Hard Twist 2011 – OBSESSION
Sixth Annual Juried Show Of Textile-Based Art
Exhibition Dates Nov 25, 2011 – Jan 29, 2012 | 12pm-5pm Daily
Opening Reception Fri Nov 25, 2011 | 6pm-9pm
To Download the Hard Twist 6 Catalog Click Here.
Hard Twist 6 – Obsession presents textile and fibre based works, which reflect or explore obsessive ideas, acts, or fixations through medium, technique, or concept. Textiles attract obsessions. Fiber’s infinite detail, infinite repetition, infinite complexity seduce the intense focus and preoccupation of obsession and draw the artist into a place where time evaporates in pursuit of the promise of perfection – a perfection that is eternally one stitch, one wrap, one bead, one twist away.
Hard Twist has become an important annual event within the Canadian textile art community as well as being a signature event for the Gladstone. For this sixth anniversary of Hard Twist, exhibition space will include public spaces on all four floors of the hotel.
Media Contact: Chris Mitchell
2011 Participants
Click here to see participant bios.
George-Ann Bowers; Kate Busby ; Maggie Butterfield Dickinson; Robert Davidovitz; Holly Gabel;Sarah Gotowka; Miriam Grenville; Philip Hare; Peter Hiers; Anna Kuchel Rabinowitz; Ariane Lavoie; Laura MacAulay; Meghan Macdonald; John Paul Morabito; Shawna Munro; Hitoko Okada; David Ross; Rachael Speirs; Keiley Stewart; Barbara Sutherland; Allison Tunis; W Collective; Sarah Waldman-Engel; Jennie Wood; Erin Wootten; Nancy Yule
2011 Jurors
Mary Sue Rankin – Director, Edward Day Gallery
Judith Tinkl, Artist, retired Associate Professor OCAD, Past President OCC
Angela Iarocci – Artist/Designer and Educator
Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell – Hard Twist Curators
gladstone hotel, 1214 queen st w, toronto, ontario – www.gladstonehotel.com
2010 Exhibition – Chroma
Click here to download the Press Release.
Click here to learn about Piecework, the annual textile based pop-up fair.
Hard Twist has become an important annual event within the Canadian textile art community as well as being a signature event for the Gladstone. For this fifth anniversary of Hard Twist, exhibition space will be expanded to include public spaces on all four floors of the hotel.
Co-curators Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell invite artists to submit textile and fibre based works, which explore the expressive qualities of colour, colour symbolism, and/or the meaning, relationships and perceptions of colour.
Year five of this annual juried exhibit is all about colour. Participating artists explore colour symbolism, meaning, relationships and perceptions through textile and fibre-based mediums.
Hard Twist artists present an exceptional palette of works ranging from the monochrome of Angela Iarocci’s subtle scientific exploration Sky Condition that visualizes the climate data of Canada’s urban centres, through American artist Joyce Melander- Dayton’s playful patterned expressions to Amanda McCavour’s intense “super-saturated, super-spiro-scribble decoration that is so bright it’s almost blinding”.
HARD TWIST 5: CHROMA! runs for two full months and is free to the public 12pm-5pm daily in the third and fourth floor public galleries at the Gladstone Hotel
2010 Participants:
Amy Bagshaw, Fiona Bailey, Susan Bidinosti, Monserrat Brandan, Kerry Croghan, Dhashi Farha, Lindsay Fisher, Holly Gabel, Angela Iarocci, Say Ivison, Shuyu Lu, Alanna Lynch, Amanda McCavour, Renata Meirelles, Joyce Melander-Dayton, Melanie Schaffer, Kat Shaughnessy, Mafalda Silva, Marcy Sperry, W Collective, Sarah Waldman-Engel, Jennie Wood
Curators:
Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell,
By Invitation:
Selected works by Bev Hisy presented by Toronto’s MADE in the Gladstone Hotel Cafe. www.madedesign.ca
2010 Jurors:
Eva Ennist, Shaun Moore, and Julie Nicholson
Hard Twist 2009 - New Twist
This ain’t your grandmother’s afghan.
Following on from last year’s Hard Twist that explored the possibilities of simply being twisted, Hard Twist – New Twist goes to the other extreme and looks at hand-made high tech.
Seen through this unlikely perspective, familiar objects transmogrify into the uncanny – dresses speak of politics, an eye chart evades focus, cheerful matroshka dolls celebrate the Day of the Dead and stitchwork snipes at fashion.
As they weave paint, net clouds and knit the weather, the artists participating in Hard Twist – New Twist give weight to science fiction writer Robert Heinlein’s opinion that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Participants:
Amy Bagshaw, Mylene Boisvert, Maurice Collodo, Rob Davidovitz, Eva Ennist, Alda Escareño, Erin Finley, Heather Goodchild, Miriam Grenville, Angela Iarocci, Colleen Lynch, Winnie Ma, Elisabeth Picard, Susan Shantz, Rebecca Soudant, Lisa Visser, Meichen Waxer, Tessa Windt, and Alysha Woolner.
Curators:
Helena Frei, Toronto Artist and Curator
Chris Mitchell, Director of Exhibitions Gladstone Hotel
Thank you to our 2009 Jurors:
