What stories do threads carry? What truths do fibres hold?
Resistant Fibres—a compelling new exhibition presented in the Canada Council’s Âjagemô Exhibition Space from June 17, 2025 to May 19, 2026—highlights the radical potential of fibre art and its power to connect and transform. Curated by researcher and cultural worker Julie Graff and drawing from the Art Bank’s rich collection of more than 150 textile works, Resistant Fibres brings together powerful pieces by artists who use textile to interrogate history, affirm identities and provoke conversation.
Reclaiming through textile
Each of the artists featured in Resistant Fibres employs textile as a living language—transforming a traditionally domestic medium into a vehicle for protest, remembrance and radical expression.
At its core, the exhibition is about reclaiming space, and it invites us to consider how creativity and resistance intersect.
In the softness of a stitched line or the tension of woven strands, there is power—sometimes quiet, sometimes defiant.
Chantal Gibson, Outlines in British History: a/Historical In(ter)vention, 2019–2022. Photography by Brandon Clarida Image Services. Courtesy of the artist
Bob Boyer, Let the Acid Queen Rain: The White Goop Devours All!, 1985. Photography by Brandon Clarida Image Services. Courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition honours the joy, sensuality and shared experience that can be embodied through textile. In creating beauty, fibre artists are resisting erasure; in nurturing connection, they are rebuilding what has been lost or overlooked.
Ways to experience the exhibition
The Âjagemô Exhibition Space, located at 150 Elgin Street, in Ottawa, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and admission is free. Register for the opening event on June 17 or come back on June 18 to join the curator and learn about the exhibition. On June 18, bring your own materials to knit, bead, crochet, embroider—and connect with others to share skills and inspiration.
Contribute to the creation of a collaborative textile installation that will be installed in the Âjagemô Exhibition Space this fall.
More opportunities to attend workshops and related activities will take place throughout the exhibition period, from June 17, 2025, to May 19, 2026. Follow the Art Bank on Instagram and Facebook to stay connected.
If you cannot attend the exhibition in person or if you want to elevate your experience by listening to and learning more about the works and artists featured in Resistant Fibres, check out the Art Bank web app.
Featured artists:
Siku Allooloo, Haley Bassett, Bob Boyer, Evelyn Coutellier, Erika DeFreitas, Frances Dorsey, Nancy Edell, General Idea, Chantal Gibson, Murray Gibson, Zoe Lambert, Joanne Lynes, Ann Newdigate, Michèle Provost, Ruth Scheuing, Carl Stewart and Barbara Todd
About the Curator: Julie Graff
Resistant Fibres is curated by Julie Graff, a researcher, cultural worker and emerging curator based in Ottawa, on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation. With a PhD in art history and social anthropology, she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire international de recherche sur l’imaginaire du Nord, de l’hiver et de l’Arctique. Since 2022, she has also served as Artistic Director of Maison MONA, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of public art and heritage. Graff is an active contributor to both academic journals and contemporary art magazines such as Vie des arts and Espace art actuel.