LIBBY RAAB

Organic, abstract, woven paper sculpture

 
 

 

BIOGRAPHY & RESUME


Libby Raab is a paper weaver and licensed architect based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Holding a BA in Psychology from DePauw University and a BArch from Boston Architectural College, she has practiced architecture for over 30 years and founded Libby Raab Architecture in 2015.

Raab began her art practice in 2021, working with photo and paper weaving as an exploration of structure, pattern, and color. She views weaving as an inherently architectural act, a form of spatial expression and material experimentation. Just as her residential architecture prioritizes connection and intimacy, her artwork seeks the same personal resonance, inviting viewers into layered, tactile encounters with familiar imagery.

Her work has been commissioned for private residences and public spaces, and has been featured in galleries, publications, and a museum exhibition.

 
Portrait of Artist Sculptor Libby Raab
 

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Weaving is an act of integration. My paper weaves explore both the generation and the degeneration of this act: the simultaneous building up and the breaking down, the integration of structure and the disintegration of organic material into impermanence and decay.

The building blocks of my weaves are original photographs of patterns found in nature. Some images are intentionally degraded, others exaggerated, creating digital textures that evoke the impression of previously woven fabric. Working with pre-printed paper and paper raffia, I am drawn to how paper inhabits a space between the mundane (receipts, documents, packaging) and the transcendent. It is capable of evoking emotion and narrating stories far beyond its utilitarian origins.

My weaves are meditations on the balance between presence and absence. I have discovered that removing material, or "unweaving," can unveil unexpected beauty. I find the same quiet dignity in ancient textile fragments: remnants where time has etched its story through worn threads, missing sections, and faded patterns. Each tear and repair speaks of lives lived, of countless hands and moments woven into fabric.

By pairing a humble, everyday material with one of humanity's oldest crafts, I have found a lens through which to examine both. These are not functional objects as in traditional woven fiber, but pure artistic explorations of color, texture, and pattern, works that sit at the intersection of architecture and textile, structure and decay, the familiar and the transformed.

 
 

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2026 Thinking Through Tapestry, American Tapestry Alliance, Evanston Art Gallery, Evanston, IL
2026 Ripples Art Exhibit curated by Esther Mallouh, UC Law SF
2026 Winter Shadows, Silicon Valley Visual Arts, Burlingame Library, Burlingame CA
2025 Pacific Art League 104th Anniversary Art Exhibition, Palo Alto CA
2025 Sausalito Center for the Arts Open, CA
2025 Expressions of Fall, Silicon Valley Visual Arts & Community School of Music and Arts, Mountain View, CA
2025 One World, Many Voices, Flavio Dolce Art Projects, New Orleans LA
2025 Portola Valley Arts Fest, Portola Valley CA
2025 Bravemakers Film Festival, Redwood City CA
2025 Members Exhibition, Pacific Art League, Palo Alto CA
2025 Contemporary California Artists, Chandler Gallery, Mill Valley CA
2025 Spaces Between Exhibition, Surface Design Association, Florida CraftArt, St. Petersburg FL
2025 One World Exhibition (virtual), Museu Textil,
2025 Art at the CZI Community Space - 2025 Artist Cohort, Redwood City Park & Arts Foundation, Redwood City CA
2025 Dimensional Dialogues, Flavio Dolce Art Projects, New Orleans LA
2024 Pacific Art League 103rd Anniversary Art Exhibition, Palo Alto CA
2024 Off the Grid, 10-Fold Projects Gallery, Greencastle IN
2024 Portola Valley Arts Fest, Portola Valley CA
2024 Silicon Valley Open Studios, Portola Valley CA
2023 Paper Made, Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro VT
2023 Paper Weaving: Integration and Decay (Solo Show), Community School of Music and Arts, Mountain View, CA
2023 "Art at the Lex", The Lexington House, Los Gatos CA Portola Valley Arts Fest, Portola Valley CA
 

 

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Architecture 1996
Boston Architectural College, Boston MA
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology/Art History 1987
DePauw University, Greencastle IN