Wall Space Gallery, a contemporary art gallery and framing shop now located at 1090 Bank St. in Old Ottawa South, unveiled a new exhibition in honour of International Women’s Day on March 8th.
Threading the Needle features artworks by Elizabeth D’Agostino, Gosia, Noelle Hamlyn, Kelly Grace, Julie Liger-Belair, Ava Margueritte, Ava Roth, Florence Solis and Rachael Speirs. This exhibition runs until March 23rd.
“These nine artists elevate aspects of nature, culture, and fine art previously relegated to ‘outsider’ status within Western patriarchal structures,” explains the gallery. “Whether through the tactful combination of various imagery, media, and materials to redefine them anew, or the revaluing of community and compassion through imagined creations and extended self-portraiture, the artists in Threading the Needle reveal what our society has been lacking.”
Photo provided.
The name of the exhibition isn’t accidental either. Threading the Needle implies the careful, precise manoeuvring women have had to navigate through history to make it in the art world. Employing a variety of techniques, from embroidery and collage to analog photography, printmaking and painting, the nine women artists explore their female identity and tell their stories through their art.
Elizabeth D’Agostino
D’Agostino is a Canadian artist, a member of the Open Studio Fine Art Printmaking Centre in Toronto, a BFA graduate from the Univesity of Windsor and an MFA graduate from Southern Illinois University. She works in print media, sculpture, and installation. For this exhibition, she created collages on gampi paper using etching, screenprinting, and monoprint techniques, featuring nature themes.
Gosia
Gosia created the sculpture you see on the burgundy wall in the photo above, titled Hope. She is a professional sculptor living and working in Toronto, who graduated from Illustration from Sheridan College. Her works have been featured in high-profile publications such as House & Home Magazine.
Noelle Hamlyn
Hamlyn is an artist interested in texture. She has an Advanced Diploma in Textiles from Sheridan, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Graduate Diploma in Costuming from Fanshawe. Hamlyn has shown her work internationally and at prestigious institutions including the Museum of Vancouver and a new exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Her work in the exhibition includes a rhythmic piece made from book pages, covers and bindings, arranged in symmetrical horizontal stripes.
Kelly Grace
Grace studied Interpretive Illustration at Sheridan and fell in love with acrylics, forming her unique style. Part of the exhibition is her work Laundromat (in the photo below) which features calming and satisfying realism that you can almost hear.
Photo provided.
Julie Liger-Belair
Liger-Belair’s mixed media work combines Renaissance painting and old photos with paint, wood, and found objects to make an ironic counterpoint and inject levity into the work. The portraits are collaged with everything from flowers and hands to homes and repeating patterns to create engaging and visually dynamic pieces.
Ava Margueritte
Margueritte is a local Ottawa artist working with photography, drawing, and painting. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design with a BFA and a diploma from SPAO. Her analog photographs at the exhibition invoke a sense of stillness and introspection.
Ava Roth
Roth is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist. Her works at the exhibition combine encaustic painting with embroidery using multiple layers of wax, tissue paper, and photography, connected with thread and wire.
Photo provided.
Florence Solis
A Hamilton-based self-taught artist and professional designer, Solis graduated from OCAD with a bachelor degree in Environmental Design. Her acrylic works, including Twelve Round Fruits at the exhibition, feature geometric shapes and a contrast of minimal colours, in this case only shades of warm pink and pastel blue. Visually pleasing, Solis’s bright works immediately draw the eye and stand out in the room.
Rachael Speirs
Speirs’ work headlines the exhibition (you can see the painting Oh The Stories We Keep in the featured photo on the burgundy wall). She has received multiple awards, grants, and has participated in multiple exhibitions including “Top 5 Installations” for DesignTO.
It was refreshing to visit an exhibition focused solely on women artists. Besides individual explorations of their female identities, however, further connections weren’t obvious. It wasn’t easy to see a common thread, beyond a shared gender, or commentary from each artist. Nevertheless, the works are individually beautiful and worth the visit on Bank Street until March 23!
Learn more about the exhibition on the gallery’s website.
