Until October 29, 2023, the Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges is delighted to welcome the exhibition Refuge: Coming Home of paper artist Joanne Kielo. As visitors enter the room, they are immediately impacted by a sense of calm.

The seemingly fragile nature of the paper and the artist's message make this a very touching exhibition. This is an exhibition that gently invites the viewer to contemplate, reflect and question.

Refuge: Coming Home is a solo exhibition that traces Joanne Kielo's redefinition of the artistic process of handmade papermaking, as she discovers ways to live and thrive alongside a newly diagnosed chronic illness and the challenges of aging.

The exhibition highlights an artistic journey from a life of hyper-productivity to one that adapts to a slower, more contemplative pace. When the body was no longer able to lift heavy loads like paper pulp or grow flax: how did Kielo find her art playground?

Having had to abandon certain artistic activities that called for whole-body strength and endurance, she began to address feelings of loss regarding physical dexterity and certain parts of her practice. During this period, she began to celebrate the benefits of a growing ease. 

The exhibition highlights Kielo's artistic quests in three stages: The I Ching (reflection), Mandalas (loss and memory) and Downsizing (integration).

Who is the artist?

Joanne Kielo is a handmade paper artist who has been exhibiting in Quebec, Canada and internationally for over forty years. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as international publications. Kielo moved to Hudson from the Montreal to grow and process her own flax.

Creating one’s own material source prior to producing the art work is often referred to as Slow Art. Kielo does Slow Art. Over several years she collected century-old tools and explored the arduous process of transforming flax into paper.

Using the Hollander beater, Kielo pushed the beating times of her papers to deliberately increase shrinkage. Some of the artworks produced from handmade pulp engage with the environment, moving and shifting in response to the humidity of the space. Paper is alive.

Kielo's most recent work involves mixed media, integrating handmade paper art and memories of the past into the present. The bilingual artist talk on the theme of Artistic Adaptation will take place on Sunday, October 22, from 2 to 4 pm.

Regular admission fees apply. The Museum is open Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.