ALLISON TUNIS
Artist in Residence 2018/2019 at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Harcourt House, members, and staff, we would like to welcome Allison Tunis as Artist in Residence for 2018/2019 at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre. We are all looking forward to being a part of Allison’s artistic development during the upcoming year.
Allison Tunis has a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, and a graduate diploma in Art Therapy from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute. She works in the medium of cross-stitch embroidery, as well as mixed media involving acrylic painting and gel transfers. In 2017, Tunis was the Artist-in-Residence for Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS), on grant from the Edmonton Arts Council, working with high-risk youth in the Edmonton area to create art in a therapeutic and activist context, as well as creating her own body of work focusing on body diversity, feminism, and reducing weight-based stigma. She has been an active part of the Edmonton art scene, participating in group exhibitions such as #YEGBest_Artists, curated by the Alberta Society of Artists in 2017, and Stitch Fetish 6, at the Hive Gallery in Los Angeles, CA as well as having her independent exhibition Acceptable Bodies on display at the Alberta Craft Council Edmonton and Calgary locations in 2018. Most recently, Alison Tunis has been recognized with an Early Achievement Award 2018 from the Alberta Craft Council for her significant contribution to the province’s fine craft.
” The embroidery and mixed media pieces I create focus on the Western world’s obsession with body image, our social aesthetics, gender norms, ingrained biases, and the shame that is put upon us both by others and our own minds. These works aim to develop a discourse around cultural conditioning and societal implications of restrictive standards of beauty, as well as the discrimination and violence experienced by people living in marginalized bodies, with a particular focus on fat bodies. ”
– Allison Tunis