Opening August 30, 2026  – 3 p.m. 

Piece / Work: The Art of Mary Lou Goertzen explores individual pieces of the artist’s oeuvre, or body of work—drawings, collages, porcelain china, and a range of textiles—as well as the nature of work for an artist who rarely held a job. Goertzen created artwork during the in-between times of domestic labor while raising a family, taught occasional art classes, sold her artwork at festivals and farmers’ markets, and eventually pursued more lucrative commercial contracts, publishing her drawings as printed cards and on porcelain china. She told stories of her life through the piecework of houses she inhabited, biographical and story quilts, and collaged portraits of friends. The stories of her commercial production trace how Goertzen translated drawings into china patterns and eventually into pieced quilts as well. The interweaving of these stories within the exhibition means that viewers may ask themselves, Is this life or work? For Goertzen, life and work often became one and the same, with little separation between the personal and the professional.