What Lies Beneath: Exhibition Opening

February 17, 2022 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Join us for the opening of our next exhibition, ‘What Lies Beneath: Women, Politics, Textiles’ which brings together works by women artists and collectives using the medium of textiles to comment on gender and society.

For centuries, needlework was dismissed as “women’s work” and excluded from the realm of fine art. Artists using fabric were rarely acknowledged or credited for their work. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, women artists have reclaimed textile-making, honouring the women who came before them.

The artists in this exhibition use a range of techniques such as appliqué, knitting, quilting, rug-hooking, collage and fabric-painting. Many of these draw on traditional craft practices that have been passed down through the generations, from mother to daughter or in sewing groups. The works on display make powerful statements about gender, race and class. They confront issues ranging from global human rights abuses to the artists’ personal experiences of living in the world.

The exhibition is curated by Naomi Polonsky and Lorna Dillon with support from the following funders: