SURREY — Nearly three dozen members of Fraser Valley Quilters’ Guild have woven “a portrait of a nation,” as they say, for an exhibit at Surrey Art Gallery.
The “Canada, eh!” show features an array of colourful quilts, both traditional and contemporary in style, made in response to the 150th anniversary of Canadian federation.
Guild members were challenged to create a 24-by-24-inch quilt featuring red and white and an additional colour of their choice, all based on a Canadian theme.
“You’ll see the maple leaf and Mountie, as well as abstract patterns, animals and plants, pop-cultural references, and even personal stories of family immigrant history,” says an exhibition advisory from gallery operators.
“Collectively, these works embody humour, the texture of ordinary life and a keen observation of the designs in the world around us.”
(Scroll down to see more quilts in the exhibit)
The list of participating artists is a long one: Sharon Allman, Joan Anderson, Wilma Brock, Jan Cook, Janice Cook, Sylvia Eisma, Bonnie Evers, Robin Fischer, Jean Fong, Joan Hebden, Margaret Henderson, Vesna Hruska, Anna-Marie Johnson, Carmie Kozak, Chris Lawson, Judy Leslie, Fumiko Noguchi, Cher Olsson, Carol Pettigrew, Trish Poehnell, Cathy Raphael, Mary Shore, Val Smith, Diane Stevenson, Beckie Stewart, Sue Treen, Cathy Waddle, Betty Walker, Dougal Walker, Wendy Whiting and Lily Wong.
Fraser Valley Quilters’ Guild’s aim is “to share the joy of quilting with the public by way of shows, displays and demonstrations,” according to a post at surrey.ca. “It is also active as a charitable organization, making quilts for donation to BC Women’s Hospital and the SOMOS eco-sustainability project in Guatemala, among other causes.”
Members of the guild meet at Kennedy Seniors Recreation Centre in North Delta on the second Tuesday of every month, from September to June. For group info, visit fvqg.org.
The “Canada, eh!” exhibition continues until Feb. 4 at the gallery, located at Bear Creek Park. Admission is free. For more details, call 604-501-5566 or visit surrey.ca/artgallery.
• Also at Surrey Art Gallery, the year’s final Art Together gathering – “a unique opportunity to create do-it-together art projects and learn a range of art media shoulder-to-shoulder with emerging to established mentoring artists” – happens on Tuesday, Dec. 12, starting at 7 p.m. Riffing off their TechLab artwork in “Ground Signals,” exhibiting artists Valérie d. Walker and Bobbi L. Kozinuk “will create environmental, audio, solar energy and circuit prototyping elements with you.”
On Thursday evening (Dec. 7), local artist Frank Townsley is the guest speaker at the next First Thursday artist talk hosted by Surrey Art Gallery Association. From 7: 30 to 9 p.m., Townsley will teach one- and two-point perspective, shadows, ellipses, reflections, scale and more. Admission is free.
Looking ahead, the next feature exhibit at SAG is called “Many Visions, Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India,” which opens on Jan. 20. The show features the work of 24 contemporary artists from four major indigenous artistic traditions in India (the Gond and Warli communities of Central India, the Mithila region of Bihar and the narrative scroll painters of West Bengal). Surrey Art Gallery is the only stop for the exhibit in Canada.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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