Education

Museum Exhibitions

Juried Exhibitions

Exhibitions

Gallery Shows

Awards

Bibliography

Accomplishments

Current Galleries

The uniqueness of my fiber art developed from my passions for baskets, horses and Spanish metal work. My adoration for baskets was cultivated at childhood when on Saturday mornings in Argentina I would wait with excitement for a horse drawn basket cart to pass in front of our house. As it approached I would run out of the house and admire the utilitarian baskets piled high on the cart. My enthusiasm for horses has always been with me ever since I can remember and I have always had them in my life. Since living in the southwest I have become intrigued by early silver and tinwork done by the Spaniards. My art reveals a personal interpretation of these multicultural interests and my environment.

My horsehair hand stamped sterling silver baskets are contemporary in nature and traditional in materials. I use a coiled basketry technique with creative designs and imaginative sterling silver metal work. The basket’s shapes vary depending on the original hand stamped sterling silver, which serve as a base for the horsehair bundles.

I’m the one tickling the horse.

Jane Chavez received her Bachelors of Science in Agronomy in 1973 from New Mexico State University, and in 1996 she obtained a Masters in Technology of Education from the University of New Mexico. In 2000 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Study ambient air quality and ecology in Brazil. From 1973 to 2003 she taught secondary sciences with the Santa Fe Public School.

In 1993 Jane began to develop an interest in baskets. At this time she started to create coiled horsehair baskets. Friends and relatives encouraged her to pursue this art form and Windsor Betts Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico carried her work. Since then she has shown in galleries throughout the southwest and on the east coast.

Jane’s unique horsehair and hand stamped sterling silver baskets have received a Trademark Design from the United States and Patent and Trademark Office. This registration of Jane’s work protects the integrity of the artwork associated with her name.

From 1999 to 2003 Jane showed her distinctive horsehair baskets in the juried Museum of New Mexico, Fiber Arts Festival of Traditional Cultures of the Southwest in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Every year she participated in this juried exhibition she won first place in the Contemporary Mixed Media Basketry category. In 2003, 2005 and 2006 the artist was asked to place her work in the juried and invitational National Basketry Organization exhibitions. In 2005 she was juried into the Arizona State University Art Museum’s exhibition entitled “Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection”. This exhibition is now traveling to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Palo Alto Art Center, James A Michener Art Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum and New Mexico Museum of Art. Jane was asked by Snyderman-Works Gallery in 2006 and 2007 to show in the SOFA (Structural Objects and Functional Arts) Exhibit in Chicago. In 2008 the Santa Fe Arts commission choose 2 of Jane’s baskets for their permanent art collection at the new Santa Fe Civic Center.

Several articles in prestigious craft and fiber magazines have been written regarding Jane and her artwork. The November 2005 issue of The Crafts Report featured a two page article in their Craft Scene: News, entitled “One Artist’s Step to Trademarking Her Work”. In the January/February 2004 issue of the Fiberarts magazine an article was written regarding Jane’s artwork and her pursuit of a trademark design. The article’s title was “An Artist’s Mark: A Long Horse Tale”.

Jane Chavez’s artwork is currently being shown at Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, MA.