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

Febuary 2010: Canadian Textile and Fibre openings, and ongoing exhibitions

This just a quick look at what is currently opening and up in different cities across Canada


Toronto

you can see more photos from February events  as they happen in my  facebook album 
February in Toronto 2010

He That Makes Himself a Sheep, a new sculpture by Barbara Hobot,

Peak Gallery, 23 Morrow Avenue, Toronto

On view from January 27 - February 13, 2010

You can read about Barbara Hobots recent work in an Interview with Mike Landry for Thingsofdesire.ca, April 30 2009

Nine Patch Quilt (1848). On loan from the Ontario Black History Society (photo by joe lewis)
Stitching Community: African Canadian Quilts From Southern Ontario
Wilson Canadian Heritage Exhibition RoomSigmund Samuel Gallery of Canada, Royal Ontario Museum
January 29 Until September 6, 2010

Vessna Perunovich, ON EXHIBIT
Performance / installation / video / large scale wall drawings

PAUL PETRO SPECIAL PROJECTS SPACE
962 Queen Street West
February 1st to 28th, 2010 / 9am-5pm

Closing Party: February 26th,2010 / 7pm-10pm

Toronto based artist Vessna Perunovich transforms Queen Street’s Paul Petro Special Projects Gallery into a studio/residency site-specific space. Enclosed within the Gallery space and exposed to pedestrians through the gallery window, Perunovich will practice her art under the scrutiny of the public eye. For the entire month of February, the audience will have a unique opportunity to experience the artist’s creative process as a public display, rather than an intimate enclosed experience.

Pass by the Gallery and witness the artist as she performs her project On Exhibit.

As a sculpture she has used fibre strings, netting and fabric in much of her work. She was in the first Hard Twist at the Gladstone in 2006 with piece called "wounding"

Falling Water

Textile Art of Stephanie Ford Forrester

Campbell House Museum
160 Queen Street est, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H3
Free admission to gallery, Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 9:30 am—4:30 pm; Saturday, 12:00—4:30 pm
www.campbellhousemuseum.ca

 

Wired by Susan Carr
Feb. 3 - 21, 2010 . reception on Sunday Feb. 14th, 2 - 5 pm.
*new* gallery . 

906 Queen St. W. Toronto ON M6J 1G6 , 416-588-1200
www.new-gallery.ca
Wed.-Sun. 1-6 pm.

In the passed few years Susan Carr has shown in Washi group shows that have continued annually after the 2008 World Wahis Summit here in Toronto.

Waterline SUSAN WARNER KEENE

February 6- 28th
DAVID KAYE GALLERY
1092 Queen Street West
(entrance on Dovercourt)
Toronto, ON M6J 1H9
416.532.9075
www.davidkayegallery.com 

 Water Line: recent paper work, and officially opens from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. on February 6th. The exhibition continues until February 28th. Susan will also be at the gallery on Thursday, February 4th from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. to meet with visitors that may be out for the FIRST THURSDAYS WALK WESTWARD tour in the West Queen West District. Betty Ann Jordan leads tours to specific galleries each FIRST THURSDAY of the month. 

For more information go to < http://westqueenwest.ca/ > and learn more about the area and the exciting variety of galleries, restaurants and retail shopping offered in the neighbourhood that extends from Bathurst Street west to Gladstone Av

Coming up at the David K Gallery March 4 - 28, 2010
EVA ENNIST, A Curious Development: new mixed media sculpture
Meet the artist reception: Saturday, March 6 from 2 - 5 p.m.

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Ongoing
Textile Museum of Canada

Installation view of Fashionably Wrapped, showing the traditional male shawl

(image provide by TMC)

Kaleidoscope:Antique Quilts from the collection of Carole and Howard Tanenbaum, September 23, 2009 - March 21, 2010

In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture + Art,
September 30, 2009 - April 11, 2010
Fashionably Wrapped: The Influence of Kashmir Shawls,
November 18, 2009 - May 30, 2010

In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture + Art,
September 30, 2009 - April 11, 2010
Textile Museum Of Canada
55 Centre Avenue
Toronto, ON M5G 2H5
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/

Harbourfront Centre: Winter 2010 Exhibitions Saturday 23 January 10 — Sunday 04 April 10

 J. Penney Burton, Unrealized Potential Three: Orange, Red, Yellow and Green Peppers, (detail), 2009 photo Joe Lewis (me)

LABOURIOUS; Contemporary textile-based work carries on the labour intensive traditions of central Canada to the eastern provinces. curated by j.Penney Burton. Vitrines in South Hall

Amanda McCavour's the kitchen, embroidery on  water soluble fabric , York Quay Gallery (photo Joe Lewis)

IT'S A BIG DEAL! The biennial exhibition of new work by Harbourfront Centre's current artists-in-residence.
Curated by Melanie Egan, Head of Craft, and Patrick Macaulay, Head of Visual Arts
York Quay Gallery and Studio Hallway Vitrines 

 

Norah Deacon, "nest" In the studio hallway cases

http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/

Calgary

Photo by John Hails provided by The Nickle Arts Museum

Reeds and Wool: Pattern Screens of Central Asia  

From the Sommer-Krieger collection of Kyrgyz Reed ScreensOctober 2, 2009- February 22, 2010,

The Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary Alberta, Canada.

Royal Alberta Museum, April 3-July 4, 2010 in Edmonton, Alberta

Montreal

tricot nouveau by Lysanne Latulippe (AKA majolie), prize-winner of the Prix Lucien-Desmarais, in 2008.

Centre des textiles contemporains de Montréal

5800, St-Denis, espace 501

Montreal, QC

To find out more about the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles and their twentieth anniversary year on their website 

To add to their 20th anniversary celebrations, they have produced videos on the career of five of our graduates : Marie Pierre Daigle, Josée Hamelin, Lysanne Latulippe, Dahlia Milon, Isabelle Sentenne. You can see these videos on YouTube at the following web addresses : YouTube

Vancouver;

 

Kate Jackson, I won’t treat my tears like tissue, 2008,Hand-embroidery, facial tissue, cardstock, plastic, 22 x l0 x 18cm

Kate Jackson is just one of the textile artist with work in Unity and Diversity. 

This photograph is from fibreworks 2008 at the Cambridge Galleries 

ART OF CRAFT .

Presented with Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. at the Museum of Vancouver 

1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, British Columbia

Art of Craft showcases 173 spectacular fine craft works in three parts:

Unity & Diversity: Selected Works - 75 pieces from across Canada recently on display at the 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale in the Republic of Korea.

By Hand/BC and Yukon - 51 pieces from Canada’s West Coast with a focus on the artists’ creative processes and studio environments.

Craft from the Republic of Korea - 47 pieces demonstrating the excellence of traditional and contemporary crafts.

Museum of Vancouver

Winnipeg 

 Costume Museum of Canada
109 Pacific Avenue, Downtown Exchange District, Winnipeg

Find them on facebook and check their website for images and more information

Wartime Weddings, From Jan 19th, 2010 until Apr 4th, 2010

Special garments are an important part of many rituals the world over, but the wedding dress tops them all. This show will display bridal wear from the years of the First and Second World Wars, when weddings offered happy reprieve from hard times.

Native/American Apparel, From Jan 19th, 2010 until Apr 4th, 2010

Guest curator: Jenny Western, Urban Shaman Gallery

Bringing together artwork by Contemporary Aboriginal artists, Lita Fontaine and KC Adams, alongside pieces drawn from the collection at the Costume Museum of Canada, Native/American Apparel looks at the relationship of fashion, clothing, and textile to the representation of Indigenous identities. By juxtaposing historical artifacts with current artworks, Native/American Apparel encourages viewers to consider the role of the collection and exhibition of objects made by First Nations and Metis people in galleries and museums, particularily those objects made by women.

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Opening of the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume

High up in the rafters, under the eaves, (so to speak) there is a small jewellery box, quilts, coverlets, some old clothes, weaving equipment and a scrap or two of cloth not to mention some home movies. You might think I am talking about my grandparents’ house and in a way I am, but not just my grandparents. It’s more everybody’s grand, great grand and much further back toward the beginning of history. With over 50,000 specimens in its collection the Royal Ontario Museum is a treasure trove; a researcher’s delight; and an old fashioned burlesque artist (with a face lift) doing a striptease, removing a glove, showing a shoulder then leaving you wanting more.

2. Woman's corset called Sapho H by Manufacture Royale Waist measurement 24 inches (978.28)

This week sees the opening of the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume located on Level 4 of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, it is in some oddly appropriate way “in the attic”. In their opening remarks at the media preview both Mark Douglas Engstrom, the Deputy Director, Collections and Research; and Alexandra Palmer, the Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Curator World Cultures, Textiles and Costume spoke of the size of the collection versus the size of the exhibition and its six month rotation schedule, the necessity of maintaining, conserving and storing these artifacts while making more available in public view.

3. Tapestry square from a curtain or cover
Linen and wool tapestry in a linen tabby ground
Egypt, Late Antique, 4th - 5th century
(910.131.36)

This inaugural exhibition in this new space consists of 200 pieces from the museums collection and presents a survey drawn from Household Textiles: upholstery, bedding and decorative accessories and Clothing: male and female, formal, ceremonial and everyday. These specimens are representative of the many cultural holdings in the collection and displayed sculpturally in display cases / quasi diorama “sets” and hung or lain in cabinets and Vitrines in a way that completely ignores the architecture of the space. Perhaps ignores is the wrong word, the exhibition layout seemingly has no relation to the Michael Lee- Chin Crystal with its jutting triangular spaces, other then the quaintness of the attic reference, but that’s not it either. The footprint of this layout provides easy traffic flow through the space, it provides points of observation allowing the architecture to simply disappear rather then distract the viewer from the objects.

4.Man’s ceremonial mantle or hip cloth called hinggi kombu
Warp ikat cotton tabby, fringe, Indonesia (Eastern Sumba Island)
1900 – 1925 (956.63.17)

In some ways this is a small jewel box of a space, yet vast and open with future possibilities that both curators and installation designers will learn to take advantage of. As it stands now this current exhibition is completely transferable to any open space which in terms of design is useful. This may seem an arbitrary statement of little importance, but having recently seen the Emily Carr touring exhibition at both the AGO in Toronto and the Glenn Bow Museum in Calgary I was shocked by the shift in impact a different floor plan can have, had on the work in this exhibition. It will be interesting to watch how the ROM adjusts to its new and perhaps controversial space and the influence it has on exhibition design throughout the museum. The architecture is a fait accompli but now the learning curve begins.

5. Empress' surcoat, Silk tabby with inserted tapestry in silk and gold-wrapped
thread. China, 1875 – 1900 (919.6.148)

This is our introduction to the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costumes at the Royal Ontario Museum. a review of this exhibition will be in the next issue of fibreQUARTERLY.

About Patricia Harris: She was the first women elected to the ROM Board of Trustees, serving from 1969-1973 and now serves as Heritage Governor. She has volunteered at the ROM for 50 years with a particular interest in Textiles and Costumes, a passion that led her to become first chair of the former Textile Endowment Fund Committee (1975-1990). She initiated the Textile and Costume Committee (TEX-CO) in 1996, and served as its Chair for several years. She currently heads the subcommittee for the Friends of Textiles and Costumes (FTC). Throughout her associations with the ROM, Harris has lectured extensively about textiles and costumes on its behalf.

Her interest in sewing and needlework goes back to her childhood, she has also learned to weave needlepoint and to quilt. Following schooling in Ottawa and Bellville she attended the University of Toronto, following which she married Torontonian Bill Harris.

William Harris is now a retired financial services executive, is past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto and ex-officio member of the ROM Board of Trustees

6. Woman’s toga dress printed with Henri Matisse’s Femmes et singes.
Designed by Vivienne Westwood (b.1941)Silk-screened machine knit cotton,
England (London) 1982 – 1983 (2004.125.1)

The Royal Ontario Museum opened its doors to the public on March 19 1914. The Michael Lee- Chin Crystal received its Architectural Opening and Building Dedication on June 2 2007. Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume opened its doors to the public on April 16 2008.

visit the website and watch a Podcast of Stavros: Master Tailor, April 11, 2008
Lights, camera, fashion. Explore the extensive transformations in textile design and technology throughout the past three millennia in the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume, opening April 16, 2008.

See the full Stavros: Master Tailor video and more in the gallery.

Photo Information:

1. collage of images taken in gallery at preview by Joe Lewis

all other images provided and copyrighted by the ROM and used by permission

2. Section: Exhibit of Clothing

Woman's corset called Sapho H by Manufacture Royale
Waist measurement 24 inches,Silk satin, whale bones, steel busk, trimmed with machine lace
Belgium.c. 1880 – 1885. 978.28 Gift of Mrs. Frances Howey

Before the mid-19th century, the fitting of corsets necessitated
intimate contact between the sexes – corset-making, which
required knowledge of measuring and tailoring, was a male
trade. This, along with the need for assistance to lace it closed
in the back, partially accounts for the erotic associations of this
garment. The introduction of industrially-produced a- shaped
steel busks with hooks and eyes sewn into the front enabled
women to more easily dress themselves.

3. Section: Oldest Surviving Textiles

Tapestry square from a curtain or cover
Linen and wool tapestry in a linen tabby ground, Egypt, Late Antique, 4th - 5th century
910.131.36 The Walter Massey Collection

A horseman hunting rabbits is framed by a vine springing from
a fluted urn in the centre of each side and forming corner
roundels with boys carrying baskets of fruit or birds. Hunting
motifs and inhabited plant scrolls are frequent in Late Antique
art, and were associated with prosperity. This largely
monochromatic tapestry square can be given an early date
because of its classical motifs, naturalistic proportions, lively
movement and 3/4 views.

4.. Section: Lynda Hamilton Exhibit of Printing

Man’s ceremonial mantle or hip cloth called hinggi kombu
Warp ikat cotton tabby, fringe, Indonesia (Eastern Sumba Island)
1900 – 1925, 956.63.17 Gift of Mr. J. Langewis

Hinggi are made and worn in pairs, one draped over the
shoulder, the other wrapped around the hips. Two identical
panels are dyed to create the design in mirror image, both
vertically and horizontally. They are then sewn together to
create a single symmetrical cloth. The traditional animal and
plant designs are inspired by nature. The repeated motif of the
andung (a skull tree found in a royal village) symbolizes victory
over enemies.

5. Section: Exhibit of Chinese Textiles and Costume

Empress' surcoat . Silk tabby with inserted tapestry in silk and gold-wrapped
thread China 1875 – 1900 919.6.148

The George Crofts Collection, gift of the Robert Simpson Company

The wardrobe of the emperor’s wife and high-ranking consorts
included garments that clearly signaled their status and rank like
any other courtier, although none was directly involved with
affairs of state. This padded and quilted winter coat with eight
roundels was worn over a dragon robe for semi-formal
occasions.

Only the emperor and his immediate family could wear robes
with the five-clawed dragon called long. These outranked the
four-clawed dragons called mang, which were assigned to
princes of the third through the eighth rank. Front-facing
dragons outranked those shown in profile, and round badges
outranked square ones.

6. Section: Lynda Hamilton Exhibit of Printing

Woman’s toga dress printed with Henri Matisse’s Femmes et singes

Designed by Vivienne Westwood (b.1941)
Buffalo Collection, sold at Nostalgia of Mud, London
Silk-screened machine knit cotton
England (London) 1982 – 1983
2004.125.1 Gift of Lynda Latner

This simple T-shaped dress is from Westwood’s first collection
under her own name. The screen printing technique produced
in her artisanal setting and the single large image taken from a
1958 Matisse lithograph transformed a plain T-shirt material
into an art statement. It can be worn as a draped toga wrapped
in multiple ways around the body or left to fall in a train
revealing the full image. An example of this design was worn
by fashion illustrator Richard Grey in London nightclubs.