Winter Into Spring 2014 Textile Exhibitions in Ontario

Opening Soon

Quilts by John Willard: A 40 Year Retrospective  

February 15 – March 30, 2014

Burlington Art Centre
1333 Lakeshore Road,
Burlington, Ontario

opening reception and artist talk on Sunday February 23, at 2pm.

the BAC.ca

Dorothy Caldwell, Walking on Tundra,
silkscreen and discharged cotton, dyed, stitched and appliqué,
66 cm x 134.62 cm, 2013

Silent Ice / Deep Patience: Dorothy Caldwell

Art Gallery of Peterborough,

250 Crescent Peterborough 250 Crescent

 Opening Reception: Friday, March 21, 7 pm

http://www.agp.on.ca/

This new body of work developed by Caldwell continues her exploration of place, how we mark the land, and how it is visualized in mapping practices, both conventional and personal. The scope of her research included extensive travel in both the Australian Outback and the Canadian Arctic. There are strong parallels between Canada and Australia and how they each imagine themselves. Both have large central wilderness landscapes, and are technically both deserts. The Outback and the Arctic are harsh landscapes that the indigenous populations have learned to survive in. They are both powerful landscapes that inspire the imagination and the way we view the country.

“The works for the exhibition will be a response to these experiences and how they relate to my own sense of place. Ultimately one comes back to the familiar landscape with renewed perspective and ongoing questions about interpreting images and values of another culture in light of our own experience.” 

- Dorothy Caldwell

Caldwell maintains an active international exhibition and teaching schedule from her studio in Hastings, Ontario. Her travel and research in India, Japan, and Australia have influenced her work both as sources of dyeing and stitching practices and as places where textile artists share her beliefs in the integration of historical work in contemporary contexts. Caldwell has been recipient of the Saidye Bronfman Award.

She has executed major architectural commissions, and her work is in many permanent collections including the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Art Gallery of Peterborough.

Silent Ice / Deep Patience is an AGP touring exhibition and will be accompanied by a publication.

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Both John Willard and Dorothy Caldwell exhibits will present workshops with the artist for more information check out each gallery's websites and book participation through them.

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ON GOING and CLOSING SOON  

 

Images on invitation all details from Clockwise left to right: Peggy Mersesau, Bulls eye 2003, J. Lynne Cambel, Gift # 1, 1993, Ilse Amyas- Sailkauskas Mountain Memories, 1987, Barbara Brown, Ink Scribbles 1988, Linda Pinhay, New Orleans (Blanche’s Trip). 1996, David H Kaye Grounds to Wander The engaged Relief Series. 1982, Ted Hallman, Death Grip 1996,

 

25 Years of Collecting

January 24 - February 23, 2014

Cambridge Galleries IDEA | EXCHANGE, 

Queen's Square and Design at Riverside

A special expanded edition of the annual Select Works exhibition has been created as the finale to the Cambridge Galleries IDEA | EXCHANGE ’s 35th Anniversary celebrations. for more information

Karen Thiessen, Hamilton Ontario, The Journey Series: Forgiveness #6 1999, Cotton, dyed and distressed, quilted.
Acquired with assistance of Starry Night Committee 2001

You can see photos from this event and other shows that opened in January on fQ's facebook page 

Transformations: Taking Felt in New Directions

  Maggie Glossop and Andrea Graham

21 January, 2014 ~ 15 March, 2014

Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery,

Mississippi Valley Textile Museum

3, Rosamond St. E.
Almonte, Ontario

http://mvtm.ca/mvtm/?p=3486

Image on Invitation "Not to Know But to Go On, (detail) 2010 -2013, found fabrics, cotton embroidery floss, artist canvas cotton tape, hand stitched.

 Judy Martin: Mended World

January 19- March 2, 2014

Art Gallery of Sudbury

251 rue John St.

Sudbury, Ontario

visit Judy Martin on line to find out more about her work. http://judys-journal.blogspot.ca/

Title: Hamilton Sample, installation, 2014, collage of digital and silkscreen prints on fabric, found objects and photographs, hand embroidery. Size: 180x300cm

Photo by Istvan Zsako, provided by Anna Torma

On Thursday feb9 2014 I saw new work by Anna Torma at Hamilton Artist Inc. [becoming] The Logic of Memory: Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath, Anna Torma, January 23 – March 1, 2014, the show is very well shaped the combination of Images/ artists work very well. A catalogue essay by Tara Bursey can be downloaded http://theinc.ca/2014/01/15/becoming-the-logic-of-memory-corinne-duchesne-peter-horvath-and-anna-torma/

From Geisha to Diva: The Kimonos of Ichimaru

Jan 29, 2014 - Apr 11, 2014

Textile Museum of Canada

Organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Curated by Barry Till 

There are two other exhibitions on at the TMC

Telling Stories Until Apr 13, 2014

Fictions and Legends: Heather Goodchild and Jérôme Havre  Until Apr 13, 2014

 South African artist Fiona Kirkwood's work in the bar / dinning room at the Gladstone Hotel is part of Hardtwist. note the people sitting down to dinner if you need a size/ scale reference point see more of her work on her website http://www.fionakirkwood.co.za/
 

Hard Twist 2014 – This is Personal

Thurs Jan 23, 2014- Sun April 27, 2014

Queen Street West and Gladstone avenue

The Gladstone Hotel’s 8th Annual Juried Textile and Fibre Arts Exhibition. Hard Twist 8: This is Personal showcases works exploring the nuances, complexities and politics of that which is individual, private and intimate.

Cloth is personal. Cloth speaks of the person cocooned in successive layers of textile that communicate who they are, that tell of their dreams and aspirations. And occasionally betray their secrets.

Radiating out from underwear – intensely personal, usually hidden, and sometimes surprising – through the various layers that signal origins, social position, hopes, fears, sexuality and aspirations, Hard Twist 8 – This Is Personal encompasses the gamut of the human with signals wrapped in cloth.

 http://www.gladstonehotel.com/spaces/hard-twist/

I will be interviewing the curators Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell who have been organizing this show since it began in 2006 to coincided with the Textile Society of America's symposium Textile Narratives which took place at Harbourfront Centre in October 2006.

Marcel Marois, Tapestry Les angles d’un site, 1994-1995 high warp, wool, Gift to the Cambridge Galleries collection from the Cadillac Fairview Corporation 2013 

  When I attended the opening of  "25 years of Collecting" Cambridge Galleries. to see this tapestry was both a shock and a joy to see this Marcel Marois, Tapestry Les angles d’un site, 1994-1995, has been on display in the Bay King corridor in Toronto. This and other Tapestry have along with the Mies van der Rohe designed TD Centre (where this piece lived) given this area the prestige late modern architecture should have. Unfortunately they are disappearing as these building become renovated generic office towers out side of the history of Architecture. the joy comes from seeing it has found a new home. 

Since 2006 when I published a story called "Who made that: a question about Public (Textile) Art in Canada?" in fibreQUARTERLY Volume 3 Issue 1 / Winter 2007  I have been following the adventures of the tapestry works hanging in the Bay King corridor of downtown Toronto as they slowly disappear. Hopefully they will all end up in public collections where they can be seen. 

While I am sure there are more exhibitions featuring textiles such  as Born of the Indian Ocean: The Silks of Madagascar curator Sarah Fee which is on for a limited time in the Middle East / South Asia Special Exhibit case, 3rd Floor Lee-Chin Crystal.at the ROM (I have not seen it yet) and there will be coming up these are the one's that I have been able to track down.

Try and get out and see some beautiful historic textiles and interesting contemporary work and bring some colour and light into these horrible lingering days of this seemingly never ending winter.

From  From Geisha to Diva: The Kimonos of Ichimaru at the Textile Museum of Canada detail of: Disassembled Kimono, Silk, gold thread embroidered, painted. Gift of Mrs. Fumi Suzuki, SC 1114AGGV,

For cleaning. A kimono would be disassembled and its standardized, narrow panels sewn together into one long strip up to 11 meters long. After cleaning it would be stitched back together by hand

Context like time is everything

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I have a confession to make. At the ripe old age of 13 I had a subscription to Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine as it was called then and got out of bed after my parents went to theirs to watch the Merv Griffin Show. In other words I was reared on Gossip and it occurs to me that a blog is in fact nothing other then my own personal tabloid. Which is something I would rather avoid. However the reality in and around Toronto at the moment it is the only way to pass on information as quickly as it comes in. It is Thursday October 5, 2006 and I have just come home from the nothing short of spectacular opening of the Unholy Alliance: art + fashion meet again at the MOCCA having attended the opening of “And now for something Completely Different” exhibition down the street at More then just a Deli. My timing sucks I missed the performances at the MOCCA but arrived in time to enjoy the eye candy and the Lydia K. outfits, not to mention the fashionistas / art groupies.

The chance to meet Nick Cave (it would have been a matter of less then six degrees of separation if he was in fact in the building which I assumed he was from the rather sketchy PR material I received from Akimbo and the total lack of information on the MOCCA’s website was right) was a bit intimidating, just the fact that I could return anytime in the next month to look at his stunning work was enough. And besides I had to rush home get on – line to write this and set my agenda for the two weeks. I get ahead of myself.

So with out missing a beat let me bring you up to speed in this frenetic month of Fibre Art in Fibre City (aka Toronto). A week or rather ten days ago I finally managed to get up to the Koffler Gallery to see the other half of the Fray exhibition in order to write a review of it for Selvedge (yes this is blatant self promotion) with conviction. The next evening I was at the TMC listening to three of the artist Mille Chen, Susan Schelle and Jeannie Thib talking about their work, museum policies and textile art (referred to as outsider art and a ghetto to be trapped in by one of the artist) and spent the next to days trying to sort all that out on paper. While considering what a brilliant job Sarah Quinton and Carolyn Bell Farrell did putting Fray together.

On Saturday September 30^th I went to the Art Gallery of Hamilton to see the work of Anna Torma, a show that you should make an effort to see and I will write about in more detail at a later date.

image: Red Flower 1, Anna Torma copyright 2006, 168 x133 cm, hand embroidery ( provided by Art Gallery of Hamilton)

I dropped in to Hamilton Artist Ink and saw the installation work of Marcia Huyer “Tune in, Turn On and Bleach Out”. Marcia Huyer creates large installations using Tyvek®, fluorescent lights and fans. Tyvek®, the material she uses, is a high-density polyethelene fabric used to increase air and water resistance in construction applications and to create what its manufacturer, Dupont, calls “limited use protective garments” worn either for ‘dirty jobs’ or in hazardous environments. There is an exhibition of Bev Pike’s work coming up in February and the galleries promotional card/ invitation has an interesting easy “Vista and Visera” by Annie Milne. [Visit the website and ask about getting hold of a copy]

Back home I have been getting the Fibre Quarterly 2006 Anthology CD ROM ready for duplicating and mailing out to the new subscribers. The Cyber Fibre tour Map of downtown Toronto is nearly ready to be posted and printed. Now after a bracing cup of coffee and a Dare Chocolate Chip cookie or two, it Wednesday Oct 4^th and I am on a yellow school bus full of artist and curators and on the way to York University to see Kathryn Ruppert Dazai @ AGYU Vitrines, The Hill Series: You will be Alright; I will be OK. These three crochet mountain climbing vignettes are whimsical with just a touch suspense and add to the list of her works currently on display in Fibreworks 2006 at the Cambridge Galleries and at the TMC in Fray.

Installation view of "Twin White, I Don't Love You" 2006 and "the Conversation" 2005 by Kathryn Rupert Dazai. Image provided by the TMC

That brings you up to tonight and the extravaganza at the MOCCA and “and now for something completely different” This is just the beginning of a very busy two weeks of art and scholarship at the TSA’s Symposium. All of the exhibitions above need to be written about in greater detail so if your interest in participate on this Blog, linking it up with your own or writing for fibreQuarterly please get in touch with me.

If that isn’t enough to think about it is all so officially fall and that means October is the busiest fashion month of the year in Toronto with both L'Oreal Fashion Week (Oct 16-21) and Alternative Fashion Week (Oct. 17-19) taking place!

For more information on this check out the Toronto Street Fashion website at http://www.torontostreetfashion.com/ for an alternative approach to information

To find out more about the exhibitions above you can find links to the websites on the September 28^th posting “just in case you where wondering what to do”

Images from these events will be added as soon as they are sent to me and I can get around to it

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