The new Alberta Foundation for the Arts exhibit ‘The Pretend Foraging in Sleeved Blankets’ is on display at Fort Macleod Library until the end of September.
The work of a southern Alberta artist is featured in a new art exhibit at Fort Macleod Library.
The Pretend Foraging in Sleeved Blankets exhibit features 14 drawings and eight mini quilts by Lethbridge-based artist Grace Wirzba.
The exhibit draws from a long-term project Wirzba developed from objects selected from the Galt Museum and Archives collection.
Wirzba asked friends and strangers to create artistic responses to archived objects, which she in turn translated to new drawings and textiles of her own.
The artist explored methods of story-telling and myth-making.
“Based in a multi-disciplinary material practice, my work explores translations — the sweetness and mythology that ekes out when an object, story or memory is translated into something other,” Wirzba wrote in her artist’s statement for the exhibit.
“Personal and shared memory are important resources to my practice, and I seek to explore recollection and nostalgia as big feelings,” Wirzba added. “My practice is deeply rooted in examining architecture, space, histories and our intuitive interactions with each other.”
“Often, my work examines the subtleties of the home and the domestic and explores textiles as forms of both resistance and comfort.”
Wirzba was raised in rural Manitoba, where her parents owned a quilting store, and learned to sew and quilt at an early age.
Wirzba graduated from the University of Lethbridge in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
At present, Wirzba is employed by Lethbridge Family Services as co-ordinator of care for newcomer children, while working on collaborative and individual art projects.
Since 1981, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts has operated its travelling exhibition program.
The program’s mandate is to provide every Albertan with the opportunity to enjoy visual art exhibitions in their community.
The program is co-ordinated for the foundation by the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Alberta Society of Artists and the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre.
Exhibitions are curated from several sources, including private and public collections.
