Lux Habrich

www.luxhabrich.com
www.instagram.com/lux.sparkledust

Mother’s Tears

Fragmented quilt installation, 2016-19
Found fabrics (linen, silk, cotton), natural dyes, hand and machine stitching, silkscreen
and photo-transfer appliqués, glass beads, various threads.
3 feet, 9 inches x 4 feet, 2 inches

❝Mother’s Tears emerged out of three years of collaging, collecting and manipulating personally meaningful fibres, fabrics and imagery. Though its many parts started as disparate lamentations on the complexities of living with cross-generational trauma, they expanded over time to become interconnected gateways holding space for ancestral and spiritual wisdom. The slow, familiar, laborious nature of textiles offered a meditative way to purge and process, materializing and bearing internal wounds outwards using the domestic skills I learned from my mother, who learned from her mother before her. This project has allowed me to process the complex sentiments I have for my mother, with her being the last link to my Sino heritage and its ideations of the divine. It seeks to immortalize her dignity as I witness her memory and self-assuredness deteriorate with age, slowly reversing our roles of care.

The fragments depict a portrait of my mother, holding myself (first-born), with a fading image of her parents upon their immigration to Canada from Guangzhou in 1951, following the repealed Chinese Exclusion Act in 1947. Plant imagery designs are taken directly from my late grandfather’s gravestone. Silhouettes of my maternal kin, cellular patterning and writings from my journaling practice are present throughout. Historically, quilts have been a valuable tool for narrative sharing, especially as they possess a closeness to our everyday lives. Channeling the feminized history of needlework, I employed delicate stitching and materials associated with frailty to reimagine our commonly held perceptions of strength and weakness. By embracing softness and transparency, I hoped to celebrate vulnerability as a force of resilience. This work pays homage to feminine sacrifice and unrecognized labour, and emerged out of my need to acknowledge all of the racialized and gendered hardships my ancestors have survived through, honouring their heritage and silent power.❞

LUX HABRICH. Originally from Montréal / Tiohtiá:ke, QC, Lux Habrich finds frequent inspiration in her mixed racial and cultural identity. Having moved to Atlantic Canada in 2012 to complete an Interdisciplinary BFA at NSCAD University, Habrich was drawn to the narrative potential in craftwork as a means of accessing ancestral knowledge. Layering fragmented, nostalgic imagery of girlhood with sharp instances of psychological despair, she often seeks to emulate the chaotic nature of memory and the many subconscious, untold stories and unspoken legacies that live inside each of us. Habrich employs the immensely meditative qualities in tactile processes and the performative aspects of experimental mark making to record a personal history of inherited, embodied trauma. Her work involves investigations of temporality, subversive gender, feminine sacrifice, concepts of family and the home, diaspora and belonging, disability and cultural hybridization—to introduce identity in all the complexities and contradictions that together formulate the self. Committed to expressing marginalized experiences and participating in support work, Habrich externalizes intense internal grievances, to open up collective issues and qualities of larger community struggle to receive moments of healing and empowerment. A recipient of numerous grants and awards—including Dawon’s Fine Arts 1^th and 2^th year Achievement Awards—Habrich has participated in group exhibitions in Winnipeg, Edmonton, and across Nova Scotia. She is active as a facilitator, mentor, instructor and speaker as well as a member of the board of the Khyber Centre for the Arts. Her upcoming solo exhibition, her eyes cut like flowers, will be held at the Tangled Art Gallery in Toronto in 2021.

LUX HABRICH

EDUCATION

2015 BFA Interdisciplinary, focus in Ceramics and Textiles – Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

2012 Foundation Studies, Studio Arts, Minor in Religious Studies – Concordia University

2011 DEC Fine Arts – Dawson College

RESIDENCIES

08, 2018 White Rabbit Arts Residency Program | Upper Economy, NS

09, 2015 – 09, 2016 NSCAD Community Studio Residency Program | Lunenburg, NS

07, 2015 – 09, 2015 NSCCD Professional Development Summer Residency Program | Halifax, NS

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

(forthcoming)

11 / 2021 her eyes cut like flowers, Tangled Art Gallery | Toronto, ON

09 / 2016 here, again (preoccupations), Chives Gallery | Halifax, NS

02 / 2015 how to remember all the things i cannot know, Anna Leonowens Gallery | Halifax, NS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

(forthcoming)

09 / 2020 Resistance and Resilience, Warren G. Flowers Gallery | Montréal, QC
01 / 2020 Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure, Gallery 1C03 | Winnipeg, MB

11 / 2019 Nova Scotia Talent Trust’s 75^th Anniversary Exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia | Yarmouth, NS

10 / 2019 Many things at once, Alberta Craft Gallery | Edmonton, AB
08 / 2019 Nova Scotia Talent Trust’s 75^th Anniversary Exhibition, Cape Breton University Gallery | Sydney, NS
05 / 2019 Nova Scotia Talent Trust’s 75^th Anniversary Exhibition, Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery | Bedford, NS
02 / 2019 A Different Place: Media Arts Scholarship Exhibition, Video Difference | Halifax, NS

07 / 2018 conversations: Visual Arts Nova Scotia Mentorship Exhibition, The Craig Gallery | Dartmouth, NS

03 / 2016 Arts Ecology, Loggia Gallery | Halifax, NS

08 / 2015 surfacing, Mary E. Black Gallery | Halifax, NS
06 / 2015 Altered States, Anna Leonowens Gallery | Halifax, NS

PUBLICATION / PRESS

2020 “Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure”, Review by Marieke Gruwel, Issue 154, Vol 29, No 2: Border Crossings Magazine
2020 “Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure at Gallery 1C03, Winnipeg”, Review by Mariana Muñoz Gomez, Akimblog | Akimbo.ca

2019 “Many Things At Once”, Fall 2019 issue: Alberta Craft Magazine | Edmonton, AB
2019 “Vox Lux”, The Coast | Halifax, NS
2019 Issue 2: invisibilities Zine
2019 “Artists bring fresh views to old Video Difference site”, Star Metro Halifax | Halifax, NS

2018 Traditional East Asian Medicine in the lives of queer East Asian young adults in North America: A critical analysis of the gaps in literature, Adrienne Yeung (Research Project, SFU), p. 61 / 62
2018 Issue 7: MUD (泥), SINθ Theta Arts Magazine

2017 Issue 3: Volume I, TRACK // FOUR – A Journal of Color
2017 Issue 3: LIGHT (阴), SINθ Theta Arts Magazine

2016 “Nova Scotia Talent Trust Awards help turn young artists’ dreams into reality”, LOCALXPRESS | Halifax, NS
2016 “Young N.S. artists recognized with grants”, The Chronicle Herald | Halifax, NS

AWARDS / GRANTS

2018 Arts Nova Scotia Equity Funding Initiative: Professional Development Grant
2018 Centre for Art Tapes: Media Arts Scholarship, mentee under Susan Tooke

2017 Arts Nova Scotia: Creation Grant

2016 Charlotte Wilson-Hammond / Visual Arts Nova Scotia Award
2016 Nova Scotia Talent Trust‘s Visuals Arts / Fine Arts Fall Study Scholarship
2016 Nova Scotia Talent Trust‘s Visuals Arts / Fine Arts Spring Study Scholarship

2014 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Studio 21 Fine Art Scholarship
2014 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s FUNSCAD Homer Lord Memorial Scholarship
2014 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s SUNSCAD Scholarship for Student Involvement
2014 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Scotiabank Scholarship
2014 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Thomas George and Ethel Pearson MacKenzie Scholarship
2014 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Reginald D. Evans Scholarship

2013 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Helen S. Christie Scholarship

2011 Concordia University’s Golf Classic Entrance Fine Arts Scholarship
2011 Recipient of Dawson College’s Outstanding Performance in Fine Art Award
2011 Dawson College’s Fine Arts 2^nd Year Achievement Award

2010 Dawson College’s Fine Arts 1^st Year Achievement Award

RELATED EXPERIENCE

(forthcoming)

2020 Mentor for Centre for Art Tapes: Media Arts Scholarship program
2020 Panel Speaker for “Connecting Through the Arts” Panel Discussion focused on arts programming for those with Dementia and their partners in care, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

2019 Artist Talk at Cape Breton University Gallery
2019 Panel Speaker for “Making and Mentoring” Panel Discussion, Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery
2019 Volunteer Ceramics and Sewing Instructor for not-for-profit Radstorm Collective
2019 Arts Facilitator / Programmer for the drop-in arts program at the The Den, the Sackville Youth Centre (in collaboration with The McPhee Centre for Creative Learning)
2019 Board Member for the artist-run-centre and not-for-profit Khyber Centre For The Arts
2019 Art Facilitator / Programmer for The Healing Art Project: hosting a series of visual art related workshops for in-patients aged 2-22 years, IWK Children’s Health Centre
2019 Member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia
2019 Member / Studio Artist with not-for-profit Wonder’neath Art Society
2019 Art instructor for Artful Afternoons, art workshops designed for those with memory loss and their partners in care, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

2017 Visual Arts Nova Scotia’s 2017 – 2018 Mentorship Program, mentee under Kim Morgan
2017 Art Educator with PAINTS program (Professional Artists in the Schools)
2017 Art donation for Adsum Mystery Art Fundraiser, art auction for a women and children’s shelter

2016 Art instructor for children and youth aged 5 – 12 and open-studio family workshops at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
2016 Art Instructor for Heart Talk: Child Life Art Workshop, IWK Children’s Health (Cardiac Centre)
2016 Artists in Action, art instructor for children aged 7 – 10 at Chocolate Lake Recreation Centre

2015 Artist mentor for an artist with Down Syndrome (recipient of Canada Council for the Arts, Equity Grants)
2015 The Ark, volunteer support in a craft-based vocational program for adults with cognitive impairments
2015 Attended The 36th Annual Canadian Art Therapy Association’s Conference: Resilience, Recovery & Art Therapy
2015 Volunteer ceramics instructor (throwing and hand-building) for the public event Artist for a Day
2015 Art Facilitator and programmer for Team Possibles, community art initiative for young adults with Down Syndrome