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Announcing 2025's Gallery Exhibition Line Up
Heidi Earnshaw (January 11 - February 23, 2025)
January 11 - February 23, 2025
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
Heidi Earnshaw is a furniture designer and maker living and working in Eastern Ontario. Heidi studied Fine Art at the University of Toronto, graduating with High Distinction in 1993. After several years working in diverse studio environments, she returned to school to study design at Sheridan College where she later became a part-time faculty member in the furniture studio. In 2016, Heidi co-founded Junction workshop, a collaborative, community-based education space in downtown Toronto.
Characterized by clean lines and rich detailing, Heidiʼs work is inspired by Japanese and Scandinavian architecture, Shaker furniture, mid-century modernism and traditional craftsmanship. Re-imagining historical and archetypal forms within the context of contemporary design, she aims to create simple, useful and timeless pieces that enhance our daily rituals and add comfort and beauty to the spaces we inhabit.
A proponent of “slow design”, Heidi’s work is designed and made with a multigenerational lifespan in mind using responsibly harvested and enduring materials. In 2014 Heidi was awarded a Fellowship Residency from the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and in the US and has been recognized through the Toronto Arts Council, Craft Ontario, the Ontario Arts council and the Canada Council for the Arts
Chu Winnie Cheung (March 1 - April 13, 2025)
March 1 - April 13, 2025
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
Chu Winnie Cheung is a Chinese artist and translator based in Toronto. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Interpreting & Translation Studies from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in 2021 and furthered her education with a Master’s degree in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2023.
Winnie has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including the upcoming 33rd Japan Jewellery Competition in Tokyo, Japan; Marzee International Graduate Show 2023 in the Netherlands; and exhibition series of Balbuceo de un Preludio (La Brujula) in Chile across 7 cities. Her first solo exhibition opened in July 2024 at MaS Studio in Shanghai, China. Her professional experience includes roles as a gallery assistant at Ornamentum Gallery in Hudson, US, and as an instructor at Rhode Island School of Design, where she taught courses in metalsmithing and enameling. Winnie has been recognized for her innovative approach to jewelry making with several awards and nominations, including the New Talents Award Nominee 2023 by Klimt02. Her work has been featured in various publications and is part of several collections, such as BALBUCEO de un Preluido-La Brùjala Arte en Transito, and Marzee Magazine in the Netherlands.
Winnie's work intricately explores the freedom between humans and nature, using ‘clouds’ as a central motif. She extends this metaphor to examine societal and individual perspectives within Chinese culture through the format of jewelry.
Kae Sasaki (May 10 - June 22, 2025)
May 10 - June 22, 2025
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
Kae Sasaki (she/her) is a visual artist and Japanese-born settler living and working on Treaty One Territory, known as Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Kae grew up in Fukui, an hour away from Kyoto, with a slight detour in El Paso, Texas in her formative years. She graduated from Rikkyo University in Tokyo where she studied German literature as well as education and library science. After moving to Winnipeg she worked full-time in accounting and half-time grading exams and essays on campus while putting herself through School of Art at University of Manitoba, graduating with first class honours in 2012. Kae has taught drawing as a sessional instructor at University of Manitoba faculty of architecture while establishing a full-time studio practice.
Kae is a recipient of Alice Hamilton Painting Prize, Cecil C. Richards Memorial Award for achievement in figurative sculpture, Lynn Sissons Memorial Scholarship, and a public art commission award from University of Manitoba Sculptural Experience competition. Her art practice has been generously supported by grants from Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, and her work can be found in private, public, and corporate collections in Canada and U.S.A. She has been shortlisted for the Kingston Prize (2015/2017/2019), the Salt Spring National Art Prize (2017) and Jackson's Open Painting Prize (2018/2019) for her painting.
While her primary art medium remains representational painting, Kae started creating unconventional beadwork using reclaimed vintage Japanese beads that are harvested from damaged vintage beaded bags and using traditional Japanese beading technique since 2019. Her beadwork has received funding support from Manitoba Arts Council through Manitoba Arts Council Riding Mountain Artist Residency in 2019 and 2023, and Manitoba Craft Council through Victoria Beach Retreat in 2023.
Gordon Sparks (June 28 - August 10, 2025)
June 28 - August 10, 2025
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
"My name is Gordon Sparks, my clan mother is the beaver, clan spirit animal the bear, born from the Turtle River, and the salmon is our clan dotem, raised in Pabineau First Nation, now living in Rough Waters, New Brunswick. The traditional hand-carved wooden mask has taken me on a vision path that is guiding my mind, body, and spirit to seek knowledge and wisdom of the Mi'kmaw people’s stories, traditional ceremonies, traditional food, and medicine. Each mask that I make is from my life story, and the people of Mi’kma’ki. Each mask, has a personal story on how I was guided to find the tree, take its life, carve the spirit out of the wood for all to see, and listen to what it has to say to ears that need to hear it. The vision I have been given guides my passion, and desire to record the past and present, with three dimensional form. I strongly believe in the traditional hand-carved wooden mask, traditional ceremony and storytelling. Each mask speaks to me, guides me, the tree that is chosen speaks to me to carve the spirit of our ancestors and the stories of our life givers and life protectors that live here in Mi’kma’ki, to be shown to all people of the land. In the end the spirits of the trees will speak of my people of today and my ancestors of the past, through the wooden mask, storytelling, and the language of the land. My work as a Mi’kmaw artist represents tradition for the Mi'kmaw people, to guarantee the preservation of traditional values, new and old ceremonies, oral storytelling, and the gathering of people to share in life stories together."
Nithikul Nimkulrat (August 16 - September 28, 2025)
August 16 - September 28, 2025
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
Born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, Nithikul Nimkulrat is a Toronto-based textile artist, designer, researcher, and educator having worked in Europe for 18 years before relocating to Toronto in December 2018. Prior to her current academic appointment as Associate Professor in Material Art and Design at OCAD University, Nithikul worked at Estonian Academy of Arts (Estonia, 2013–2018), Loughborough University (UK, 2011–2013), and Aalto University (Finland, 2004–2010), where she earned a doctorate in 2009. Before landing in her academic career, Nithikul worked in research and development in a jacquard weaving firm in Bangkok for three years and as a design entrepreneur in Helsinki for nearly ten years.
In her current work, Nithikul interweaves creative and research practices. Her research interest is rooted in her textile practice, lying across conceptual issues in art and design, especially the role of creative practice in academic research and the immateriality of physical materials in creative processes. Having situated her work at the intersection of art and design and at that of the academic and art worlds, her creative artefacts have received awards and have been exhibited internationally, while her research has been published in peer-reviewed publications and presented in international conferences.
Being a minimalist who is obsessed with details and loves using no tools but hands, paper string is a perfect medium for Nithikul. The medium, fine yet strong, allows her to create ethereal installations composed of intricate human-scale sculptural forms. Upon scrutiny of these forms, one can recognize thousands of knots connected to one another to construct a lacy structure. Expressed through such structure, the theme of her work often evolves around ordinary things or people that we encounter in everyday life but may overlook until they are no longer present. The environment in which Nithikul works influences her to be sensible to things that appear commonplace, inviting her to appreciate their uniqueness and minutiae and translate them into artistic work that may, in turn, remind the viewer of the value of simple things around them.
