The Gallery @ Weird Church in Cumberland is featuring the Feral Fibres Art Show, running from Jan. 14-Feb. 18.
Sham Sandhu, Carly Ball and Caresse Nadeau will share a variety of fabulous fibres, surreal scenes and more.
Sandhu is a first-generation Indian artist who has immersed herself in art specializing in mural work and fibre art. She has many murals located around Cumberland. Her textiles adorn shops and restaurants around the village. As an involved community member and artist, Sandhu has created strong connections in Cumberland, which has led her to many opportunities to showcase her art.
Her pieces of art show her love and passion for weaving and tufting. She uses new, old and found fibre materials to create unique pieces. Weaving allows her to think outside the box, and use colours and feelings to create the pieces of art. Tufting allows her to paint her drawings with yarn.
Ball is a Cumberland-based self-proclaimed “basement” artist - one whose art isn’t shown to others. She can often be found creating with acrylic paints, paper, clay, thread, and found objects. Ball works intuitively; her works shapeshift many times before arriving at their final form. Femininity and its relationship with the dark and grotesque are common themes seen in her artwork.
For the past few years, Ball has been drawn to using fibre in her artwork. She approached this series as a type of “challenge” where she would allow herself to work with fewer mediums, in hopes that the restriction would breed more creativity. She wanted to stay away from any concrete illustrations but couldn’t help bringing in a human element - hence the mirrors. Ball engages the viewer into the looking glass.
Nadeau has been weaving fibres throughout her artistic expressions and disciplines in one way or another since she was a child sewing with her grandma. Her patternless passion drove her through countless creative endeavours both successful and otherwise, all of which have helped her land creatively here, in this whacky fibrous show. The fibre art that Nadeau creates is unpolished, expressive, off-beat and somewhat feral. She mixes the earthy groundedness of wool with surreal imagery of distinctly unearthly things. She processes and dyes all of the wool she uses in her felted pieces. Her weavings include thrifted and gifted fibres as well as her own processed wool.
Ambient music, both live and recorded, for the opening (Jan. 14, 2-5 p.m.) will be provided by D. J. Topp and others.
The Gallery @ Weird Church is at 2688 Penrith Ave., Cumberland. Viewing hours are Fridays 4-6 p.m. and Saturdays 2-5 p.m., whenever the gallery sign is displayed. Shows are curated by Cumberland resident Joan Udell.
For more information, contact Udell at udell.joan@gmail.com, or visit www.weirdchurchcumberland.com