Cropped view of a quilt with squares of printed fabric and red triangles forming a square star. The squares feature a deep red bAckground and dark blue floral patterns reminiscent of Ukrainian traditional art.

Exhibition Info

May 6 - Jun 10, 2023
10572 115 st, Edmonton, AB T5H 3K6

Wed-Fri | 12pm – 6pm
Sat | 12pm – 5pm

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SNAP is pleased to present Pattern of Place, featuring new work by SNAP Emerging Artist Elise Futoransky. The exhibition will be in the gallery May 6 – June 10, 2023.

Opening Reception May 6, 7-9pm

ARTIST TALK: Thursday, June 8, 6pm-7:30pm


Pattern of Place is an exhibition of print and textile work that explores Ukrainian Canadian heritage through the use of repetition, tiling, and recombination of motifs drawn from Ukrainian visual culture and local Albertan plant life. By combining linocut print with textiles my aim was to explore the relationship between what is traditional and what is contemporary, and to investigate the ways the land informs visual culture and artistic forms. The residency with SNAP was an opportunity to experiment and delve into new areas of research with the cultural motifs I reference. I spent some time reviewing materials and texts held at the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives to inform the formal elements of the quilt pieces and embroidery references on the prints. 

I was able to explore quilting as a medium, and found it to pair excellently with printmaking. I’m drawn to printmaking for its qualities of repetition and the way it exists to enable the multiple. I aim to approach print as making art accessible and inviting, and hoped to use this opportunity to share in Ukrainian visual culture and my practice as an artist. 

My current practice is borne out of an interest in rediscovering pysanky for myself, and that has led me to explore other modes of working and motifs found in Ukrainian visual culture. I am also very interested in what is described as women’s modes of work, which traditionally includes pysanky and extends to textile crafts and quilting. By referencing Albertan plant life like the saskatoon berry and wild rose I wanted to bring all these ideas around traditional motifs and identity to focus on the influence of place. I am referencing traditional patterns and elements but am doing so as a settler on Treaty 6 territory, raised in the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora, so this naturally influences myself as a person and artist. 

About the artist

Elise Futoransky is an emerging artist living and practicing on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, AB. As of 2021 she is a graduate from the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program. Her work is sourced primarily in printmaking and painting, and she draws on her Eastern European background for inspiration. Her practice often references folk practices, the narrow delineation between art and craft, and material culture. The tension between tradition and the contemporary is highly of interest to Elise, and as such her practice is not only a celebration of her heritage but also an investigation of how culture is filtered through the passage of time and distance. 

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