Andrew Mowbray: New Heraldic Ordinaries

Reception: Saturday, October 17, 3-5pm

Artist Talk: Wednesday, November 14, 11-12pm

The interdisciplinary artist Andrew Mowbray uses ubiquitous and humble objects and materials to create complex two-and three-dimensional artworks that allude to history or past paradigms of domesticity.  Since 2006, Mowbray has used commercially available Tyvek as a primary material to create intricately sewn artworks reminiscent of quilts and samplers. Mowbray imaginatively disguises Tyvek’s standard graphics and limited pallet of white, blue, orange, and red to create an infinite array of compositions and patterns that play with dichotomies of the hand-made and industrially produced, fine art and craft, and feminine and masculine.

In New Heraldic Ordinaries, Mowbray presents a series of personal crests, or ordinaries, fabricated from Tyvek. Dating from Medieval Europe, heraldic ordinaries designate a system of hereditary symbols, such as geometric shapes, typically displayed on shields or coats of arms, that were used to identify families, institutions, or nations. Finding aesthetic affinities with the geometric repetition of heraldic ordinaries, which are still seen today, Mowbray imagines his own family of ordinaries. Establishing a repeated “frame,” each ordinary then contains a unique configuration of shapes, forms, and symbols. While historically associated with nobility or the upper classes, Mowbray democratizes such identifications with the elite by rendering the name plate on each ordinary blank, allowing anyone to claim their own lineage. And in contrast to the material hardness of classic shields or coats of arms, Mowbray’s ordinaries project softness and whimsy, democratizing ideas of class and economic distinctions.

Raised in Duxbury and residing in Dorchester. MA, Mowbray received his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His project-based work has been exhibited extensively, nationally and internationally and is held in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Wellington Management, Fidelity Investments and numerous other private collections. Mowbray’s work has been reviewed in Art in America and featured in Sculpture Magazine. He has received grants from The Massachusetts Cultural Council, The LEF Foundation and the Artists Resource Trust. Andrew is currently Associate Teaching Professor in Art and Director of 3D Arts at Wellesley College.

image:
Andrew Mowbray
Unnamed Crests 1-10, 2026,
Tyvek Home Wrap, thread
37 x 31 in.
Photo credit: Julia Featheringill