Nouveau Louvre 2025

 

ceremony for wildness:  silk thread on vintage table linen 2023

Ceremony for Wildness sold on opening day of the Nouveau Louvre fundraising exhibition for le Galerie du nouvel Ontario.   

The deal is that you pay $225 for the art, and $75 goes to the gallery and the rest to the artist.  It is a very popular event in Sudbury, Ontario with most local artists participating. 

View the online sale at this link or visit the gallery in person 27 Larch Street, Sudbury, Ontario

Quilts = Art = Quilts

 Quilts = Art = Quilts opened to the public October 25.

Judy Martin's quilt, The Day, The Night, and then The Day Again is part of this beautiful exhibition.

Unfortunately, there is no catalouge for this annual show.

Photos online reveal that this year's exhibition, curated by Paula Kovarik and Petra Fallaux to be one of the most stunning in its over 40 year history.

It's open until early January 2026.  Schweinfurth Art Centre, Auburn, New York.  Click here for more information.

Convergence Exhibition 2025 at the Tom Thomson gallery in Owen Sound, Ontario

I Stand within a Walled Garden
by Tanya Zaryski, acrylic on cradled panel 2025

"My grandmother taught me to name the things in nature I observed: lady slipper, sparrow hawk, garter snake.  Their names were like magic spells. As an artist, I've always been drawn back to nature for inspiriation.  In these days of dire environmental warnings, I struggle with how to meaningfuly respond. So much heartbreakingly devestation is out of my hands.  My conclusion is that I can only control my immediate surroundings. "  Tanya Zaryski

Ferel by Tanya Zaryski acrylic on cradled panel, 2025

Convergence installation view. 
Foreground - Potato Field by Susan Barton-Tait.  wax castings of potatoes, 2025, 
Background  - Sacred Ground by Judy Martin, wrapped thread on wool quilt, 2024, 
and two paintings by Tanya Zaryski, Ferel and I Stand Within my Walled Garden, both 2025

The Tom Thomson gallery in Owen Sound welcomed a packed house to the opening of Convergence on October 18, 2025.   Artists from across Ontario had been invited to submit their recent work that focused on the theme of the environment.  "These may include ecology, climate change, sustainability, natural landscapes, and our evoloving relationship with the planet " stated the call for entry.  Also in the call for entry were these words:  "the exhibition will embrace a wide range of mediums and practices that reflect tbe depth and vitality of environmentally engaged art in the province."  Over 200 entries were recieved, and 26 artists were invited to show one or two pieces.  Two large floor sculptures took up much of the floor space in the main gallery of the Tom Thomson.  The first of these was Potato Field.  

In Potato Field, I address the eco-anxieties surrounding food insecurity, farmland degradation, and the monopolization of seed by large agribusiness.  The instability of today's political and environmental climate serves as a reminder that all life exists in a precarious balance that may shatter at any moment. These translucent wax forms speak to human resiliance. Susan Barton-Tait

The time that my hand quilted work requires gives me a quiet place where I can gain perspective on what is happening each day in this uncertain world.  The slow touching of the cloth and thread gives me sustenence.  Each piece I create is message of care and hope.  The concept and technique of wrapping and being wrapped grounds my work.  Red Thread, a worldwide symbol of protection, is used in nearly every piece."  Judy Martin

Foreground:  Migration by Zhan Zhang, cut paper. 
backround:  For All that Still Might Be and Farmers Fields in Medium Transparency
 by Matthew Varey, both oil on panel, 2025
Dreaming in Still Waters and In Search of Greener Pastures,
by Nicole Graham, oil on canvas, 2024-2025

Migration,:  Presenting a kind of loneliness in a crowded place allows the paper sculpture to create an emotion in a very simple way. Viewers often read the individual paper sculptures as surreal creatures that migrate together, forming an uncertain path.  The installation as a collective system portrays a tendency of unrelated animals and plants to evolve superficially similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions.  Zhan Zhang

Matthew Varey has participated in Artistic Visions of a Shrinking Landscape, an exhibition to raise awareness and to raise funds to protect land in and around Hamilton, Ontario as well as several other exhibitions about diminishing wild and natural lands around Dundas, Ontario.

Working primarily in abstract landscapes, Nicole Graham creates atmospheric compositions that dissolve boundaries between place, memory and perception.  Each work functions as a site of reflection, connecting external environments with the inner landscapes of human experience.    

 

untitled by nicholas x bent, photography with watercolour and natural materials, 2025

My photographic practice centers on the evolving dialogue between the natural environment and human presence. My work is not just a visual document but moments of quiet tension that ask us to reconsider our role in the systems we shape and depend on.  Nicholas x Bent

Natural Science Study: Rot by Julie Sando. 
 Photo collage printed on linen with recycled linen and cotton trim 2024

Natural Science Studies is a collage based, digital print to linen series that merges imagery sourced from vintage natural science magazines with previously used printed textiles.  The pieces submitted were produced using water based inks in a facility committed to zero inventory waste, minimizing the use of harsh chemicals, energy, and water typical of traditional photographic methods.   Julie Sando

In the Centre:  Unfurling Horizons by Chih-ling Chang, ink on linen 2025
On the pedestal: Counterweight by Naomi Dodds, metal sculpture 2024 (curator's award)
Behind on wall: The Birds and the Bees by Paul Drysdale, mixed media 2023. 

I paint on thrifted bed sheets.  I choose them in any colour, and if there are stains, creases, or small patterns, I embrace them rather than cover them.  What began as a practical way to work large has become central to how I think about materials, valuing what already exists and finding possibilities in imperfection.  I think of each piece as part of a larger conversation about how we navigate identity, impermanence and place.  Chih-ling Chang

In projects like Counterweight, mirror-like stainless steel forms act as reincarnations of glacial rocks from the Bruce Penninsula.  The object embodies the tension between our attempts to measure and control the inherent instability or ecological and social systems.  Naomi Dodds

In a study of the wild bird population of North America it was found that from 1970 to the present, 3.9 billion birds have been lost.  This was the impetus for the piece, The Birds and the Bees.  Global warming, land use practices and pesticides have been endangering the bird population for years.  As artists we may not have the answers to world problems, but we do have the ability to expose them so that they can be analyzed.  Paul Drysdale   

Convergence Installation

For more information about the three jurors, please follow this link.  The same link will take you to a list of all 26 artists with their complete artist statements.  

There were two awards given at the opening.  

The Juror's award went to Rachel Kochistry for End of Summer  oil painting (below)

The Curator's award went to Naomi Dodds for Counterweight.   Mentioned earlier

economic colonizaton - resource dispossession, a detail of untitled by nicholas x bent

Unfurling Horizons by Chih-ling Chang

detail of I stand within a walled garden by Tanya Zaryski

Convergence returns to the Tom Thomson gallery, Judy Martin's quilt will be part of it.

Sacred Ground

Sacred Ground will be part of Convergence, the all-Ontario exhibition at the Tom Thomson gallery in Owen Sound.  The artist delivered her work on Monday October 6.  She met the curator of the exhibition, Shannon Bingeman and re-connected with curator of education, Heather McLeese.  Ned and Judy Martin travelled to Owen Sound from Manitoulin by way of the Chi Chi Mon Ferry.  It was a beautiful day to be on the water.      

on the ferry

The reason Judy and her husband made the trip was because of the postal strike in Canada.  The ferry is running until October 26 this year, so they are going to go back to Owen Sound for the opening.

Convergence opens October 18 with a reception from 2-4 pm.  Judy and Ned will be there.

The exhibition continues until January 17.

detail of Sacred Ground, wrapped thread on wool patchwork, hand stitched

There were over 150 entries for the jurors Jennifer Norman, Kristine Noran and Martin Pearce to choose from.  26 artsts were selected: 

Susan Barton-Tait, nicolas x bent, Becky Comber, Chi-ling Chang, Liz Rae Dalton, Naomi Dodds, Paul Drysdale, Richelle Forsey, Sylvia Galbraith, Nicole Graham, DeborahHatanaka, Marlene Kawalez, Rachel Kochistry, Che Ree Kwon, Sabrina Leeder, Elizabeth M. Lopez, Judy Martin, Ann Pappert, Sherry Park, Anton Pickard, Robert Potvin, Julie Sando, Matthew Varey, Mike Yuhasz, Tanya Zaryski, Zhan Zhang.

Gallery address:  Tom Thomson Art Gallery 840 1st Ave W, Owen Sound, On N4K 4K4         

                            519 376 1982                               tomthomson.org 

Judy Martin is invited to exhibit in the USA, but there are issues

Quilts=Art=Quilts opens at the Schweinfurth Art Centre in Auburn New York on October 25, 2025.

Judy Martin's reversible quilt, The Day, The Night, and then the Day Again has been juried into the show by Paula Kovarik and Petra Fallaux. The quilts are supposed to arrive in New York state during the week of September 29 - October 4, 2025.  

When the artist shipped her work, she was required to pay tarrif charges and she did so.

Judy Martin, a Canadian artist often shows her quilts in exhibitions in the USA in highly respected exhibitions such as Quilt National, Visions, and Quilts=Art=Quilts, but this is the first time she has had to pay duty to do so.  The tarrifs came into law August 25, 2025.  Judy shipped her work through Canada Post on September 24.

On September 26, the federal government of Canada advised the crown corporation of Canada Post that there needed to be many changes for financial viability.  Closing rural post offices and stopping home delivery are two of the things that were to happen.  On that same day at 4 pm, the Canada Post employees walked off the job.  All mail is stopped.

The Day, the Night, and then the Day Again is trapped in Canada until the strike settles.  

The exhibition, Quilts=Art=Quilts will continue from October 25 - January 5, 2026. 

Good News!  Judy's quilt was delivered to the art centre in Auburn New York in time for the exhibition, which opened October 25.  

Starry Starry / Holy Holy enters private collection

Starry Starry

One of Judy Martin's masterpieces, the two-sided linen damask / organdy textile, has entered private collection this month.

Starry Starry is made from a linen damask table cloth that has been dyed with procion dye and marked with a grid of holes.  These holes are filled with velvet using the reverse applique technique.  The dots are encircled by radiating lines that are embroidered with silk threads. 

Holy Holy

But there is more.  The other side of this two-sided large textile is shaded with a layer of sheer dark brown organza, that was sttiched with floral stars.  These stitched elements join the two layers with time and touch.  The second side is entitled Holy Holy.

Starry Starry / Holy Holy has shown in three solo exhibitions by Judy Martin.  Inside Out in 2023, Softer and Dreamier 2024, and The Sky 2025.  

procion dye on linen damask, natural dye on silk organza, linen damask and silk velvet, silk threads, reverse applique and hand embroidery quilting, 84 x 61inches or 213 x 155 cm,  2023 

From my living room / studio window, I can see the sky above the water of Lake Huron.  One of the most remarkable things about each day is how much the sky and the water change colour.  One of the most remarkable things about the sky, is that there are so many stars in it, even in the daytime.   Judy Martin

A Quilt for Baby Earth enters private collection

 

A Quilt For Baby Earth was sold by the Perivale Gallery in August 2025.

It measures 47.5 x 46 inches and is a quilt made with handkerchief linen and small amounts of coloured velvet.  The surface is embroidered with the poem, Planet Earth, by Canadian poet P.K. Page.  The words describe ways of loving and caring and nurturing the earth will all the grasses and lakes. 

Judy has permission from the estate of P.K. Page to use this poem in her work.  For those interested in reading the complete text, it is avaialbe at this link .

Congratulations to the new collector.  I hope that you will find much to appreicate in this piece.  Please contact me by email.  It's important that I know the provenence of this piece and the information might be needed in the future.  Thank you!