The Renewal exhibition is at Bruce County Museum

Renewal, the SAQA exhibition of Canadian members is at Bruce County Museum   in Southampton, Ontario this winter.  January 10 until April 19, 2026.

Given our current global events, the SAQA exhibtion theme of Renewal presents artists with a timely opportunity to address this issue in their work.  The social, econiomic, and politica unravelling we are experiencing, and particular, following recent health threats, has unleashed a profuse outpouring of artworks that challenge us to reconsider the human condition in the broadest sense.  It is the jurors' hope that the choices we haave made satisfy the exhibitionis's criteria while the elasticity of the artworks featured in the exhibition situate local commentatries of making within wider negotaiontions of meaning to reflect alternative paths to renewal inu our current global situation.

Giving life back in a new form to older used quilts is Judy Martin's quintessential quest as evidenced in the detailed work in Poet in Love.  And we know who the poet is.   (above)

Rise Again, Susan Avishai's mythical Phoenix cleverly reuises men's shirt parts to rise from  the ashes.

In Life Rings True, Robynne Cole compares an individual's life stages to the life erings of a tree, illustrating this journey from birth to decline.  

The richness of garden bounty is mirrored in the active hatch-like stitches rendered in My Mother's Garden by Kristi Farrier.  

In Mita Giacominimi's Bovinity, a cow and her calf suggest the most primal kind of renewal - bearing and nurtuing the thread of life.  

Craft historian Bruce Metcalf has suggested that crafts, including textiles, are inherently a contingent art form that dervives value and meaning from how they materialize function, skill, and design, and encapsulate life experience.  The pieces in this exhibition embrace Metcalf's concept, as each work illustrates the diverse channels through which everyday objects such as quilts can speak to our global concern and quest for renewal - in whatever form. 

The above text contains excerpts of juror David Kaye's in the beautiful catalogue for the Renwal exhibition which is available through the museum.  The exhibiton was juried by David Kaye, Leona Herzog, and Brandt Eisner.  

Quilts Are Journals at 100 percent Silk

100% Silk Shop & Gallery is exhibiting a collecion of Judith Martin's quilts entitled Quilts are Journals from February 7 - March 7 , 2026.  The exhibition includes quilts that Martin made from the 1980s alongside more recent works.  Across these many decades the artist notes her unwavering ability to find healing throguh her quilting process.  

The results are varied hand-dyed and hand-stitched quilts, often large-scale with interest in complex and minimalist patterns. Together these works celebrate an artist who has spent decades with the traditions of quilting, bringing deep curiosity and experimentation.  And more, explores the heightened state of attention that working with textile techniques often brings, making her writing an extraordinary companion to the quilts themselves.    

Throughout the endless archives of Judy's Journals, Judith records the regular stuff of life like appointments, family visits, and celebrating holidays while also reflecting on the imperatives of creating as if they are one and the same, at random, as expected, all rich.  She often shares photos of her quilting in the passenger seat of the car, driving the coutnry roads of Northern Ontario. 

She references other artists like Lucy Lippard and Anne Truitt to reflect on material knoweldge and the devotion of practice, sharing images of theri work and quoting their writing.  Judith's desire to make connections and create work seems boundless.  

Judith Martin was born in 1951 in Fort Frances, Ontario but relocated to Manitoulin Island with her husband and four children in 1993.  She continues to reside there.

Coming from a family of artists and scientists she obtained her teaching diploma from Lakehead University in 1969 and spent years teaching classical piano and grade 4 cohorts in Northern Ontario communities.  She made her first quilt in 1972 using one of the most complex quilting patterns, crown of thorns, and has been dedicatedly making quilts ever since.  

Curators:  Lee Dekel and Inez Genereux, from 100% Silk Shop & Gallery, 1558 Dupont Street, Toronto

Exhibition text:  Anni Spadafora

Mercy

Quilts are Journals, a solo exhibition in Toronto

Judy Martin was invited to exhibit her work at 100% silk shop and gallery in Toronto.  Lee Dekel, the founder and lead designer at the gallery and her creative partner, Inez Genereux, chose textiles that span Judy's fifty year career.  The artist will be present at the opening on February 7 from 2-5 pm.  

The exhibition will be on display at 1558 Dupont street from February 7 until March 7, 2006.

Heart Work

 

Heart Work:  A zoom presentation for the Textile and Fibre Artists of Manitoba occurred January 20, 2026 at 6:30 pm, Central time.   Judy read from her current journal during the talk, and showed the baby quilts and mended quilts as well as her recent exhibition pieces.  The presentation was relaxed and intimate.  It is shared here if you are interested.  

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