Jennifer Angus (born 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian artist, professor, and author. She is known for her site-specific installations that use large numbers of insects arranged in ornamental patterns that she has been creating since 1999. [1] [2] Angus anthropomorphizes insects in the hope that she can change people's entomophobia and create an interest in the role that insects play in ecosystems. [3]
Angus is professor in the Design Studies department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Angus lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin. [4]
Angus is an alumna of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA).
In 2005, the Textile Museum of Canada showed 'A terrible beauty', [5] a site-specific installation involving 15,000 insects organized in ornamental patterns similar to those found on wallpaper and textiles. [6] The exhibition won the 2006 Exhibition Award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. [7]
Bravo commissioned a short documentary called 'Touch of Weevil – The Work of Jennifer Angus' documenting one of her installations at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in 2008. [8]
In 2015, Angus participated in the exhibition 'Wonder', that celebrated the reopening of the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., with a site-specific installation called 'The Midnight Garden' that used sustainably harvested insects. [9] [10] At the 'Wonder' exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, Angus's installation consisted of about 5,000 dried insects. [11] Work by Angus is in the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design [12] and the fibre art collection of Idea Exchange. [13]
Angus is the author of the 2013 fantasy novel, In Search of Goliathus Hercules, which tells the Victorian-era story of a young boy who discovers that he can speak to insects and sets out to find a giant insect on the Malay Peninsula.
The Design Museum in Kensington, London, England, exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. The museum operates as a registered charity, and all funds generated by ticket sales aid the museum in curating new exhibitions.
The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum located in Washington, D.C. that displays American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to 21st century. The gallery is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that was opened in 1859 on Pennsylvania Avenue and originally housed the Corcoran Gallery of Art. When it was built in 1859, it was called "the American Louvre", and is now named for its architect James Renwick Jr.
The Textile Museum of Canada, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a museum dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and documentation of textiles.
Désirée Lucienne Lisbeth Dulcie Day OBE RDI FCSD was one of the most influential British textile designers of the 1950s and 1960s. Day drew on inspiration from other arts to develop a new style of abstract pattern-making in post-war British textiles, known as ‘Contemporary’ design. She was also active in other fields, such as wallpapers, ceramics and carpets.
Mary Lee Hu is an American artist, goldsmith, and college educator, known for using textile techniques to create intricate woven wire jewelry.
Omer Arbel is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Vancouver. His output is broad, including materials research, lighting design, building design and site specific installations. He is one of two co-founders of Bocci, a Canadian design and manufacturing company. Arbel's designs are numbered in order of creation. Arbel invents processes that generate novel forms, privileging analog processes and traditional skills such as glassblowing, concrete forming, and metalwork as ongoing sources of inspiration and innovation. The objects, installations, and buildings realized in this way are to some degree unpredictable and variable, a meeting place between nature and technology, a potentially endless series of exceptions for which there is no restrictive rule.
Kvadrat is a Danish textile company that produces and supplies textiles and textile-related products to architects, designers and private consumers in Europe and worldwide. Kvadrat was established in Denmark in 1968 with deep roots in Scandinavia's design tradition.
Marian Penner Bancroft is a Canadian artist and photographer based in Vancouver. She is an associate professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she has been teaching since 1981. She has previously also taught at Simon Fraser University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She is a member of the board of Artspeak Gallery and is represented in Vancouver by the Republic Gallery.
Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer and artist active in the fields of design, architecture and contemporary art. Some of his works are part of permanent collections in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2007, he was named by Newsweek one of the 100 most respected Japanese in the world.
Arlene Stamp is a Canadian conceptual artist and educator who lives and works in Calgary, Alberta.
Dorothy Caldwell is a Canadian fibre artist. Her work consists primarily of abstract textile based wall hangings that utilize techniques such as wax-resist, discharge dyeing, stitching, mark-making, and appliqué.
Nicole Collins is a contemporary Canadian artist whose work, which takes the form of painting, performance, video, and sound, explores the effect of time, accumulation, force and heat on visceral materials. She currently teaches at OCAD University.
Sabrina Gschwandtner is an American artist currently living in Los Angeles, California. She has held numerous showings of her work throughout the country and several pieces have been acquired by museums, including LACMA, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the RISD Museum.
Studio Drift is an Amsterdam-based artist duo founded by Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn in 2007. It specializes in choreographed sculptures and kinetic installations.
Millie Chen is Taiwanese-born Canadian artist, educator, and writer. Based in Buffalo, New York, Chen is a professor in the Department of Art at the University at Buffalo.
Shelagh Keeley is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist. She is best known for her drawings and immersive installations, but her practice also includes photography, film, collaborative performances, and artist's books.
Bethan Laura Wood she is an internationally-recognised English designer of jewellery, furniture, decorative objects, lighting and installations. She has designed for such media as glass, laminates and ceramics. Work produced by her studio, WOOD London, is characterised by colour, geometry and visual metaphor, pattern and marquetry. She has been described as "[re-contextualizing] ... elements from everyday objects, often focusing on the pattern and coloration of objects as indicators of their origins, production, and past usage."
Ron Benner is a Canadian artist who investigates the history and political economics of food cultures. He is also a gardener and writer who currently lives and works in London, Ontario.
Linda Sormin is a Canadian artist known for her ceramics and installations. As a young child Sormin immigrated from Thailand to Canada. She attended Andrews University, Sheridan College, and Alfred University. She teaches at New York University.
Jaime Hayon is a Spanish artist and designer known for his designs, interiors, urban installations, sculptures, and paintings. His visual language plays with shapes, colours, and recurring motifs. His work has been displayed in museums, galleries, and fairs in Europe, America, the Middle East, and Asia. at the Daelim Museum.