PAT STRAKOWSKI (1937 - ) WET SUIT papier mâché and mixed media, 15.25" x 7" x 7.25" -- 38.7 x 17.8 x 18.4 cm., signed, dated 1986 and tilted in pencil Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist Note: From another collection PAT STRAKOWSKI (1937 - ) "I am interested in stories, legends and how they change from telling to retelling to being written down. I like the possibilities and interpretations one can make that are offered from the information that is found in the written books." - Pat Strakowsky - Pat Strakowsky is best known for her papier-mâché sculptures that are carefully painted and adorned to emphasize the mythical quality of her creations. Pat Strakowski was born in 1937. She waited until her daughters were in high school to enroll at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary, and graduated in 1979 with a Diploma in Textiles. Throughout the greater part of her artistic career, Strakowski has created mythical sculptures with papier mâché adorned with found objects, her work influenced by the likes of Marisolo Escobar, Magdalena Agakanowicz and Frida Kahlo. More recently, Strakowski has focussed on altering books: she finds discarded hardcover books and builds them up with found objects, based on a specific theme or imagery. In 2009, a book on her works was published, entitled Moon Nibbler: The Art of Pat Strakowski. Strakowski lives in Calgary, Alberta. Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, Alberta? Alberta Craft Council, Edmonton, Alberta Alberta Energy Alex Chapman Design Bass Ticket Services Ltd British Petroleum Canada Ltd. Calgary Allied Arts Foundation, Calgary, Alberta Canadian Resources Ltd Charles Bronfman Collection, Montreal, Quebec Claridge Collection, Montreal, Quebec Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta Esso Canada Resources Ltd Franklin Silverstone Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec Home Oil Canada Imperial Oil Ltd, Toronto, Ontario. Kanesko Holdings Ltd MacKimmie Matthews Macleod Dixon Marshall Cummings & Associates, Toronto, Ontario Norcen PanContinental Rice Brydon Rockyview Hospital, Rockyview, Alberta Trizec Equities University of Alberta Bruce Peel Special Collection University of Calgary Special Collection Selected Solo Exhibitions 2000 Silent Stories and Personal Visions, Alberta Craft Council Discovery Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta 1995 Love Follies, Alberta Craft Council Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta 1994 Revival, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta 1991 Window Project Installation, Calgary Centre for Performing Arts, Calgary, Alberta 1990 Small Sculptures, The Gallery, Banff, Alberta 1989 Paper Routes, The Front Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta? Private Spaces, Public Spaces, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta 1988 Small Sculptures, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta 1987 Collectanea - Installation, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta 1986 Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta? Selected Group Exhibitions 2013 Boxed In, The Room, Craft Council of Newfoundland & Labrador, St. John's, NL 2012 A View Through the Windows, Windows Galleries, Canadian Bookbinding Guild, Calgary, Alberta 2008 Full Circle, Meeting Point Artists Association 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta 2006 Two of a Kind, Alberta Craft Council, Calgary, Alberta 2002 Visions of Wellness, McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta 2001 70th Anniversary Millennium Show, The Alberta Society of Artists South Branch? Leighton Foundation Museum and Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Go Figure, Alberta Craft Council Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta 1999 Friends and Mentors Revisited, Muttart Public Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta? Triple Take: Past, Present and Future, Muttart Public Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta 1998 Six Degrees of Separation, Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the AFA Collection, The Prairie Art Gallery, Grande Prairie, Alberta Saints and Sinners - Presented by the Alberta Society of Artists, The Works International Visual Arts Festival, Edmonton, Alberta 1996 Alberta Society of Artists 65th Anniversary Exhibition Leigton Centre, Calgary, Alberta Miniatures, Triangle Gallery Art Rental, Calgary, Alberta Five Corners, Meeting Point Artists Association 9th Annual Exhibition, Seoul Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Oppertshauser Gallery, Stony Plain, Alberta 1995 Transit of Venus, Alberta Society of Artists Invitational Group Show, Performing Art Centre, Calgary, Alberta Spring Values, Alberta Society of Artists Juried Group Show, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Apocrypha, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia? Hearts & Flowers, Front Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta? ARK, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta? Vital Passages, Commerce Place, Edmonton, Alberta? Do the Art Thing II, Alberta Society of Artists? ART WALK: ART WEEK, Mount Royal Village, Calgary, Alberta Focus In, Meeting Point Artists Association? ART WALK: ART WEEK, Mount Royal Village, Calgary, Alberta Alberta Fibrations, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Masks & Magic, Old Court House Art Gallery, Red Deer, Alberta 1994 Apocrypha II: Mythic Images Outside Orthodoxy, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia? Group Show by Canadian Women Artists, Virginia Christopher Gallery, Calgary, Alberta? Diversity In Action, Harcourt House Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta? Hong Kong Visual Artist Society & Meeting Point Artists Association Fung Pingshan Museum, Hong Kong Art at Terminal 3, Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Ontario Calgary's Civic Art Collection: Selected Works From The Last Quater-Century, ? Old City Hall, Calgary, Alberta Wild Things, ManuLife 1 Place, Edmonton, Alberta Meeting Points Artist Association Annual Group Exhibition, Chinese Culture Centre, Calgary, Alberta International Organ Festival Invitational ASA Group Show, Doll Building, Calgary, Alberta 1993 International Monoprinters guild, Max Bell Theatre, Calgary, Alberta? Apocrypha - Mythic Images Outside Orthodoxy, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia The Canadian Painterly Print, International Monoprinters Guild, Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, Alberta? Figurative/Portrait Exhibition, Bowman Arts Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta Nursery Tales and Fairy Rhymes II, Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, Alberta CollAlbertaoration: Squeeze and Stretch, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Good Things Come In Small Packages, Alberta Craft Council Group Show Traveling Alberta Way Out West, The Works, Edmonton, Alberta Western Art, Oppertshausr Gallery, Stony Plain, Alberta 1992 Meeting Point, The Meeting Points Artists Association, Nova Garden Court Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Off The Wall, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta Magic and Mythology, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia Return to Exceptional Pass, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta Vision Scapes, International Monoprinters Guild, Red Deer Museum, Red Deer, Alberta Canadian Flags Revisited, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta? Comedy in 3D, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Miniature Group Show, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta? Whimsey, Harcourt House Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta 1991 Myth and Magic, Alberta Society of Artists, The Works, Edmonton, Alberta? Our Own Back Yard, Alberta Society of Artists, Nova Garden Court Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Soulcatchers Too, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Art Magic II, Calgary Winter Festival, Nova Centre, Calgary, Alberta ARTLOTTO, Glenbow Museum Acquisitions Society 8th Annual Invitational, Calgary, Alberta 1990 The Opera Ball, Edmonton Opera Invitational, Edmonton, Alberta Soulcatchers: An Exhibition of Masks, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta? Made in Canada, ASA, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta? Art Magic 1990 (Art You Can Really Get Into), Calgary Winter Festival, Nova Garden Court, Calgary, Alberta 1989 Polarities: North/South and In Between, Prairie Gallery, Grand Prairie, Alberta The Works, Celebration of Women in the Arts, The Alberta Society of Artists? Edmonton, Alberta Alberta Sculpture Survey '89, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta First Impressions: Recent Acquisitions of the Alberta Art Foundation, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Beaten to a Pulp, Contemporary Paper Sculpture and Basketry Invitational? International Gallery, San Diago, California, USA 1988 Imagine This, Gulf Canada, Calgary, Alberta? Deception and Revelation: The Art of the Mask III, International Gallery, San Diego, California, USA Visions of Alberta, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta The Works - Celebration of Women in the Arts, Manulife Place, Edmonton, Alberta Alberta Ambience, ASA Western Canadian Place, Calgary, Alberta Nocturnes, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta? Olympic Arts Festival Winter Group Show, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta? The Individuals, Celebrating a Decade of Alberta Art, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta Selected Awards 1996 The World Who's Who of Women, International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England 1995 Who's Who of Canadian Women 1994 Alberta Who's Who 1991 Canadian Who's Who The Canada Council Explorations Program, The Calgary Region Arts Foundation The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, for "Soulcatchers Too" invitational group show 1984 Honorable Mention Award, Reflections on Three Plains, Winnipeg Art Gallery Selected Links Moon Nibbler: Pat Strakowski? Women's Art Museum Society of Canada
