Laurie Swim
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
b. 1949, Lockeport, Nova Scotia, Canada
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
City of Toronto Art Collection, Toronto, ON, Canada
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
The National Quilt Museum, Paducah, KY
Nova Scotia Art Bank, NS, Canada
Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council, Halifax, NS, Canada
Workers Art and Heritage Museum, Hamilton, ON, Canada
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008 Fall Fiber Show, Handworks Gallery of American Crafts, Acton, MA
The Quilt as Art: A Retrospective, Rossignol Centre, Liverpool, NS, Canada
2007 Threadcount, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, New York, NY and Chicago, IL
At The End Of The Day, Solo Show, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Museum of Industry, Community Art Works by Laurie Swim, Stellarton, NS
Teachers’ Perspective, Group Show, CQA Conference, Ottawa, ON
Breaking Ground The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster 1960, Pier 21, Halifax, NS
2005 Featured Artist, Fiber Art Group Show, Osprey Theatre, Shelburne, NS
30 Quilts by 12 Canadian Artists, Yokohomo and Sendai, Japan
Solo Show, Women’s Art Association Gallery, Toronto, ON
2004 Solo Show, Post Office Center, Lunenburg, NS
Small Works for Small Spaces, Juried Exhibition, Ayer Lofts Gallery Lowell, MA
The Ontario Juried Show, Waterloo Quilt Festival, ON
2003-04 Solo Show, Women’s Art Association Gallery, Toronto, ON
2002 Six Continents of Quilts, UBS Paine Webber Gallery, New York, NY
Celebration of Quilts V11, Viewers Choice Award, York Heritage Quilters Guild
Solo Show, Granite Club Kitchener, Waterloo County Quilt Festival, ON
2001 John B. Aird Gallery, Annual Group Show, Ontario Artists Association, Toronto
2000 Course of Action: Images of Community Art in Progress, The Market Gallery, City of
Toronto Gallery, Toronto, ON
1999 City-wide Canvas - Selections from the City of Toronto Art Collection, The Market Gallery,
St. Lawrence Market, Toronto, ON
1998–00 Nova Scotia Homestead, Traveling Juried Exhibition, Canadian Contemporary Quilts,
Rodman Hall, St. Catharines, ON
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2007 Rags to Riches: The Quilt as Art. Swim, Laurie. Art Quilt Publishing Corp,
Lunenberg, NS.
2005 Art Quilt Associates Newsletter. Autumn. "The Making of an Art Quilt Gallery Studio."
The Canadian Quilter. Summer. "Inspired by the Sea."
2000 The Canadian Quilter. Autumn. "Breaking Ground."
1996 Threads Magazine. Fall. "Pointillist Quilting."
1991 Quilting. Swim, Laurie. Friedman-Fairfax Publishers, New York, NY.
1986 The Joy Of Quilting. Swim, Laurie. Penguin Books, Toronto, Canada
SELECTED PUBLIC & CORPORATE COMMISSIONS
2005 Icons of the Nova Scotia South Shore, South Shore Tourist Assoc., Banner
2002 I Too Shall Wear Purple…., 48” x 36”, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guelph, ON
1993-94 Earth, Water, Fire and Air, four works each 3' x 10', for showroom of Kingston Nissan,
Gardiners Road, Kingston, ON
1990 Perelandra, 3' x 8', site specific Work for Chapel of Kingston General Hospital,
Kingston, ON
1988 IMAX Camera, 6’ x 8’, site specific Work for Board Room, Imax-Omnimax Corporation
Manitoba Afternoon, 4' x 14', Frieson Printers, Altona, MB
1987 Heritage, Organisation, Community and Personal, 4' x 9' each, collaboration with
employees; Co-operators Data Services Ltd. Mississauga, ON
1984 Clairol Canada, Toronto, Fabric depiction of Clairol Logo
1983 Circuity, 5' x 10', Hudson's Bay Company, reception area, Toronto, ON
1982 Sunburst, 10' x 6', Toronto Sun, boardroom. Toronto, ON
1981 St. Michael and the Dragon, 5' x 27", St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto
1980 Cognisance, 6' x 14, Ryder Machinery, reception area, Etobicoke, ON
Prairie Dawn, 8' x 6', Scotiabank, banking hall, Lethbridge, AB
1979 Sheep Look Up, 7' x 5', Scotiabank, banking hall, Sudbury, ON
1978 Equinox, 4' x 64', Scotiabank, Yonge and St.Clair Branch, Toronto
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“I have been alive for a long time and I do not have exaggerated expectations. I was astonished and deeply affected when I saw her Eve’s Apple,” said Alex Colville, in his Introduction to Laurie Swim’s first book, The Joy of Quilting.
Laurie Swim has worked as an artist for more than 35 years developing unique and innovative treatments to fashion her imagery in textiles with fabric and thread. As a significant contribution and use of this medium, she has shared her art form and practice with others to create meaningful public art. She has also written three books, two published internationally, on quilt art. The Joy Of Quilting with an introduction by Alex Colville, 1984, made her an early leader in this field. Laurie’s third book, Rags To Riches: The Quilt As Art with an introduction by Mary Pratt, was published in Canada, Fall, 2007.
Laurie’s works grace many private and public collections, including the Nova Scotia Art Bank, Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council, the City of Toronto Art Collection and the Museum of Arts & Design in New York.
Her work, “It’s No Fish Ye’re Buying”, is part of Textile Traces, a collection being compiled by Lloyd Cotsen, who was recently honored by the Textile Museum in Washington, DC for exceptional contributions to the field of textile arts. According to the American Craft Council, he has amassed “a collection of some 5,000 small works, garments and fragments, thought to be one of the most important groups of historical textiles in private hands.”
Because her primary medium is fabric, Laurie has had a unique opportunity to combine fine art and public advocacy. Her large-scale works, completed with the help of volunteers from the community, are aesthetically significant; and by participating in the process of production, people are able to express their deeply felt concerns and remembrance. The resulting art is not only a celebration of the creativity of a community but it becomes an effective means of bringing the issues to public attention and instituting cultural change. Laurie began initiating large scale community-made quilts with volunteers in 1995. The first, “Pulling Together, The Builders Of The Rideau Canal, 1826-32”, was created in collaboration with the Kingston (Ontario) & District Labour Council and volunteers from the community, with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. This piece, 9’x15’, was worked in pointillism, created with thousands of thumbnail-sized bits of fabric. The work is now part of the Workers Heritage Museum Permanent Collection in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
With the help of dozens of volunteers from many parts of the Greater Toronto Area, she created “Breaking Ground: The Hogg's Hollow Memorial, 1960 ”, with COSTI Immigrant Services in 2000. Portraying the victims in their last moments in the tunnel. The work is a tribute to the five men who died so tragically. Their deaths were the catalyst that led to the profound changes in construction safety and changed the course of history in Canada. In Fall of 2008, the 7’ x 20’ work will be installed in the York Mills Subway station in Toronto, Ontario.
Bringing the community together in her hometown of Lockeport, Nova Scotia, in the summer of 2000, Laurie created “Lost At Sea, 1961”, memorializing 17 fishermen who drowned in a terrible storm. Twelve years old at the time, Laurie never forgot the tragedy that left 16 widows, 65 fatherless children and a town forever changed. In this community, where traditional crafts and fishing define a way of life, this fine work is truly meaningful to the women and men who helped make it. Laurie, with her brother Dan Swim, a filmmaker, documented oral histories in a short film that accompanies the artwork.
In 2001, Laurie embarked on a major project: “The Canadian Young Workers Memorial Quilt”. This is both a stunning work of art and a massive effort to involve the whole of Canada in a socially significant cause. Laurie tirelessly attended all sorts of community events, from labor meetings to quilt guilds, where she raised the issue of safe workplaces for young people in her talks and through her craft.
In 2003 she received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council to complete her series, From Our Back Yard, started in 1997. In 2004, she moved back to Nova Scotia where she grew up and has since worked on a number of projects celebrating the area. The first was The Ragged Shore, a series inspired by the maritime landscape. Next came They Were Fishers, homage to the culture of fishing that is now diminishing on the east coast. Both are ongoing, culminating in a major body of work to be completed in the next few years called Land, Sea And Memory. She received a Canada Council grant for Assistance to Contemporary Fine Craft in 2007 for research and development of processes to interpret land, sea and memory for mixed fiber wall-hangings. This work will tour in North America, opening at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax in 2010 and will culminate at del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
del Mano Gallery has represented Laurie since 2007, beginning with the solo show At The End Of The Day in February. One of the works in that show, Laurie Swim's “Stonehurst Houses” was acquired by The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY, (Museum of the American Quilter's Society). I was donated to the museum by Barbara and Robert Hunter along with thirty-nine other pieces from their private collection that will be on display from October 10 - January 13, 2009, in the exhibit of this collection entitled Eye Catchers. The work, said Judy Schwender, Curator of Collections, “is a small jewel in the Hunter Collection. Laurie’s use of threadwork, raw-edge appliqué (both flat and crumpled) impart wonderful surface texture that make this view of homes by the sea come alive. You can smell the salt air.”
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
City of Toronto Art Collection, Toronto, ON, Canada
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
The National Quilt Museum, Paducah, KY
Nova Scotia Art Bank, NS, Canada
Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council, Halifax, NS, Canada
Workers Art and Heritage Museum, Hamilton, ON, Canada
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008 Fall Fiber Show, Handworks Gallery of American Crafts, Acton, MA
The Quilt as Art: A Retrospective, Rossignol Centre, Liverpool, NS, Canada
2007 Threadcount, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, New York, NY and Chicago, IL
At The End Of The Day, Solo Show, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Museum of Industry, Community Art Works by Laurie Swim, Stellarton, NS
Teachers’ Perspective, Group Show, CQA Conference, Ottawa, ON
Breaking Ground The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster 1960, Pier 21, Halifax, NS
2005 Featured Artist, Fiber Art Group Show, Osprey Theatre, Shelburne, NS
30 Quilts by 12 Canadian Artists, Yokohomo and Sendai, Japan
Solo Show, Women’s Art Association Gallery, Toronto, ON
2004 Solo Show, Post Office Center, Lunenburg, NS
Small Works for Small Spaces, Juried Exhibition, Ayer Lofts Gallery Lowell, MA
The Ontario Juried Show, Waterloo Quilt Festival, ON
2003-04 Solo Show, Women’s Art Association Gallery, Toronto, ON
2002 Six Continents of Quilts, UBS Paine Webber Gallery, New York, NY
Celebration of Quilts V11, Viewers Choice Award, York Heritage Quilters Guild
Solo Show, Granite Club Kitchener, Waterloo County Quilt Festival, ON
2001 John B. Aird Gallery, Annual Group Show, Ontario Artists Association, Toronto
2000 Course of Action: Images of Community Art in Progress, The Market Gallery, City of
Toronto Gallery, Toronto, ON
1999 City-wide Canvas - Selections from the City of Toronto Art Collection, The Market Gallery,
St. Lawrence Market, Toronto, ON
1998–00 Nova Scotia Homestead, Traveling Juried Exhibition, Canadian Contemporary Quilts,
Rodman Hall, St. Catharines, ON
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2007 Rags to Riches: The Quilt as Art. Swim, Laurie. Art Quilt Publishing Corp,
Lunenberg, NS.
2005 Art Quilt Associates Newsletter. Autumn. "The Making of an Art Quilt Gallery Studio."
The Canadian Quilter. Summer. "Inspired by the Sea."
2000 The Canadian Quilter. Autumn. "Breaking Ground."
1996 Threads Magazine. Fall. "Pointillist Quilting."
1991 Quilting. Swim, Laurie. Friedman-Fairfax Publishers, New York, NY.
1986 The Joy Of Quilting. Swim, Laurie. Penguin Books, Toronto, Canada
SELECTED PUBLIC & CORPORATE COMMISSIONS
2005 Icons of the Nova Scotia South Shore, South Shore Tourist Assoc., Banner
2002 I Too Shall Wear Purple…., 48” x 36”, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guelph, ON
1993-94 Earth, Water, Fire and Air, four works each 3' x 10', for showroom of Kingston Nissan,
Gardiners Road, Kingston, ON
1990 Perelandra, 3' x 8', site specific Work for Chapel of Kingston General Hospital,
Kingston, ON
1988 IMAX Camera, 6’ x 8’, site specific Work for Board Room, Imax-Omnimax Corporation
Manitoba Afternoon, 4' x 14', Frieson Printers, Altona, MB
1987 Heritage, Organisation, Community and Personal, 4' x 9' each, collaboration with
employees; Co-operators Data Services Ltd. Mississauga, ON
1984 Clairol Canada, Toronto, Fabric depiction of Clairol Logo
1983 Circuity, 5' x 10', Hudson's Bay Company, reception area, Toronto, ON
1982 Sunburst, 10' x 6', Toronto Sun, boardroom. Toronto, ON
1981 St. Michael and the Dragon, 5' x 27", St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto
1980 Cognisance, 6' x 14, Ryder Machinery, reception area, Etobicoke, ON
Prairie Dawn, 8' x 6', Scotiabank, banking hall, Lethbridge, AB
1979 Sheep Look Up, 7' x 5', Scotiabank, banking hall, Sudbury, ON
1978 Equinox, 4' x 64', Scotiabank, Yonge and St.Clair Branch, Toronto
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“I have been alive for a long time and I do not have exaggerated expectations. I was astonished and deeply affected when I saw her Eve’s Apple,” said Alex Colville, in his Introduction to Laurie Swim’s first book, The Joy of Quilting.
Laurie Swim has worked as an artist for more than 35 years developing unique and innovative treatments to fashion her imagery in textiles with fabric and thread. As a significant contribution and use of this medium, she has shared her art form and practice with others to create meaningful public art. She has also written three books, two published internationally, on quilt art. The Joy Of Quilting with an introduction by Alex Colville, 1984, made her an early leader in this field. Laurie’s third book, Rags To Riches: The Quilt As Art with an introduction by Mary Pratt, was published in Canada, Fall, 2007.
Laurie’s works grace many private and public collections, including the Nova Scotia Art Bank, Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council, the City of Toronto Art Collection and the Museum of Arts & Design in New York.
Her work, “It’s No Fish Ye’re Buying”, is part of Textile Traces, a collection being compiled by Lloyd Cotsen, who was recently honored by the Textile Museum in Washington, DC for exceptional contributions to the field of textile arts. According to the American Craft Council, he has amassed “a collection of some 5,000 small works, garments and fragments, thought to be one of the most important groups of historical textiles in private hands.”
Because her primary medium is fabric, Laurie has had a unique opportunity to combine fine art and public advocacy. Her large-scale works, completed with the help of volunteers from the community, are aesthetically significant; and by participating in the process of production, people are able to express their deeply felt concerns and remembrance. The resulting art is not only a celebration of the creativity of a community but it becomes an effective means of bringing the issues to public attention and instituting cultural change. Laurie began initiating large scale community-made quilts with volunteers in 1995. The first, “Pulling Together, The Builders Of The Rideau Canal, 1826-32”, was created in collaboration with the Kingston (Ontario) & District Labour Council and volunteers from the community, with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. This piece, 9’x15’, was worked in pointillism, created with thousands of thumbnail-sized bits of fabric. The work is now part of the Workers Heritage Museum Permanent Collection in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
With the help of dozens of volunteers from many parts of the Greater Toronto Area, she created “Breaking Ground: The Hogg's Hollow Memorial, 1960 ”, with COSTI Immigrant Services in 2000. Portraying the victims in their last moments in the tunnel. The work is a tribute to the five men who died so tragically. Their deaths were the catalyst that led to the profound changes in construction safety and changed the course of history in Canada. In Fall of 2008, the 7’ x 20’ work will be installed in the York Mills Subway station in Toronto, Ontario.
Bringing the community together in her hometown of Lockeport, Nova Scotia, in the summer of 2000, Laurie created “Lost At Sea, 1961”, memorializing 17 fishermen who drowned in a terrible storm. Twelve years old at the time, Laurie never forgot the tragedy that left 16 widows, 65 fatherless children and a town forever changed. In this community, where traditional crafts and fishing define a way of life, this fine work is truly meaningful to the women and men who helped make it. Laurie, with her brother Dan Swim, a filmmaker, documented oral histories in a short film that accompanies the artwork.
In 2001, Laurie embarked on a major project: “The Canadian Young Workers Memorial Quilt”. This is both a stunning work of art and a massive effort to involve the whole of Canada in a socially significant cause. Laurie tirelessly attended all sorts of community events, from labor meetings to quilt guilds, where she raised the issue of safe workplaces for young people in her talks and through her craft.
In 2003 she received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council to complete her series, From Our Back Yard, started in 1997. In 2004, she moved back to Nova Scotia where she grew up and has since worked on a number of projects celebrating the area. The first was The Ragged Shore, a series inspired by the maritime landscape. Next came They Were Fishers, homage to the culture of fishing that is now diminishing on the east coast. Both are ongoing, culminating in a major body of work to be completed in the next few years called Land, Sea And Memory. She received a Canada Council grant for Assistance to Contemporary Fine Craft in 2007 for research and development of processes to interpret land, sea and memory for mixed fiber wall-hangings. This work will tour in North America, opening at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax in 2010 and will culminate at del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
del Mano Gallery has represented Laurie since 2007, beginning with the solo show At The End Of The Day in February. One of the works in that show, Laurie Swim's “Stonehurst Houses” was acquired by The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY, (Museum of the American Quilter's Society). I was donated to the museum by Barbara and Robert Hunter along with thirty-nine other pieces from their private collection that will be on display from October 10 - January 13, 2009, in the exhibit of this collection entitled Eye Catchers. The work, said Judy Schwender, Curator of Collections, “is a small jewel in the Hunter Collection. Laurie’s use of threadwork, raw-edge appliqué (both flat and crumpled) impart wonderful surface texture that make this view of homes by the sea come alive. You can smell the salt air.”