Formerly the Ontario Crafts Council, Craft Ontario is a not-for-profit service organization that works to have craft recognized as a valuable part of life. We promote and celebrate professional craft through providing member opportunities, and advocate for craft practice by educating and empowering diverse audiences.
Currently working as a culture worker and artist, Claudia Gutierrez is an artist and activist whose practice has been deeply informed by residencies in Canada and Mexico. She has been exhibiting her work in Ontario and Quebec, Canada since 2010 and has completed numerous public art and cultural outreach projects in Ottawa. She was awarded the SAW Prize for New Works in 2020, is supported by the Ontario Arts Council, and was recently awarded a major public art project with Canadian Heritage.
Claudia Gutierrez's practice engages in textile, printmaking, and painting mediums. By utilizing her training in embroidery, hand dying and printmaking, Gutierrez imbues a sense of methodical mark making, repetitive and meditative contrasting her process which is often reliant on chance and improvisation. Referencing the gentrification of craft, Gutierrez contradicts craft's nature by stretching, mounting and framing pieces, stripping away their utility and tactility. These shifts in the role and meaning of visual references represent the movement between known and unknown, oddity and banality until what is left is a new form entirely – a form born from the journey of those shifts. New forms tethered by past follies, ritual, communion, heritage, and memories.
The Hunter's Rebozo
Hand embroidered wool on linen
30" x 30"
2021
A Blanket of Milk and Honey
Hand embroidered wool on linen
30" x 30"
2021
Tapame Rebozo
Hand embroidered wool on linen
30" x 60"
2021
Rebozo de Leche
Hand embroidered wool on linen
24" x 24"
2021
Fire Blanket
Hand embroidered wool on linen and spraypaint
30" x 30"
2021
Honey Drip
Hand embroidered wool, silk and cotton on linen
24" x 24"
2022
Cojin Artifact
Hand embroidered wool on inked linen, concrete and pine
base
12" x 7" x 5", 2020
Cojin Artifact II
Hand embroidered wool on inked linen, concrete and pine
base
12" x 7" x 5", 2020
RAPACEJO
Hand embroidered wool and cotton on black cotton
40" x 40", 2021
La Despedida
Hand embroidered acrylic on canvas
40" x 24" x 4", 2020
Formerly the Ontario Crafts Council, Craft Ontario is a not-for-profit service organization that works to have craft recognized as a valuable part of life. We promote and celebrate professional craft through providing member opportunities, and advocate for craft practice by educating and empowering diverse audiences.