For auld lang syne…

As 2010 draws to a close and ArtClothText heads into its fourth year, I would like to thank everyone for reading, commenting and contributing to the blog this past year. So…THANK YOU! Your support and enthusiasm have encouraged me, and make this blog worth reading. It was an eventful year for me, traveling to Japan, participating in group exhibitions, teaching and moving into a new house with my fiance. As I write this I am happy to report that I am at long last finished moving house and will soon be setting up a new studio.

2010 also saw the culmination of Poplar Gallery.Online, a curatorial project I started in 2006. The website will be folded over the next couple of months. An archive of exhibitions will be maintained on my personal website www.mackenziefrere.com. In the coming months look for an on-demand publication featuring the work of fibre artists, metal smiths, ceramicists and others who have shown their work on the website.
I have some exciting things planned for ArtClothText the new year including Studio Practice, a series of posts from the studios of artists, designers and craftspeople in Canada and around the world beginning Monday, January 3. I encourage anyone wishing to share their studio practice with other ArtClothText readers to send your images, text and links anytime. Later in the spring I will be blogging from a residency at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon. There I will be teaching a plant-dyes workshop and then creating a work in the retrospective exhibition “Laurie Herrick: Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” curated by Namita Gupta Wiggers. The exhibition will explore “…weaving as a living craft. Selected patterns by Herrick will be available on the web for weavers worldwide to interpret and share via Flickr. Five contemporary artists will participate in Museum residencies, creating personal responses to Herrick’s patterns and adding to this traveling exhibition.”

Finally, if you have not already done so, please consider donating to this year’s ArtClothText Cares fundraiser for the Mosaic Youth Group. The encouragement and mentorship of LGBTQ youth in our communities is as important now as it has ever been. We have come a long way, but negative images and stereotypes of homosexuality persist in the media, at school and worse, at home, affecting young people gay or straight. The ongoing tragedy of gay teen and even pre-teen suicides should be an alarm bell alerting us to action within our own communities. Projects like “It Gets Better” are doing a lot of good to change perceptions and allow LGBTQ youth to envision what their future might look like as queer adults, but I think we can do something to improve the situation of these young people now in our own community by supporting the Mosaic Youth Group. Making a secure donation is as easy as clicking “DONATE” on the top right sidebar.

Until next year, wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year!

image via Dr X’s Free Associations

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Carmella Karijo Rother | Out Numbered 2


Poplar Gallery.Online invites you to view Out Numbered 2 by Carmella Karijo Rother in gallery1.

This visually stunning and vibrant exhibition presents sixteen works by Carmella Karijo Rother, a Canadian artist who works with fiber and has long been engaged in visually documenting the formal relationships between colour, line, and space through the careful study and placement of meticulously cut fragments of silk. (excerpt “In every snippet there lies a tale” by Jennifer E Salahub PhD)

Out Numbered will be online until March 11, 2011. Felt by Elis Vermeulen continues until December 17, in gallery2.

POPLAR NEWS UPDATE After four years and almost thirty exhibitions I have decided to culminate the Poplar Gallery.Online project. I have decided to fold the online gallery in its current form March 11, 2011 in order to focus my online efforts towards ArtClothText, a blog for textile, fibre and mixed media artists, designers and curators. Emerging artists will continue to be featured on the FEATURED page of this blog.

The gallery archive will remain online indefinitely showcasing the artists who have contributed to the gallery since 2006. The new URL for this archive will be publicized in the new year.

I would like to thank all of the exhibiting artists for generously sharing their work, and all site visitors for your enthusiastic support. I am considering producing a small, on-demand publication featuring some of the work that has been exhibited on Poplar. Interested artists should contact me sometime before the new year.

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Poplar Gallery.Online | Change is good…

After four years and almost thirty exhibitions I have decided to culminate the Poplar Gallery.Online project with an exhibition by Carmella Karijo Rother to be posted November 20, 2010.

I have decided to fold the online gallery in its current form in order to focus my online efforts towards ArtClothText. Artists across all disciplines will continue to be shown on the FEATURED page of this blog and are encouraged to submit their work anytime. The blog format will (hopefully) allow me to share more artists and events more often. Look for a new format and expansion of this page in the near future.

The gallery archive will remain online indefinitely showcasing the artists who have contributed to the gallery since 2006. I would like to thank all of the exhibiting artists for generously sharing their work, and all site visitors for your enthusiastic support.

I am considering producing a small, on-demand, electronic/print publication featuring some of the work that has been exhibited on Poplar over the last four years. Interested artists and/or writers should contact me sometime before the new year.

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Poplar Gallery.Online | Elis Vermeulen

You are invited to view an exhibition of felt work by Elis Vermeulen at Poplar Gallery.Online in gallery2.

Telling Tales by Joe Lewis and Kathy Schicker continues in gallery1 until November 19, 2010.

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Telling Tales | joe lewis + Kathy Schicker

You are invited to view Telling Tales, an exhibition of Jacquard-woven textiles by joe Lewis and Kathy Schicker on Poplar Gallery.Online in gallery1. This exhibition explores the potential of the woven image to tell stories that are at once personal and compelling.

Maternal Lineage by Dana Buzzee continues in gallery2 until September 17, 2010.

Poplar Gallery.Online showcases the work of craftspeople and artists working in all disciplines. Poplar is currently accepting proposals from artists, curators and studio collectives. Two online spaces are available for alternating twelve or sixteen-week exhibitions. For more information contact curator Mackenzie Frere at info@mackenziefrere.com

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Poplar Gallery.Online | Fake Mourning

e-invite-FakeMourning

You are invited to view Fake Mourning, and exhibition of work by Meichen Waxer on Poplar Gallery.Online. Waxer’s practice is rooted in the exploration of image, gender and representation. Utilizing synthetic hair, found lockets and fabric insets, the artist crafts false mementos, artifacts of fake mourning.

Visit the artist’s website HERE

Poplar Gallery.Online is now on Facebook. Become a fan today!

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Poplar Gallery.Online | Bridge Work

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Poplar Gallery.Online invites you to view Bridge Work, a recent public art commission conceived and hand-made by artists Marci Simkulet and Stefanie Wong. 150 banners utilizing a variety of textile media including knitting, weaving and felt-making have been created for seven urban bridges spanning the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta. In many of the banners recycled materials (including old bridge banners) are used. These are applied in a site-specific manner, addressing the particular history and context of individual bridges. A massive undertaking, Bridge Work presents a compelling intersection of the hand-made and the architectural. Designed to be viewed by both pedestrians and drivers who use these bridges every day, Wong and Simkulet’s bridge banners are at once a humane and thoughtful presence in an urban landscape.

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Poplar Gallery.Online | Lot 175

postcard-blog
Poplar Gallery.Online invites you to view Lot 175: A Box of Household Linens in gallery1 from December 12, 2009 to April 4, 2010.

In the fall term of 2008, students of Textile Practice: A Cultural Survey taught by Dr Jennifer Salahub at the Alberta College of Art + Design were each given a piece of “antique” household linen purchased from an estate auction. Each student was to consider and create a finished work based on a personal response to the linens. This project brings together the twelve interpretations, showcasing the diversity of individual practices and techniques. Read the curatorial essay by Dr Jennifer Salahub HERE.

Participating artists: Margaret Abrams, Jennifer Akkermans, Julie Baratta, Mary Anne Clarke, Anne Fetterly, Aisling Macken, Heather Murray, Vanessa Riego, Romy Straathoff, Rebecca Taylor, Jasmine Valentina and Michael Yung.

Anjani Khanna’s exhibition of figurative ceramics Myth and Memory continues until February 5 in gallery2.

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Anjani Khanna | Myth and Memory

Khanna-invite

Poplar Gallery.Online is pleased to present Myth and Memory, an exhibition of figurative ceramic sculptures by Anjani Khanna.

My “yalis” as I refer to my figurative sculpture, begin to live for me and tell their stories in their living. Their stories reflect my search as they grapple with the modern and the ancient, the personal and the universal, the male and the female, the east and the west, the spiritual and the profane, the rational and the intuitive, the animal and the human, the religious and the secular, and the political and the non partisan.

Khanna lives and works in Mumbai, India. A founding member of the Mumbai Potters, her work has been shown in India, China, Spain, Hungary and the United States. She blogs for ceramic(some)times.

Tara Bursey’s paperwork/foodwork continues until December 11, 2009 in gallery1.

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