Cynthia Minden
International Shows2004 SOFA Chicago - Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art - Chicago
2004 Small Expressions - Handweavers’ Guild of America International show, Denver
2002 Convergence - Handweavers’ Guild of America, Vancouver
2001 Fiberart International - 17th Biennial of Contemporary Fiber Art, Pittsburgh
National Shows1998 Sourcerers Gallery - group show, Toronto
1990 - 1991 A Tisket A Tasket - Alberta Crafts Council National Touring Exhibition
Solo Shows2006 The Window Gallery - Comox Valley Art Gallery
2005 Reverie - Denman Island Art Gallery
2001 Leapenhi Paper Designs - Courtenay BC
1999 The Foyer Gallery - Squamish Public Library, Squamish BC
1997 Out Of Bounds, Crafthouse Gallery, Vancouver
1994 Arts Alliance Gallery - Courtenay BC
1991 Orbit Series - Circle Craft Gallery - Vancouver
Regional Shows2005 Comox Valley Invitational
2004 Relocating the Homeless Mind - Comox Valley - Kamloops exhibition
2003 Circle Craft 30 year exhibition - Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver
2003 Featured Artist, BC Crafts Association - Crafthouse Gallery, Vancouver
2001 Artropolis - CBC Studios, Vancouver
1998 Crafts Association of BC - Bank of Hong Kong Atrium, Vancouver
1998 To Remain at a Distance - Open Space Gallery, Victoria
1996 Basketry - curated by Ron Kong, Canadian Crafts Museum, Vancouver
Selected Exhibitions2004 Fiberarts Symposium - Courtenay BC
2004 Stumbling Into (with Karen Wallace) Community Arts Council Gallery of Victoria
2003 Ephemera & Stone (with Tanja Bolenz) Denman Island Art Gallery
2002 Within Without (with Chai Duncan) curated by Tony Martin, Comox Valley Art Gallery
2001 Encounter (with Susan Russell), The Old Schoolhouse Gallery - Qualicum Beach BC
1999 Evidence (with Nancy Walker) curated by Pamela Speight, Nanaimo Public Art Gallery
1998 Loose Connections - group show, curated by Tony Martin, Comox Valley Art Gallery
1998 Hidden Agendas - (installation with Jane Fawkes) Denman Island Art Gallery
1997 Denman Summer Gallery, (with Darren Waterston & Gordon Hutchens)
STATEMENTI am a maker of vessels and androgynous human forms. I work with materials gathered from my land and with sturdy reed that I paint with an array of pigments. My curiosity has led me down many paths. I like to mix media and often include found objects, fabricated metal, and papers. Paper making, bookmaking and collage have all found their way into my work.
The conceptual figures I weave are tubular and hollow—airy columns, colored in hues of ocher, mahogany, terracotta and ebony. The abstract forms perhaps reference human shapes, but may also be reminiscent both of natural and human-made architecture, clusters of underwater sea flora, the columnar forms of forests and towers, the remnants of a clear-cut landscape. I try to blur the boundaries between human form and other life forms. Sometimes, pod becomes vessel becomes chrysalis becomes human or something else, as yet unidentified.... nature in transition.
I am curious about associations in art which sketch relationships between humans and their environment. My work reflects my sense of place, the relocation from urban to rural surroundings and the outstanding physical beauty of my island home. Gathering plant materials from the area and combining various elements offers me a method of documenting my surroundings. Chewed beaver sticks, seed pods, beach rocks, tree bark and rusty metal dug out from the pasture have all found a way into my work. This process allows me to examine, combine and portray these ordinary things in a new way.
Having started this work in 1987 as a basket maker, I still love the vessel form. I've made hundreds of containers; call them shelters or nests, boats or baskets, there will always be a new way to contain space.
