Two new exhibitions will be on display at the Terrace Art Gallery from June 5 to 28, 2025.
Domestic Fetish
The lower gallery exhibition consists of thirty mixed media works, the majority being acrylic on canvas.
"Domestic Fetish is a timely and thought-provoking show that explores the emergence of the "Trad Wife" aesthetic on social media-a movement that idealizes traditional gender roles and domestic labour at a moment when women's rights are facing increasing challenges globally," said Catherine Hart, .
Hart shared that the exhibition is deeply personal to her as an artist and a feminist.
"These curated portrayals of submissive domesticity mask themselves as empowerment, yet they align disturbingly well with broader efforts to return women to the private sphere and diminish their role in public and political life. The aesthetic is seductive-but it is also deeply regressive."
She created the exhibition not only to reflect today's political and cultural climate, but to speak directly to the youth.
"I want them to understand that even the most basic rights-access to education, control over our bodies, participation in public life-were not freely given. They were fought for. And unless we remain vigilant, they can be taken away."
Included in the exhibition are interactive found objective sculptures, such as a dressmaker's dummy vacuuming up women's rights, or domestic tools and heirloom objects that speak on the invisible and unpaid labour performed by women.
"This exhibit is my way of reclaiming those materials and giving them new power. My hope is that it sparks reflection and conversation-and maybe even a deeper recognition of the women who have held families and communities together, often without acknowledgement," said Hart.
Black and White in Colour
The upper gallery exhibition consists of acrylic paintings on canvas.
"Nature can be luscious, vibrant, and immersive, but there are subtler undetected colours and hidden beauty waiting to be teased from the overlooked and subdued landscapes.This show is an extra-sensory look at nature viewed through the use of amplified colour," said Leaf Thunderstorm, a biologist and self-taught artist who has been working with Terrace Search and Rescue for the past 13 years.
Thunderstorm does other art forms as well, including photography, illustrations, beadwork, woollen sweater design and Norse metal weaving. For the past one and a half years, she has primarily focused on acrylic painting.
"My ideas are drawn from my world travels, surrounding nature, and my more mundane daily interactions and experiences," she shared. "I am drawn to the thread of light that moves my eye through a scene. I look for patterns in the play of dancing branches, pull light from dark, and colour from muted backgrounds."
All of the paintings in her exhibition are in colour, except for piece in black and white called "portrait zero."
