As I research in the archives for these blogs it was interesting to see how many international artists were members or had simply applied for shows in the former the Manitoba Craft Council gallery space. For this Flashback we will be highlighting an example of one of those far flung artists, Joanne Soroka.
Joanne Soroka resides in Edinburgh, Scotland but considers herself “typically Canadian” as she was born in Montreal, educated at McGill University and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. But after graduation, she immigrated to Scotland, continuing her family’s history of moving away to start a new life. Her background is as multi-cultural as one can get with Japanese, Scottish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian born Jewish grandparents. This diverse background and her research into the lives of her forebears is the basis of most of her textile based art practice.
The image above is of the cover of Joanne Soroka lovely catalog for the successful touring exhibition of about fifty works that ran from 2000 to 2003. Soroka sent the show to ten different galleries and museums in Canada, The United States and Scotland and she had hoped to exhibit it in Winnipeg as well but at the end did it was not to be.
Postcard of the Face of the Earth-Wool, linen, cotton handwoven tapestry, 206 x 163 cm
Below are three examples of the works included in the show.
Postcard of “Scratching the Surface”, 1997. Wool, linen and cotton handwoven tapestry. 122 x 183 cm
Postcard of one of the Golden series- watercolour and Japanese paper collage. 38 x 43 cm
Joanne Soroka continues to live the life of a maker and you can see her current work at her website.
www.joannesoroka.co.uk
