Niki Bonnett received her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978. She was a graphic designer for fifteen years and operated her own design firm in Connecticut for nine years. Since 1993 Niki has been a full-time artist whose mixed media work, with an emphasis on textiles, includes art quilts and collages.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including such venues as Quilt National, Craft USA, Wesserling Textile Museum in France, Palais Rastede in Germany and the American Craft Museum in NYC. Niki has been featured in FiberArts and Art/Quilt magazines; in Robert Shaw’s book, The Art Quilt; and in Creative Collage. She was the cover artist featured in the March, 2005 issue of The Laurel of Asheville magazine.
Bonnett’s recent quilts has been heavily influenced by the artistry of the women of Gee’s Bend — a black community of quilters in rural Alabama. Reflections of those influences can be seen in Bonnett’s newest series called Ragtime Bed Quilts.” The original, bold patterns of the Gee’s Bend quilts are as kinetic and exciting as Ragtime Jazz. Having never been a fan of the precise piecing of perfectly measured geometric shapes, I love their rule-shattering masterpieces!” says Bonnett. Niki lives and has her studio in an old farmhouse in East Asheville. A member of both the SHCG and Ladies in New Textiles (L.I.N.T.), she teaches and lectures locally as well as around the USA.
www.southernhighlandguild.org/nikibonnett/
