Matrilineal Hauntings
Schneider Haus
During the early time of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, it was necessary to reconsider the question of safety in the home through the lens of domestic violence. In Matrilineal Hauntings, the artworks of Kathy Kranias express the somatics of resting, stretching and surging toward freedom. They acknowledge the ghostly apparitions of violence which sometimes haunt the spaces of domestic architecture. Drawing on Kranias’s family history in her matrilineal line, the exhibition is framed around the “tension between quiet violence and injustice” that parallels our current times. The exhibition is curated by Lera Kotsyuba and organized by associate Sheila McMath.
She Is Your Neighbour
Episodes of She is Your Neighbour, a podcast and prevention series, will be featured on the second floor of the historic house while Matrilineal Hauntings is on exhibit.
She Is Your Neighbour is an awareness project and storytelling series created by Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region. The project explores the realities and complexities of domestic violence by sharing stories from people of all walks of life.
The shame and stigma surrounding domestic violence can make it difficult to talk about, but this won’t change unless we have difficult conversations. The reality is domestic violence is happening; it impacts people in all neighbourhoods and we all have a role to play in ending domestic violence.
If you are in need of support call one of the Women’s Crisis Services support lines at either 519-741-9184 or 519-653-2422, or talk to them anonymously online at www.wcswr.org."
Artist Talk
Saturday, June 15 at 1 p.m.: Kathy Kranias will discuss the sculptures and photographs of Matrilineal Hauntings in the context of Schneider House and her family history. Register to join us.
About Kathy Kranias
Kathy Kranias is an artist, educator, and art historian based in Toronto. Her sculptures have been exhibited in Canada, France, and the United States.
Solo exhibitions include Archetypes in Clay (David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, 2010) and Becoming the Persephone (Art Gallery of Peterborough, 2009). Drawings and sculptures by Kathy are held in private collections and in the Global Affairs Canada Visual Art Collection. Selected sculptures from her Invisibility Cloaks (2018) were featured in A New Light: Canadian Women Artists, Embassy of Canada Art Gallery, Washington, D.C. in 2020.
Kathy served as studio faculty in the Craft and Design program at Sheridan College (2004-2012) and as senior visual arts teacher with the Toronto District School Board (1990-1998). She holds a B.F.A. in Studio Art from Concordia University (Montreal), a B.Ed. in Visual Arts from University of Toronto, and a Master’s Degree in Art History from York University.
Kathy has contributed essays, articles, and reviews to many publications including The Journal of Modern Craft, Journal of Canadian Art History, Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Studio: Craft and Design in Canada, “A Thousand Colours: Sarah Hall Glass” (2017, Friesens), and “Public Art in Glass” (2020, Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery) which was awarded the 2021 Ontario Museum Association (OMA) Award of Excellence in Publications.
Kathy received the 2021 Lily Yung Memorial Award from Craft Ontario. She has received scholarships and funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council.
