Anna Torma
dal 1/4/2011 al 14/5/2011
Segnalato da
1/4/2011
Anna Torma
Cambridge Galleries Queen's Square, Cambridge
Her works in the 'Encyclopaedia Domestica' exhibition are based on these accumulated found handworks, which the artist rearranges and organizes to make their naive universe visible.
Anna Torma’s textile art combines personal and formal elements with traditional hand-embroidery and stitching techniques producing complex images deeply rooted in culture and craft. Through layers of text and image amongst found and fabricated textiles the wall-hangings recall drawing and collage more than conventional embroidery.
In her recent work Torma has been using collected figurative wall hangings as source material. Customarily found in homes and used in kitchens to preserve the neatness of the cooking area these pieces were made by women using embroidery kits sold en masse at country markets. The hangings served as decoration as well as a poster for domestic values illustrating moral and religious virtue, wealth, unrequited and happy love. Torma’s works in the Encyclopaedia Domestica exhibition are based on these accumulated found handworks, which the artist rearranges and organizes to make their naïve universe visible. Using her excellent knowledge of embroidery and craft she transforms old stories into new complex pictographs elaborate in concepts and forms.
The exhibition also includes a series of older works, pieces from Cambridge Galleries Permanent Collection, and three new works in which Torma transforms heavily worn quilts handmade from WWI soldier’s uniforms with a series of embroidery drawings and text. Torma’s fascination with textiles comes from, as the artist puts it, “… the material's usefulness, its ability to represent and unite art, culture and history”.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
Anna Torma was born in 1952, Tarnaors, Hungary. Her interest in working with textiles goes back to early childhood when she learned to sew, knit, crochet and embroider from her mother and grandmothers. Torma graduated with a degree in Textile Art and Design from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts, Budapest, Hungary, where she studied from 1974-79. She has been a practicing and exhibiting artist since that time; producing mainly large-scale hand embroidered wall hangings. She immigrated to Canada in 1988 and now lives in Baie Verte, New Brunswick.
ARTIST WEBSITE: http://www.annatorma.com
IMAGE: Anna Torma, Universe 2 (detail). 2010. Vintage quilt, hand embroidery. Courtesy of the artist
Cambridge Galleries are supported by the membership, the City of Cambridge, the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
MEDIA CONTACT:
K. Jennifer Bedford 519.621.0460 ext. 119 jbedford@cambridgegalleries.ca
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2 at 2:30 pm
CAMBRIDGE GALLERIES QUEEN’S SQUARE
1 North Square Cambridge, ON N1S 2K6
GALLERY HOURS:
Monday to Thursday: 9:30 am - 8:30 pm,
Friday & Saturday: 9:30 am - 5:30 pm, Sunday: 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Admission is free, everyone is welcome.