Division of Culture and History WV Commission on the Arts 2016
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
FINDING CONNECTIONS #8, International Quilt Museum, Quilt National Collection, Lincoln, Nebraska
FINDING CONNECTIONS #21, Ralph and Janice James
SISU #1, Mykl and Terri Messer
SISU #7, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia