Tag Archives: ceramics

ArtClothText | Best of 2011

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2011 was a busy year on ArtClothText and I was hard-pressed to pull only a few highlights to share with you this New Year’s Eve. I suppose a good place to start would be Studio Practice, a series of posts featuring artists, designers and craftspeople working in their studios…

Zach Quin and daughter Elsa in the studio | Click image to read more...

Louisa Jensen's desk | Click image to read more...

Fibre forms by Abigail Doan | Click image to read more...

In May, I participated in an artist residency at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon, blogging every day.

The residency coincided with a retrospective exhibition Laurie Herrick: Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.I was asked to create a work in the gallery space responding to Herrick’s work with a piece of my own – Recollect 2.

Recollect 2 (at right) hanging near the two pieces that inspired it, Laurie Herrick's "Purple PolyChrome" and "Tree of Life"

Later that summer, I attended a workshop taught by Louise Lemieux Berube at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles. It was a rigorous week-long workshop that challenged me to think in new ways about image in weaving.

Mackenzie Frère | Simulation of Jacquard sample "stemflow"

In the new year I will continue implementing Jacquard weaving into the Fibre Program at ACAD and have started a new blog Jacquard @ ACAD to share what we are doing in the Fibre studios with students, alumni and artists around the world.

2011 was eventful in more than just a professional sense as it was the year I married the love of my life, Kristofer Kelly. This bears mention only because I could not imagine how to leave this particular detail out, and it gives me the opportunity to mention Mobile Street Archive: Walk, Draw, Repeat featured on the blog this summer.

Mobile Street Archive: Walk Draw Repeat was created by Kristofer Kelly as part of Truck Gallery’s Camper program.

Working with a group of participants, Kris walked and drew for fifteen hours, traversing almost forty city blocks along Centre Street. Together they made nearly two hundred drawings.

Global burrow by Elis Vermeulen

Finally, 2011 saw a beginning of another kind in Global Burrows, a fascinating project by Elis Vermeulen. I am honored that Elis chose to share this project on ArtClothText early on.

Global burrow by Elis Vermeulen

Vermeulen writes…

The pieces are the physical image of a resting place, a place where you regain energy. I mean, the world is a bit of a mess sometimes and we seek often for that place that comforts us, feeds us, tells us all is okay, lets us heal.

 

The newest iterations of this project are both beautiful and poetic, and provide my imagination with the perfect resting place after an exhilarating and inspiring year. I feel privileged to be able to explore the intersection of art, craft and life on this blog with an ever increasing community of fascinating makers.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed, commented or enjoyed ArtClothText this year. Happy new year to each of you, and all the best to you and yours in 2012!

Yours, Mackenzie

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Household Notions at Telephone Booth Gallery

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Household Notions at the Telephone Booth Gallery Nov 30, 2011 –  Jan 28, 2012

Featuring work by:

LIZZ ASTON – paper burn-out, porcelain
NOELLE HAMLYN – free-motion embroidery
PAM LOBB – mixed media printmaking
DORIE MILLERSON – needle lace
AMANDA PARKER – kiln cast glass

Whether inspired by a character in a contemporary novel or by the ability of thread to link elements together, a narrative quality runs through each of the works in Household Notions. Textiles have a rich history that speaks to women and craft. These multi-layered sculptures explore domestic textiles, (including needlework and crochet) as well as the personal relationships, memories, and attachments that are formed with handmade objects, and the narratives that can be created with them. Alternative mediums such as glass, paper and porcelain expand upon our expectations of conventional textile patterns and constructions. Just as fabrics can degrade and fade with time, some textile references have been deconstructed, leaving residual impressions that reflect upon the absence of the object. Overall themes of exploration in this exhibition include fragility, intimacy, strength and tension.

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Precise: Craft and Process at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

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Greg Payce | Dwell, 2010

Precise: Craft and Process “…brings together five contemporary artists who integrate beads, fibres, clay, silver and industrial metals into works of art that expand the definition of craft. The laborious production techniques result in skillfully constructed and conceptually complex pieces. While the artists are addressing particular issues of politics, gender, environment, and historical context/precedent, all the works are linked by the involvement of the hand, the commitment of time, the dedication to precision, and the creation of objects of exquisite beauty. Underlying the artists’ work is a deep knowledge of the media and the techniques used to control and work with them. For each artist, the involvement of the hand is key; each work is unique and wrought from the interaction between concept, hand, and material. The hand guides, cuts, weaves, sews, forms, welds, crafts and brings into existence the work. The hand is integral to the equation.”

Kye-Yeon Son | Adieu III, 2006

The exhibition runs from September 15, 2011 to January 15, 2012 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba.

Jane Kidd | Possession: Imprint/Impact # 1, 2004

Artists in this post: Jane Kidd, Kye-Yeon Son + Greg Payce

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Julie Moon | Pretty, Strange

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Narwhal Art Projects is pleased to present Pretty, Strange, an exhibition of works by Julie Moon from August 11th to September 4th, 2011. Inspired by the tactility and anthropomorphic qualities of clay, Moon’s undulating, organic sculptures pay reference to the human form through their limb-like protuberances and rolling, fleshy surfaces. These indelicate figures contrast sharply with the dainty ornamentation with which they are applied: from their pastel palette to their intricate overlays, each piece deliberately juxtaposes effete flourishes with corpulent silhouettes. The result is an imbalance between elegance and awkwardness, forcing the viewer to confront their own preconceptions of beauty, femininity and alterity. READ MORE

The opening reception for Pretty, Strange is this Thursday, August 11 from seven to ten pm. The artist will be in attendance. The exhibition runs from August 11 to September 4, 2011

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Jason Russel at Gallery in MoCC

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Jason Russel is currently the featured artist in the Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon.

I make objects because it feels very human to me. It gives me a sense of participation in this time I have been given. I am always at a loss for words when I view the perfection of Nature. My work is a feeble attempt at interpreting its wonders. Nonetheless, I feel a need to work with materials that in both a visual and tactile way take me back to our elemental roots. What machine can do this?

The exhibition continues until July 30, 2011.

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Linen Diaspora | Biennale internationale du lin 2011

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Rachel O'Neill

Linen Diaspora is curated by Karen Fleming and features the work of: Carole Frève, Derek John Wilson et Jill Phillips, Janine Parent, Liz Nilsson, Lyndsey McDougall, Marie-Claude Morin, Martha Cashman, Pierre et Marie, Rachel O’Neill, Stuart Cairns, Susan Warner Keene, Suzanne Paquette.

The exhibition is part of the Biennale international du lin de Portneuf taking place in Quebec this summer beginning tomorrow June 25 until October 2 2011.

“Artisans from Quebec, Canada and Ireland share a common legacy closely tied to flax production, passed on by Protestants exiled from France in the 17th century. The migration of these Huguenots’ know-how created some sort of linen diaspora. This fibre’s evocative power continues to inspire creativity. Elaborated concepts and reinvented processes clearly attest to linen’s contemporaneity, whether it is used as a material or as inspiration. The Linen Diaspora exhibit features 12 works designed by 14 creators recognized for their excellence in their practice of crafts or applied arts.”

Moulin de La Chevrotière
109, rue de Chavigny, Deschambault-Grondines
(418) 286-6862

Exit 254 off Autoroute 40.
Exhibition is open every day, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Admission fees: $5 or pass

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Meredith Knapp Brickell | Renderings

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These three-dimensional line drawings were quickly sketched in porcelain. The challenge was to use this delicate material in the same gestural way we use pencil on paper to depict simple outlines of forms. Like a sketch, these pieces act more as a memory of or reference to the form than the form itself.

Meredith Knapp Brickell website

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