SECURITY BLANKET: Embroidered textiles by Jennifer Smith-Windsor (March 9 - April 7, 2021)

Image: Jennifer Smith-Windsor. 'SECURITY BLANKET: Russia' (Detail), 2018. Vintage military issue blanket, vintage doilies and lace, embroidery floss. 196cm x 136cm. Photo by Chris Snow.

March 9 - April 7, 2021
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

The crisis of the global COVID-19 pandemic has drawn into sharp focus our collective global vulnerability against the threat of an unknown enemy. It has forced us to change our habits, from the way we work, shop, travel exercise, and perhaps most importantly, greet and visit friends and loved ones. It has forced us to ask critical questions such as: What does it mean to be safe and secure? How can we protect ourselves, our families, our friends and strangers? How can we secure our country from incoming, potentially unseen threats?

Coming at a time when we are all searching for comfort and the assurance that we will be safe, the SECURITY BLANKET series seeks to explore the above questions and more. The first object to touch a newborn baby, the blanket offers warmth and reassurance, but the blanket continues to be an object associated with well-being and security long after early childhood. Security is defined as a state of being safe and free from worry, but is there more to its meaning than initially suggested by this dictionary definition? SECURITY BLANKET explores two notions of security. First, the security of the home – represented by antique, handmade domestic textiles such as doilies and lace. And second, the security of the state – represented by eight government-issue military blankets from Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Switzerland and the United States. These repurposed objects constitute a blank canvas onto which another layer of meaning can be added to their already nuanced histories. The intricate patterning created by the use of traditional embroidery stitches integrates these two divergent representations of security on both a physical and conceptual level, producing works of visually interesting contrast that provoke the viewer to consider their own relationship to home, comfort, safety and security.

Jennifer Smith-Windsor is a textile artist based in Stratford, Ontario. She was the 2019 recipient of the Craft Ontario Helen Frances Gregor Award for excellence in contemporary textile and in 2010 received the Mary Diamond Butts Scholarship in Embroidery and Needlecraft, also from Craft Ontario. Jennifer’s art practice focuses almost exclusively on hand embroidery. When hand stitching, she deliberately uses a limited range of stitches, exploring the wealth of possibilities that this restricted repertoire offers. Vintage, handmade textiles figure prominently in her work as reclaiming them and giving them a second life is incredibly important to her. They act as her starting point, a blank canvas onto which another layer of meaning can be added. She has always been drawn to cloth; embroidering as a child, sewing her own clothes as a teenager, studying textiles at university, working in theatre costume departments as a young adult and now with an active textile art practice. It is cloth’s intimate relationship to the body, its ubiquity in our lives, its associations with the home, its links to the past and its relevance to the future that continues to inspire her.

www.jennifersmith-windsor.com

Mass Wasting: October 22 - November 14, 2020

Image: Bettina Matzkuhn. 'Thicker Than Water (detail)', 2019. Hand embroidery, cotton canvas, paint.

October 22 - November 14, 2020
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

Responding to the current era of rapid and accelerating change to the landscape, ‘Mass Wasting’ explores the impact(s) of environmental destabilization through the lens of craft practice.

Through both direct and indirect human intervention, the form of the Earth is changing. Extractive mining practices and deforestation have immediate and obvious effects, while warming temperatures are causing unprecedented thawing of permafrost. The term ‘mass wasting’ refers to the geomorphic process by which rocks and soil move downhill (eg. rock slides, soil creep and thaw slumps). ‘Mass wasting’ is both cause and effect: the means by which we have arrived on this increasingly unstable ground.

This exhibition aims to address the psychic, social, cultural, and political impact of environmental unpredictability as identified by artists working in diverse craft media. It also considers the ways in which instability can open up fissures of possibility — opportunities for change and innovation.

Artists:

SLICE: Biodigital Jewellery by Paul McClure (September 5 - October 3, 2020)

Image credit: Paul McClure. 'Slice' brooches, 2020. Nylon, stainless steel. Approx. 8 x 4 cm each. Photo: Digital by Design.

September 5 - October 3, 2020
Reception by Appointment: Sat, Sept. 12, 11am-3pm & Sun, Sept. 13, 2-6pm
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St West, Toronto

See a video gallery tour by curator Robyn Wilcox
See a selection of Paul McClure's work available for sale online

'Slice' is a collection of jewellery expressing my fascination with the microscopic realm of the human body. Abstract forms refer to bacteria, viruses, cells and their structures within us. As these invisible but universal components come to define us, they also acquire cultural meaning independent of their biological definition. The highly aestheticized microscopic imagery and cutaway diagrams from popular science are particular sources of inspiration for this work: geometric forms, graphic patterns and vibrant colours. The forms are “digitally handmade” using a combination of computer modelling and 3D printing technologies with traditional metalworking techniques of forming, fabricating and finishing. Slicing through these forms reveals surprising and pleasing sections and patterns. However, the slice, like a microbe itself, exposes tensions between the benevolent and sinister, the beautiful and ugly, the fascinating and fearful.

– Paul McClure

Paul McClure is an Irish-Canadian artist and designer of contemporary jewellery. His work is represented in private and public collections including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Canadian Museum of History; Design Museum of Barcelona; and National Museums Scotland. McClure graduated from NSCAD University, Halifax, Canada (BFA, 1989); Escola Massana, Barcelona, Spain (1990); and National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland (MA, 1999). He is professor in the School of Fashion & Jewellery at George Brown College, Toronto. In 2015, McClure received the Saidye Bronfman Award, a Governor General’s Award, Canada’s foremost distinction for excellence in the visual arts.

Paul is represented by Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h in Montréal, Canada.
www.galerienoelguyomarch.com
www.paulmcclure.com

The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Ontario Arts Council, Birmingham City University and George Brown College.

ART OF THE BOOK 2018: MARCH 6 - JULY 5, 2020

Image credit: Alleppo: Tragedy Unfolding by Geraldine Slater

March 6 - July 5, 2020
Reception: March 12, 2020 from 6-9pm
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St West, Toronto

Since 1988, the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild has organized 'Art of the Book', a juried exhibition of book arts held every five years. 'Art of the Book 2018'  celebrates the 35th anniversary of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.

The exhibition features 67 uniquely crafted pieces covering eight categories: fine binding, box-making, paper-making, fine printing, paper decorating, restoration, calligraphy, and artists’ books from Canada, the United States, England, France, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Jurors: Betsy Palmer Eldridge, Jan Elsted, Lang Ingalls, and Susan Warner Keene.

Participating artists:

'Art of the Book 2018' is organized by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. 

To see more info about the exhibition, including a gallery of the juried works, visit artofthebook18.ca.

ILLUMINATIONS: JANUARY 15 – FEBRUARY 23, 2020

Image credit: Horticulture (detail) by Elizabeth Goluch, photo by Keith Betteridge.

January 15 - February 23, 2020
Reception: Thursday, January 23, 2020 from 6-9pm
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St West, Toronto

An exhibition produced by the Metal Collective.

Inspired by Canada's 150th Anniversary in 2017, this collection of contemporary silver candleholders, made from heritage silver, honours Canadian women's creative past and inspires their future.

Illuminations is a travelling exhibition produced by the Metal Collective and curated by Laura Brandon, featuring the work of:

CRAFT ONTARIO '19: BIENNIAL JURIED MEMBER EXHIBITION: September 5 - October 12, 2019

Image credit: Tidal Pendant by Lindsay MacDonald

September 5 - October 12, 2019 
Reception: September 5, 2019 from 6-9pm 
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St West, Toronto

Craft Ontario ’19 surveys the work of members across the province, and presents the very best of contemporary craft.

The exhibition includes work from each of the core regions of the province, with four exhibitors selected by the jury to be recognized with awards for Best in the North, East, Southwest, and Central Ontario.

Award Recipients:
Best in Central Ontario - Amanda Rataj
Best in Northern Ontario - Judy Martin
Best in Eastern Ontario -  Lindsay MacDonald
Best in South-Western Ontario - Tammy McClennan

Craft Ontario ’19 jurors: Annie Tung, David Kaye, and Susan Jefferies.

See the Exhibition Catalogue

THE BODY HAS REASONS WHICH REASON KNOWS NOT OF: April 11 – May 12, 2019

Image credit: Float by Annika Hoefs

April 11 - May 12, 2019
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St West, Toronto

Working with clay actively engages the body. The artists in this exhibition trust that their lived experiences, stories, and skills are indwelled in the muscles used to make their work.

Each of the artists in this exhibition took part in the Muscle Memory International Ceramic Symposium & Residency, which was programmed and founded by Mimi Kokai in collaboration with the International Ceramic Studio (ICS) in Kecskemet, Hungary and took place in both 2017 and 2018.

Experiences of injury and recuperation informed the theme to the Muscle Memory symposium. One of the purposes of the residency is to demonstrate the power and the skill of artists with disabilities.

During each of the residencies the artists became a strongly knit community. Many of the artists have noted the mentorship, and guidance they received from their fellow participants. It is remarkable to imagine the strength and trust that was built and cultivated not just within their own bodies as they worked with clay, but also with each other.

All of the works explore various themes surrounding tacit knowledge, and the body’s ability to bounce back, grow, resist, and remember.

ARTISTS:

ANDREA PILLER
ANEELA DIAS-D'SOUSA
ANNIKA HOEFS
BERNADETTE PRATT
CATHERINE JONES
GRACIA ISABEL GÓMEZ CANTOYA
HEIDI MCKENZIE
LESLEY MCINALLY
LISA WALTER
MARY MCKENZIE
MIMI KOKAI
SUSAN LOW-BEER

*The title of this exhibition was inspired by the title of Mari Sorri’s seminal article The Body Has Reasons: Tacit Knowing in Thinking and Making, which was inspired by Blaise Pascal who wrote “the heart has reasons which reason knows not of”.

Mari Sorri, The Body Has Reasons: Tacit Knowing in Thinking and Making
Journal of Aesthetic Education
Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), pp. 15-26 (12 pages)
Published by: University of Illinois Press

Housewarming: January 19 - March 2, 2019

Image credit: Rug by Micah Adams

January 19 - March 2, 2019
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St West, Toronto

Juried by: Suzanne Morrisette, Susan Fohr, and Sajdeep Soomal

Housewarming explores the idea of home through objects that make references to habitational spaces, activated through the routines of day-to-day life.

Works in this exhibition range from functional to representational forms, and many share a relationship to the body through suggestions of sustenance and care. Other works may problematize the idea of the home, gesturing instead towards a subversion of stereotypical images, questioning whether or not these are always welcoming spaces.

All of the work in the exhibition shows a skillful deployment of materials in ways that speak to varied and complex relationships with the idea of home.

ARTISTS:

AMANDA MCCAVOUR
ANDREAS KRÄTSCHMER
CHIHO TOKITA
ELYCIA SFA
HOLLY FEDIDA & CHRISTOPHER MENDOZA
NICHOLAS HAMILTON HOLMES
JUDY MARTIN
LAURA PITKANEN
MATTHEW MCINTYRE
MICAH ADAMS
QUEENIE XU
RACHAEL WONG
WANXING WANG
VANESSA DION FLETCHER