Ixchel Suarez | Oak Heights Gallery

Meet the Artists /

Ixchel Suárez

Ixchel Suarez has been a textile and fibre artist for almost 35 years. Dedicated weaver and visual artist that explores different materials into tapestry techniques in non-conventional ways. Throughout her career, she has been recognized on several occasions. 2009 Finalist in Stars Among Us, Oakville and 2010 Winner of Visual Arts Award, Oakville Arts Council and Government of Ontario; “Best in Show” in several occasions, recognized as an outstanding University Professor in the School of Design at Anahuac University, Lecturer and Workshop Leader. 2021 award of Excellence, From Lausanne to Beijing, Fibre Art Biennale

Docent at the Textile Museum of Canada for over 10 years. She holds a Master Degree in Museum Studies, BA in Graphic Design, History of Art diploma, a Post-Graduate course in Contemporary Textiles in Lodz, Poland, among many courses in Natural dyes, Fashion Design and Pattern transformations, Batik and diverse reserve techniques as well as many other fiber and textile related courses. Founder of the Textil Creativo, a textile school in 1989 in Mexico City and the Oakville Arts Studio in 2007.

She has collaborated and written in specialized publications for major textile and design magazines as well as online resources and has been featured in Art related publications. Member of the Canadian Tapestry Network, American Tapestry Alliance, World Textile Art, Handweavers Guild of America, British Tapestry Group among others; she is the President of the Oakville Handweavers and Spinners Guild. Ixchel has been a recipient of Visual Arts Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. She has presented innumerable solo and group shows and her work is shown in private and public collections in Europe, Central, and North America.

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Statement...

Time… time… it’s always with us, around us, within us, as the always present spectator of change, fluctuation and modification on everything, incessantly, until decay. Furthermore, even during decay, time is still present, and will remain as such, forever.

In a world where climate change and technology dictate our conduct, we, naively, take photos, trying to capture not only a precise image but that specific moment in time. However, we do not realize that even throughout this act, time keeps lingering. In our hands, we hold on to that photo, a memento, where we catch, seize, that particular place, that specific object that held our eyes hostage for a moment, while time kept on pulsing with rhythm around us.

My work is about an object in time that transitions on its own tempo and cadence until it transforms and loses its force and shape causing as result the imminent stage of decay. That photography, of an incidental, yet particular object which captured my gaze, is just the beginning of my working process. Even when some believe that photography is an antagonist of my main medium of creation which is tapestry, for me, my creative process begins when a photography breathes and gives life to my weaving.

This relationship is the transformation of a photography, a meaningful timeless image with its own light and colour, its own story, its detail, shadows, and contrasts, into a different medium;

witnessing how it changes and evolves -while my hands start to reach for the strands of yarn, and my eyes go through every single colour in the photography so that I can emulate them, transform them- until it becomes a unique and marvelous piece of art which will keep the secrets of its creation to itself forever.

While all this happens, in my head, in my hands, in my eyes, time is my witness: I start to feel how a bidimensional and flat image begins to take a life of its own while showing me the different paths to follow in an effort and as a means to create and give life to my final piece, the tapestry.