Rebecca Woodhouse: Intwined
October 1 - 31, 2026
First Thursday Art Walk - Thursday October 1st, 5-8pm
Reception & Artist Talk - Saturday October 24th, 4-6pm
Rebecca Woodhouse’s collage work transforms cut-apart linoprints and salvaged, vintage neckties (sourced from a WWII survivor's decades-spanning collection) into layered explorations of memory and generational bonds. Weaving together traditionally masculine and feminine materials, this series, along with her richly textured paintings, challenges Modernism's gendered legacy while celebrating a shared, distinctly human touch.
Artist Statement
I started collaging during the Covid lockdown when I couldn’t go to my studio and couldn’t paint large in my home. Life in a pandemic forced us all to re-evaluate and, in some ways, reconstruct our lives around a new reality of rules, mandates, social distance, and remote work. We desperately tried to hold on to aspects of our pre-pandemic lives, but the realities and restrictions of the pandemic were woven into every aspect of our days.
I irreversibly cut apart my pre-Covid linoprints recombining them into new pieces far more structured than the originals. While retaining the colors and textures of what came before, they weave together into something more unique with gaps and separations as well as new synergies and harmonies.
Since then, I have continued this work, switching mostly to neckties. My friend’s father was a WWII survivor who collected the way many Depression-era people did, scouring thrift shops and stores for deals and leaving behind closets full of ties spanning decades of fashion. With this variety of widths, colors, and patterns, I weave stories of loss, shared pasts, and generational bonds, alongside the evolving place of the necktie in our society.
This series runs alongside my textured paintings which combine dozens of layers of linocut work with painted lines. Often, I create hybrids of the paintings and collages, and in each series, the roll of gender is in play. What materials are traditionally feminine or masculine? Male-dominated Modernism evolves to fit a more balanced contemporary world. With much work on that front still to come, my art has a definitive feminist bent. At the same time, these questions fit us all. With the human touch obvious, it is pro-human no matter what gender.