Joe Cunningham began making quilts professionally in 1979, after a ten-year career as a musician in Michigan. His early mentors were steeped in the history and traditions of quilts, leading Cunningham to a life of study in quilt history and a love of traditional technique. Over the years his work has evolved into a unique personal style both original and shaped by the tradition. Cunningham travels throughout the country to give lectures and workshops on quiltmaking. He has two new books coming out with AQS in 2010, one on men who make quilts and one on his own life and work. He has been seen on the HGTV series “Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson,” as well as  “The Quilt Show” with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson.   Cunningham has performed his musical quilt show, “Joe the Quilter,” for guilds and theaters nationwide. The musical quilt show has been made into a DVD, “Joe the Quilter,” and Joe’s methods of basting and quilting are also available on DVD.

EXHIBITIONS

2010       A Family of Quilts, National Quilt Museum, Paducah, KY

2010       Wranglers Among Us, 10th Biennial Men’s Quilt Exhibit , Rocky Mtn Quilt Museum

                Golden, CO

2009        Draw the Line: New Quilts by Joe Cunningham, California Street Studios Gallery,

                San Francisco, CA

2009        Fall Into Fabrics, San Francisco Design Center Showplace    

2007Saturn Returns@ San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA

2007Old and New Quilts from Ancient and Modern Cities @Mitsukoshi

Department Store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo

2005Men of Biblical Proportion@Houston Int. Quilt Festival, George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX, Oct 22-24. Booked at various venues

through 2007.

2004The Life of a Quilt@Herbst International Exhibition Hall, San Francisco, CA. Solo show. June 2004 -August, 2004.

2004Return of the Quilts@Sanchez Street Studios, San Francisco, CA. Solo

show. December, 2003-June, 2004.

2003Man Made@Museum of the American Quilters Society, Paducah, KY,

March 15-July 12.

2003 Symphony of Color@Concourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco, CA,

March 22-23. (Featured Quilter with 10 quilts.)

2002Honoring the Tradition@Johnson Humerick House Museum, Coshocton,

OH, May 4-August 8.

2002Joe the Quilter: 1752-2002@The Branson School Art Gallery, Ross, CA,

April 8-May 1.

1999A Look Back@New Pieces Gallery, Berkeley, CA

November 1-November 30.

1998Patterns of Progress: Quilts in the Machine Age@Autry Museum of

Western Heritage, LA, CA, July-December.

1993New Quilts by Joe Cunningham@Warren Town Hall, Warren, Vermont,

July 1-July 30.

1990Recent Work by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham@New England

Quilt Museum, Lowell, Mass., April-July.

1989Quilts by Marston and Cunningham@Muskegon Museum of Art,

Muskegon, Michigan, March-July.

1985Quilts by Marston and Cunningham@Tamarack Craftsmen Gallery,

Omena, Michigan, summer, 1985.

1983New Traditions@University of Michigan, Flint, Michigan

February.

1982Quilts@Mountain Artisans Gallery, Boston, Mass,

summer, 1982.

Bibliography

Cunningham, Joe, Robert Shaw and Janneken Smucker.

                "Amish Abstractions: Quilts from the Collection of Faith and

                Stephen Brown," Catalogue for the exhibition at the deYoung

                Museum, San Francisco, CA, Pomegranate Publications,

                Petaluma, CA.

Cunningham, Joe. “Rough and Ready”, American Quilter

Magazine, September, 2008, AQS, Paducah, KY

Cunningham, Joe. “Joe the Quilter”, Quilters Newsletter

Magazine, July/August, 2008, CK Media, Golden, CO.

Cunningham, Joe. “Signed, Dated, No Longer Unknown”, Quilters Newsletter

Magazine, December, 2003, Primedia, Golden, CO.

Cunningham, Joe. “A Flowering of Quilts”, (book review of “A Flowering of Quilts”,

Patricia Cox Crews, ed.) Great Plains Quarterly, Summer,

2002, Vol. 22 No. 3, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, pgs 226-227.

Cunningham, Joe and Granick, Eve Wheatcroft. “Amish Quilts 1880-1940”,

The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI 2000.

Cunningham, Joe and others, Jane Townswick, ed. “Choosing Quilting Designs”,

Rodale, Inc. Emmaus, PA, 2001.

Cunningham, Joe. “Lessons from a Turn of the Century Quilt”, Threads, Dec/Jan,

2002, The Taunton Press, Newtown, CT., pgs 46-50.

Cunningham, Joe. “Signed, Dated, and Still Unknown”, Quilters Newsletter

Magazine, December, 2001, Primedia, Golden, CO. pgs 48-49.

Cunningham, Joe. “Quilt It Freehand”, Threads, Oct/Nov, 1997, The Taunton Press,

Newtown, CT., pgs 49-54.

Cunningham, Joe. “On Being a Man in the Quilt World”, Quilting Today, June, 1996

Chitra Publications, Montrose, PA.

Cunningham, Joe and Gwen Marston. “Quilting With Style”, American Quilters Society,

Paducah, KY, 1993.

Cunningham, Joe and Gwen Marston. “Mary Schafer and Her Quilts”, Michigan State

University Museum, East Lansing, MI, 1990.

Cunningham, Joe and Gwen Marston. “American Beauties:Rose and Tulip Quilts”,

American Quilters Society, Paducah, KY, 1988.

Cunningham, Joe and Gwen Marston. “Classic Quilting Designs”, Dover Publications,

Inc., NY, NY 1987.

Cunningham, Joe and Gwen Marston. “Sets and Borders”, American Quilters Society,

Paducah, KY, 1986.

Cunningham, Joe and Gwen Marston. “Amish Quilting Designs”, Dover Publications,

Inc., NY, NY 1986.

TELEVISION APPEARANCES

The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson, internet TV show:  always available

                                      @ www.thequiltshow.com, episode 101

Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson, “Amish Quilting Designs”, HGTV SERIES # 620

Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson, “Freehand Quilting”, HGTV SERIES # 739

DVD

“Joe the Quilter” Joe Cunningham, quilts, guitar and vocals. One-man musical, recorded live February 13, 2007, Rockingstitch Productions

“Basting and Quilting in an Old Fashioned Frame,” Rockingstitch Productions, 2006

CD

“Music for Squares,” 13 traditional songs, Joe Cunningham, guitar, Erik Walker, piano, Bottomfeeder Records #04, 2005.

The Perfect Existential Object

72 x 72, wool, 1997

Machine pieced, hand quilted