Woven By Hand
Image: Dolphin Play (detail), Paulette Marie Sauve.
The Centre d’Art, Canada, will host Woven By Hand: Contemporary Canadian Tapestries from 10 September to 25 October. The exhibition is curated by Thoma Ewen of Moon Rain Centre, a weaving studio located in the Gatineau Hills, north of Ottawa. It gathers recent tapestries designed and woven by 11 Canadian tapestry artists. Each artist is an internationally recognised master of tapestry weaving, having dedicated many decades to professional practice in the medium. The artists are (in alphabetical order) Line Dufour, Thoma Ewen, Murray Gibson, Peter Harris, Barbara Heller, Jane Kidd, Marcel Marois, Paulette Marie Sauve, Suzanne Paquette, Ixchel Suarez and Linda Wallace. All artists will take place in a virtual event at the gallery on 24 September, each participating from their own studio.
Image: Transformation silencieuse 2018 (detail) Marcel Marois.
Image: Hado Unfolding 2018 (detail), Thoma Ewen.
Moon Rain Centre, directed by award-winning textile artists Thoma Ewen and daughter Gabby Ewen, is known for its community tapestry projects. For example, in The Vision Weave Project each community participant is given a strip of fabric on which they write their message or vision for a peaceful future. The messages are then interweaved into a collective tapestry. Thoma and Gabby have been collaborating together for more than 20 years and co-founded La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles en Outaouais, making textile art visible in the region. Thoma has practised weaving for four decades. Following a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Victoria in 1971, she received a scholarship to travel to Helsinki to study with Finnish tapestry artist Oili Mäki. That experience was the basis for a lifelong studio practice. Thoma is the author of The Living Tapestry Workbook on indigenous weaving wisdom.
For more information about Woven by Hand visit Centre d’Art