“Some of these works haven’t been seen for decades.”
So says Dr. Michele Hardy, curator of Prairie Interlace, an exhibition partnership between Nickle Galleries at the University of Calgary and MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina. Dr. Hardy and her colleagues, Julie Krueger and Timothy Long, conceived the project when a massive piece called Sun Ascending, made up of twenty-four tapestries, was donated to the MacKenzie Art Gallery by the owners of the TD Tower in Toronto where it was originally displayed.
“[T]he arrival of that piece,” says Dr. Hardy, “got Timothy to thinking ‘What else might be going around?’”
Sun Ascending is just one of sixty works by forty-seven artists in the Prairie Interlace exhibition making its next stop at Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert before winding up in Regina at MacKenzie Art Gallery. Dates for each stop are on the exhibition’s website and Dr. Hardy is hopeful that participants will enjoy seeing not just the works themselves but also engage in the sense of change—and sense of humour—that were so much a part of their creation. With a focus on works created between 1960 and 2000, the energy and evolution of fibre art is palpable in this exhibit.
“Textile’s superpower,” says Mackenzie Kelly-Frère, “is that it’s immediate. Everyone knows it.”
All images credit Tara Klager, with permission from The Nickle Galleries.
