Two Exhibitions Open May 31 at Sivarulrasa Gallery

Press Release – Sivarulrasa Gallery

SUSAN TOOKE: HOOKED, May 31 – July 4, 2025
KAREN HAINES: LOCAL PRODUCE, May 31 – July 4, 2025

Combined Vernissage/Artists Reception: Saturday, May 31, 2-4 p.m.

From May 31 to July 4, Sivarulrasa Gallery is delighted to present two exhibitions, showcasing contemporary art from Canada’s East and West.

Susan Tooke: Hooked will run in Gallery I. The exhibition brings together Nova Scotia-based artist Susan Tooke’s paintings and fibre art inspired by the East Coast wilderness.

“Inspired by wilderness and motivated by the continued degradation of the environment, my work is focused on the celebration of the natural world,” she says.

Based near Port Royal in the Annapolis Valley, her hooked rugs build on the long tradition of rug hooking in Nova Scotia, using her grandmother’s rug hooking tools. The imagery in these works of fibre art is a further abstraction of shapes and patterns found in her paintings. The title of the show “Hooked” references both the hooked rugs and the artist’s deep attachment to natural spaces.

Susan Tooke has received several awards, including the Established Artist Recognition Award in 2015 from the Province of Nova Scotia. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Canada and the United States. A celebrated illustrator, her artwork for children’s literature has resulted in multiple awards, including four Lillian Shepherd Memorial Awards for Excellence in Illustration.

An active advocate for artists’ social and economic rights, she has served as National President of Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC). Susan received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia with further studies in the Master of Media Arts program at the New School in New York City.

Karen Haines: Local Produce will run in Gallery III. The exhibition features seven new works in oil, inspired by locally grown produce from the artist’s neighbourhood near Edmonton, Alberta. Karen Haines has been drawing from her earliest memories and began her studio practice in oils in 2002.

“My creative practice seeks to explore the connections between life, science, and the greater mysteries of the cosmos,” she says. “I intuit that the answers I seek lie in examination of the everyday; those things perceived as mundane.”

In this new body of work, the artist emphasizes her connection to her local environment and reminds the viewer of the magic in the ordinary.

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Karen Haines was born in Ontario and raised by Air Force parents who lived and explored across Canada and Europe. She paints still life works in her studio, as well as plein air paintings outdoors. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Alberta, Ontario and the United States.

Meet artists Susan Tooke and Karen Haines at the Vernissage/Artists Reception on Saturday, May 31, 2-4 p.m.

For more information and available works, visit our Exhibitions page: https://sivarulrasa.com/exhibitions/

Sivarulrasa Gallery
34 Mill Street, Almonte ON
info@sivarulrasa.com
sivarulrasa.com
613-256-8033