Close to You

Opening Reception Thursday 18 October at 8 pm

Guest curated by Sarah Quinton (Senior Curator at the Textile Museum of Canada), this exhibition examines the use of idioms and images from popular culture in the work of contemporary textile artists from Canada and the US. Participating artists Ai Kijima, Scott Kildall, Allyson Mitchell, Mark Newport and Michèle Provost explore popular myth, comic book heroics and contemporary social and sexual mores through their material practices of knitting, appliqué, embroidery and crochet. Their evident skill and craftsmanship acknowledges traditional craft values even as their cultural and critical sensibilities position them within more recent “neo-craft” practices. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an essay by Sarah Quinton, and is organized by Dalhousie Art Gallery to coincide with the international NeoCraft conference to be held in Halifax 23-25 November 2007 (www.neocraft.ca). Presentations by the Curator and some of the participating artists will take place during the exhibition; please contact the Gallery for more information.

Close to You
contemporary textiles, intimacy and popular culture
Kurator: Sarah Quinton

mit Ai Kijima, Scott Kildall, Allyson Mitchell, Mark Newport, Michele Provost