Date/Time
Date - Wednesday, June 16, 2021
6:30 pm-8:00 pm
Permanent Danger: In conversation with Anna Torma
Wednesday, June 16 | 6:30 pm
Free | Online (Zoom) | Register here >
Presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph and the Textile Museum of Canada
Join artist Anna Torma and artist and curator Bryce Kanbara for a discussion of the ideas and issues explored in Torma’s work in advance of her solo exhibition Permanent Danger, opening this summer at the Art Gallery of Guelph. Intensely layering details that speak to ideas of family and well-being, sexuality and identity, home and place, Torma’s densely embroidered textiles reflect a distinct approach to materials as well as subject matter, with every element selected for its distinct qualities and cultural allusions. In Torma’s words: “The most important things that the work must suggest are passion, freshness, and a new discovery every time for a viewer.”
Anna Torma was born in 1952 in Tarnaors, Hungary and graduated with a degree in Textile Art and Design from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts, Budapest, in 1979. She has been an exhibiting artist since that time, producing mainly large-scale hand embroidered wall hangings and collages. She immigrated to Canada in 1988 and currently lives in Baie Verte, New Brunswick. The recipient of many grants and awards in Canada and abroad, Torma is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, a recipient of the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, the New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in Visual Arts, and the Strathbutler Award from the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation. She is represented by Galerie Laroche/Joncas in Montreal.
Bryce Kanbara is a Hamilton, Ontario based visual artist and curator and recipient of the 2021 Governor General’s Award for outstanding contribution. He is a founding member and first administrator of Hamilton Artists Inc. and has held curatorial positions at the Burlington Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant. He was the Executive Director of the Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians, and Chair of their Endowment Fund and National Executive Member. He was the Visual Arts, Crafts & Design Officer for the Ontario Arts Council; co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre; Governing Council member for the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, and is currently the curator/chair of the Arts Committee at Toronto’s Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. He is the proprietor of you me gallery in Hamilton which he views as an intervention connecting art and the general public. He has known the Torma family of artists since the late 1980s.