YP&C Meet the Artist: Zavisha Chromicz  - Thursday, December 1, 2022

We invite Young Professionals & Creatives under 40 to join the decorative arts/material culture community at the Paul Petro Gallery on Queen Street West to meet and share the experinces of Zavisha Chromicz's new exhibition - Mother Load: The challenge of suturing the mitochondrial tear

Zavisha has worked on numerous community and fibre-based projects that explore trauma, healing through pleasure, decadence and queer family making, and colonialism, sexual violence, and disability justice. From 2003-2006 Chromicz was a member and co-facilitator of West Side Stitches, a queer punk makers collective formed by Will Munro and Jeremy Laing. Participants used and taught stitching, embroidery, applique, faggoting and many other fabric art and costuming techniques to make street art, costumes, installations and public art. From 2015-2016 Chromicz collaborated with Leroi Newbold on the Freedom Fighter Puppetry series for Black Lives Matter, Toronto.

In their first exhibition at the gallery, The calming beauty of the body's molecular landscape (March, 2022), developed in the snippets of time available to the parent of young kids during a pandemic lockdown, Chromicz addressed the fear and chaos around COVID-19. While indulging in late-night doom-scrolling to research the biology of the coronavirus, they came upon a breathtaking NASA image of a human cell which inspired the work in the exhibition. In Mother Load: The challenge of suturing the mitochondrial tear, Chromicz builds on ideas from this past exhibition.

This new work will be on display at the Paul Petro Gallery until December 23rd.

Time: 5:00pm to 6:00pm

Young Professionals & Creatives Under 40 Register HERE

SPECIAL RECEPTION

Guests joining us at the gallery talk are also invited to attend the Craft Ontario's Patron Shopping Night Reception - 1106 Queen Street West (from 6pm to 7pm) as the guests of the CSDA/CCAD to meet other members of the material culture community and will receive a 15% discount on all items in the shop (some exceptions apply with the Dorset prints).

BIOGRAPHY

Zavisha Chromicz (b. 1972, Poland) self-identifies as a queer fat trans mixed Roma self-taught artist who has been making community-based mixed media and fibre art for over 20 years. They have consistently made art as a medicine for survival. Their work explores disability in throwaway culture and the joy of queer debauchery and honours the survivors of childhood and ancestral trauma. Early collaborators include Will Munro (1975-2010).

P S: If tickets are sold out, please contact info@csda-ccad.org to be added to a waiting list. 

NOTE: Masks for this event will be required due to spacing capacity in the gallery. 

Scottish snuff box, unmarked. Photo credit: Dorothea Burstyn

Image: Dorothea Burstyn

CSDA Sundays: Collectors Series - Sunday, January 15, 2023

The TASTE OF THE EXOTIC: Snuff Boxes Made from Foreign Materials

Step into another world as Dr. Dorothea Burstyn walks us through the centuries with her stunning collection of snuff boxes. Although taking snuff has for the most part been relegated to the annals of history, the practice has left a legacy that reflects the exquisite style and skilled craftsmanship of bygone eras. By monitoring international auctions and corresponding with other collectors, Dr. Burstyn has assembled a diverse and delightful array of tiny treasures made from wood, horn, tortoiseshell, semi-precious stones and other interesting materials, their common denominator being the sterling silver that encases them and enhances their beauty.

Image above: Shell snuff boxes, all unmarked, middle of 18th century.

Time: 3:00pm to 4:30pm

REGISTER HERE

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Dorothea Burstyn is a co-founder and past president of the Silver Society of Canada. A docent at the ROM and a long-time collector herself, she is now the editor of The Silver Society of Canada Journal.  

Note: We welcome members of the Silver Society of Canada to join this talk.