Handmade modern: Tanya Aguiñiga on ‘Craft in America’

If there can be a rock star in the world of craft, Tanya Aguiñiga is it. The Los Angeles artist whom we profiled earlier this month in conjunction with her show at the JF Chen gallery in Hollywood takes the stage again, this time in “Craft in America: Crossroads,” the latest installment of the Peabody Award-winning PBS series, scheduled to air Friday night.

Executive producer and director Carol Sauvion described Aguiñiga as an “emissary for the handmade in contemporary design.” Her pieces bridge the worlds of the traditional and the modern, the Mexican and the American, Sauvion said, referring to the fact that the artist grew up in Tijuana and San Diego.

And as a teacher at Otis College of Design in Los Angeles, “she’s brought handwork techniques back into the design process,” Sauvion said.

“Craft in America” airs locally at 9 p.m. Friday.

You also can read Alissa Walker’s recent piece on Aguiñiga, as well as a mention in the recent home profile of Los Angeles Modern Auctions owners Peter and Shannon Loughrey. In their Encino house, Aguiñiga’s felted Eames chairs live quite comfortably as pieces of contemporary design among classic midcentury furniture and 1970s architecture.

craig.nakano@latimes.com

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