Amanda McCavour: Wanderings and Traces

Amanda McCavour, Purple Flowers (detail), 2021, thread and machine embroidery. Image courtesy of artist.

Amanda McCavour
Wanderings and Traces

Curated by Karly Boileau

Opening Reception + Meet The Artist: Friday, June 23, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Cambridge Art Galleries, Queen’s Square

Wanderings and Traces is a solo exhibition featuring the work of Canadian artist Amanda McCavour. The exhibition spans three locations across Cambridge Art Galleries and Idea Exchange. Inspired by memory, environment, colour, and line, McCavour manipulates thread and wire to create large-scale sculptural drawings unbound from a two-dimensional surface. The result is a dreamlike and immersive experience for visitors to walk through, around, and underneath. In a moment of mutual symbiosis, our presence within the work completes the drawing McCavour started for us. From botanical motifs to spirographs, McCavour’s work is a playful refuge from the rigours of the everyday. With installations in Galt, Hespeler, and Preston, Wanderings and Traces creates a visual thread between Cambridge communities, celebrating the moment and our collective experience in the here and now.

Wanderings and Traces is supported by The Musagetes Fund held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation.

Exhibition Locations + Dates
Idea Exchange, Hespeler: May 1 to September 24, 2023
Idea Exchange, Preston: May 29 to September 24, 2023
Idea Exchange, Queen’s Square: June 23 to September 10, 2023

About The Artist
Amanda McCavour is a Canadian artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. McCavour holds a BFA from York University where she studied drawing and in May 2014, she completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. McCavour shows her work in galleries nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions in Ottawa (ON), Virginia Beach (VA) and Vancouver (BC) and has completed residencies at Harbourfront Centre’s Textile Studio in Toronto, and the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon. She has received numerous awards and scholarships from the Ontario Crafts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association and The Embroiderers Guild of America. In 2023 McCavour’s work Ode to a Prairie, was selected as a winner for the David Suzuki Foundation Rewilding Art Prize. The artist would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Related Events

Radials and Spirals: Community Chalk Mural
Saturday, July 15, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
In this workshop, Amanda McCavour will lead participants in the making of a large chalk mural of brightly coloured spirograph and radial patterns. Join in the fun and get to know the people in your community. All are welcome to attend, please dress for mess and the outdoors. In the event of bad weather, a rain date will be announced. This workshop is presented in partnership with CAFKA.23: Stay With Me.

Wanderings and Traces Gallery Crawl
Saturday August 12, 1:00 to 4:00 pm
Journey between three locations to see Wanderings and Traces. As part of the gallery crawl at each site you will experience different art activities inspired by the exhibition.

Cambridge Art Galleries | Idea Exchange
ideaexchange.org/cambridge-art-galleries
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Queen’s Square
1 North Square
Cambridge, ON N1S 2K6
519.621.0460

Hours of Operation
Monday to Thursday 9:30 am to 8:30 pm
Friday to Saturday 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Closed Sundays May 21 to September 3, 2023

Preston
435 King Street East
Cambridge, ON N3H 3N1
519.653.3632

Hours of Operation
Monday to Thursday 10:00 am to 8:30 pm
Friday 10:00 am to 5:30 pm
Saturday 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Closed Sundays May 21 to September 3, 2023

Hespeler
5 Tannery Street East
Cambridge, ON N3C 2C1
519.658.4412

Hours of Operation
Monday to Thursday 10:00 am to 8:30 pm
Friday 10:00 am to 5:30 pm
Saturday 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Closed Sundays May 21 to September 3, 2023

Admission is free and all are welcome.

Cambridge Art Galleries presents contemporary art from two galleries in the City of Cambridge: Queen’s Square and Preston. We serve our regional and broader communities through the delivery of contemporary art programs that foster critical cultural dialogue. Our artistic activities engage, embrace, and empower people of all ages and abilities from diverse backgrounds.

Cambridge Art Galleries is situated on the traditional land of Indigenous peoples dating back countless generations. We recognize that it is part of the Haldimand Tract, the traditional land of the Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

Cambridge Art Galleries acknowledge the generous support of the City of Cambridge, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council.

Media Contact:
Karly Boileau, Assistant Curator
kboileau@ideaexchange.org
519.621.0460 ext. 160