The highly specialized, and yes, esoteric world of Jacquard art weaving is in the spotlight in Toronto this week courtesy of a pair of exhibitions, one at the Textile Museum of Canada and the other at Berkeley Castle Gallery featuring the work of Toronto’s Joe Lewis.
Lewis has been missing in action in recent years; he showed annually at the Cameron House throughout the 1990s but this is his first show in the city since 2000.
“I’m really looking forward to exposing this work to a new audience and to my old audience,” Lewis told me earlier this week during a break in the exhibit installation. As his practice matured, Lewis shifted from painting and collage to quilting to weaving. The work on display right now features one of the artist’s favourite motifs, the classic 1950s body builder silhouette.
In “Blue Genes”, Lewis combines images of his mother and paternal grandmother framed by posing musclemen: “This is where I come from,” he says, “these are my genes, in blue.”
Lewis may live and work in Toronto but he has to travel to the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles (CTCM) to execute his pieces; there is no Jacquard loom here in Hogtown although the artist is hopeful that one of the city’s textile schools – Sheridan, Seneca or OCAD – will soon make the investment.
“The jacquard loom was developed in France in the early 1800s,” Lewis explains. “It featured a revolutionary punch card system that dictated how the threads would rise or fall, thereby speeding a process that had been formerly done by draw boys. The punch card technology that was developed for jacquard was a precursor to the computer, a forerunner of the binary system.”
Joining Lewis at Berkeley Castle (artist opening is Saturday from 2 – 6 pm) is UK weaver Kathy Schicker whose portraits in cloth evoke belle époque impressionism. Both artists have studied under Louise Lemieux Berube at the CTCM, which celebrates its 20th anniversary tomorrow (April 9).
Across town at the Textile Museum is Faces & Mazes from American textile artist Lia Cook. “Lia is a grand master of jacquard weaving,” enthuses Lewis. “This is a wonderful opportunity for people to come and see three artists with very different approaches all using the exact same machinery to produce their work.”
WHERE/WHEN: Telling Tales: Narrative Woven Textiles by Joe Lewis and Kathy Schicker at Berkely Castle Gallery (2 Berkeley Street, 647.377.6765) April 8 – 25 and Faces & Mazes: Lia Cook at the Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre Avenue, 416.599.5321), April 9 – September 6. Cook speaks at Harbourfront’s Studio Theatre tonight (Thursday) at 7 pm as part of the Innovators + Ideas contemporary craft series; free.
Photo of Joe Lewis by Christopher Jones
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