Civilization.ca - Bronfman Collection - Transformation

1991 RECIPIENT

Susan Warner Keene — Fibre Artist

Toronto — Ontario

Many Tongues, One Language 1988
flax, cotton, dyes, linen thread and acrylic medium
181.6 cm x 54 cm x 6 cm
CMC 91-6 (Bronfman)

In my work, I strive to create an experience for the viewer in which the physical nature of the object engages with the resonance that the form provokes. I am interested in making objects that speak to a deep knowledge of what things are, a knowledge that resides not just in the intellect, but also in the wells of tactile memory.

As a student, Susan Warner Keene was interested in the constructed nature of woven cloth and tapestry, and pursued studies in both areas in the Textile Department at the Ontario College of Art, where she graduated in 1979. Since that time, Keene has gone on to become one of the nation's leading fibre artists exhibiting her wall-reliefs, lecturing, and conducting workshops across Canada and in Australia, France, Japan, Poland, Taiwan and the United States.

Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull; the Claridge Collection, Montreal; the Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa; the Ontario Crafts Council, Toronto; the Government of Alberta, Edmonton; and the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver. She has also created commissions for corporate and private collections, including Credit Suisse, Toronto; Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement Systems; Constitution Square, Ottawa; and Young and Rubicam, Toronto.

Susan Warner Keene has held editorial positions with the Ontario Crafts Council's two publications, Ontario Craft and Craftnews. She has written exhibition reviews and feature articles for Fibrearts, Surface Design Journal, International Tapestry Journal, and Ontario Craft. She also wrote and edited the exhibition catalogue Pictorial Space: New Textile Images, to accompany the exhibition that she organized in 1990 for the Museum for Textiles, Toronto.

A dedicated supporter and promoter of the contemporary fabric arts community, Keene has served as a volunteer member of the Contemporary Gallery Committee at the Museum for Textiles, and has been a member of the Advisory Committee for the Harbourfront Centre Textile Studio in Toronto. From 1992 to 1993, she served as Board president of Surfacing: The Textile Dyers and Printers Association, an organization of professional Canadian textile artists, and currently serves on the Public Art Policy Advisory Committee for Metropolitan Toronto.