{"id":55345,"date":"2025-03-07T17:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T22:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=55345"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:45:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T22:45:58","slug":"anna-torma-at-the-clint-roenisch-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=55345","title":{"rendered":"Anna Torma at the Clint Roenisch Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The theme of this exhibition is the holy human habitat, the garden from which Adam and Eve were exiled. What else do we know about Eden? Anna Torma\u2019s exhibition at the Clint Roenisch Gallery contemplates the site of Eden, its life forms, and the things that sustained and thwarted them. The Eden Project<\/em> is comprised of large-scale textile collages and drawings by Torma, completed in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Installation view of Anna Torma, The Eden Project <\/em>at Clint Roenisch Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition features a variety of works: hand-stitched, embroidered, drawn and coloured in pencil. Some pieces are framed while others are suspended from the ceiling or mounted on brackets along the walls. Displayed adjacent to the entrance of the gallery is \u201cColouring Book Details II\u201d (2025). The surface of the work is crowded with a mass of creatures that seem to be moving across the paper. The swarm of faces have a languid energy to them, eyelids half-closed, while the figures presented as beasts appear hyperactive, smiles full of pointed teeth. There is one in the lower left corner with an effusive speech bubble, exclaiming \u2018Thank you.\u2019 This introduction to The Eden Project <\/em>considers what might have been in that garden\u2014 what exactly did Adam and Eve miss?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Colouring Book Details II, <\/em>2025, mixed media on paper, 50 x 40 inches, framed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon entering the gallery, I encountered panels of textile and paper populated with vibrant, vibrating figures. The subjects are difficult to identify at first glance. In \u201cCold Nights\u201d (2025), they include cowboys in ponchos, serpentine creatures, and various avian species, among other forms, created out of patterned fabric. The suspended cloth also features a variety of words: \u2018Love,\u2019 \u2018Mercy,\u2019 \u2018Star,\u2019 and \u2018Moon.\u2019 Like a puzzle, the components fit together. A second facet to experience is the visible stitching on the back of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Cold Nights, 2025, textile collage, hand sewing and embroidery on 2 layers of silk fabrics, silk thread, 52 x 75 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making my way counterclockwise through the gallery, I view \u201cLove\u201d (2024), a heavily embroidered piece with a cherry blossom pink background. The subjects here are reminiscent of amoebas or other tiny life forms. What does love look like under a microscope, or in a petri dish? This is an apt visualization of the self as an assemblage of experiences, interactions, and relationships stitched together. Embedded in this work is the artist\u2019s name, ‘Anna Torma’, conjuring reflections about what a name contains. It is a brand, a person. It\u2019s the people you are named after, an indication of one\u2019s culture, something to give to another person\u2014how one exists in the world. The rocket and spaceship paired with the words related to exploration reminds viewers about how otherworldly and transformative love can be. Like Eden, it can be a new frontier.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Love, 2024, textile collage, hand sewing and embroidery on 2 layers of silk fabrics, silk thread, 48 x 49 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the left there is another textile collage, titled \u201cBackyard\u201d (2024). The imagery includes line work and renderings of various flora, a bespectacled figure in a turtleneck and sport jacket making eye contact with viewers, and a variety of scenes with fountains and animals. The site of the backyard is a leisure space for growth and activity, though few have access. The birds coupled with the various plants remind viewers of the value of the natural world and the pleasure of watching what is out there.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Backyard, 2024, textile collage, hand sewing and embroidery on 2 layers of silk fabrics, silk thread, 48 x 49 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the works are filled with vibrant energy like \u201cGreen Hope I\u201d (2025) and \u201cGreen Hope II\u201d (2025). These two textile panels also feature silhouettes of flora and fauna: dinosaurs, lizards, sharks, and cats. The medley of prey and predator is further amplified with the militant elements of soldiers, skulls, and weaponry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Green Hope I (left) and Green Hope II <\/em>(right), both 2025, textile collage, hand sewing and embroidery on 2 layers of silk fabrics, silk thread, 72 x 54 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weaponry is also present in the series along the adjacent wall: \u201cEden I\u201d (2025) and \u201cEden II\u201d (2025). In \u201cEden II\u201d Torma visualizes the development of weapons from clubs and maces to swords and guns, even featuring a dragon. There has always been an element or figure to fear \u2014 a foe to fight against. This progression also aligns with that of evolution and exploration, as signified by subjects traversing bodies of water. There are also several phallic and yonic forms incorporated in the works. The genitalia and textual components such as \u2018SEX\u2019 factor into the traditional narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Eden II, <\/em>2025, mixed media on paper, 81 x 51 inches, framed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cEden I\u201d,<\/em> viewers can identify Latin terms, human figures, masks of drama, and the Earth\u2019s colours in a maze. There are many symbols of the human figure and representations of Adam and Eve. Torma maintains the interstitial aspect of her practice through the reflections upon the duality in humanity: vice and virtue, science and humanities, history and the present, faith and fear, life and death. Even flora can be medicine or poison.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, Eden I, <\/em>2025, mixed media on paper, 81 x 51 inches, framed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final work I would like to talk about is \u201cThe Gardener\u201d (2024).<\/em> In the case of Adam and Eve tending to Eden, would they be both gardeners and explorers? The large serpentine figure is featured here once more, a consistent motif across the works in the exhibition. The artwork prompts reflections regarding the leviathan and how many of the beings and the ideas in scripture are different and how we interpret them. The subjects also encourage one to consider the deep sea and what lurks below. The ocean is vital for exploration, yet we know so little about it. It is a critical component of the planet\u2019s health, covering most of the planet. How are we serving and sustaining this complex ecosystem from which we evolved?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna Torma, The Gardener, <\/em>2024, hand embroidery with silk threads on 3 layers of linen fabrics, cotton flannel battling, 48 x 33 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torma successfully stitches together the biological, historical, scientific and religious aspects of our life in The Eden Project<\/em>. Each piece of fabric has its own story, each stitch and line made with the intention to connect, an accumulation of things to be remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rashana Youtzy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images are courtesy of Clint Roenisch Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition information: Anna Torma, The Eden Project<\/em>, February 6 – March 22, 2025, Clint Roenisch Gallery, 190 St Helens Avenue, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed \u2013 Sat 12 \u2013 5 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rashana Youtzy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each piece of fabric has its own story, each stitch and line made with the intention to connect, an accumulation of things to be remembered.<\/p>\n

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