Susan Avishai

I create sculpture from deconstructed, discarded clothing to evoke awareness of the exploitive nature of garment manufacture and the paradoxically enormous problem of textile waste. I have had 17 solo shows and am represented in several corporate and museum collections. I have a BFA (Sir George Williams U ‘71), studied at OCADU in Toronto and Académie Julien in Paris, and an MA (‘02, Hollins University, VA) in writing. Toronto is now home after years in Montreal, Jerusalem, New York, Boston, and Ottawa. My work is in Dimensional Cloth, Sculpture by Contemporary Textile Artists (Stanton), and was profiled in Fiber Art Now, SAQA Journal, and Textile Fibre Forum. I presented at the 3rd Int’l Textile Symposium at the Mark Rothko Centre (Latvia) and was chosen three times for Excellence in Fibers and Quilts. Recently I curated an exhibition of 11 fibre artists who upcycle cast-off clothing at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Ontario, and I was a featured speaker at the 2023 Conference in Toronto.