Intricately Woven
Art by Xiangmei Su
Opening Reception: Wednesday October 11th 7 – 9pm
Culture Days Hands-on Workshop: Saturday October 14th 2 – 4pm
https://suworkshop.eventbrite.ca
Artist Talk: Wednesday October 18th 7 – 9pm
Exhibition: October 12th – November 4th Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm
Artist Xiangmei Su (苏向) lives in an era where the natural climate is changing drastically, the economic direction is accelerating, and human productivity is making great strides. New energy, new materials, 5G communications, artificial intelligence, etc. are taking mankind into wider unknown areas. As the other wing of human society, art will inevitably develop and evolve with the pace of science, technology and economy.
From witnessing her grandmother using wooden looms to make traditional textiles, to observing the mechanical assembly line in her father’s factory, to creating her own contemporary art and becoming a full-time artist, Su uses her talent, wisdom, and personal immigration experience to create unique works of art. She passed through Suzhou, a famous cultural town in China, roaring contemporary industrial cities, and arrived in Canada, where the cultures are intertwined. Painting, installation, and fibre material art have transformed into new extensions and connotations in her hands.
The lines in the Intricately Woven Series of paintings are clear in latitude and longitude, sparse and orderly, exquisite, three-dimensional, and unpredictable. They bring our sight into the profound spatial dimension and inspire us to explore the essence through phenomena. The maze-like “factories,” “workshops,” “parts” and “units,” and other contemporary industrial images she depicts with single-toned lines make us stand in awe of the great wisdom and productivity of mankind, and at the same time make us realize human insignificance. We have conquered matter and improved efficiency, so where will technology take us?
In her installation works, she uses canvas as a two-dimensional medium and uses pins and threads to carefully weave three-dimensional works on the surface of the canvas. This series of works are neither textiles nor paintings, but installations that utilize fibre materials, light, colour and space. Through the artist’s special perspective, social productivity transforms material into brand new things in a specific environment.
Su’s latest installation “Interweaving (交织)” will also be exhibited this time. She used ancient techniques, traditional tools, and her usual symbol of material culture – thread, and used her mother’s dowry suitcase as a “prism” to “refract” onto the wall the maps of Suzhou and Vancouver, the two cities where she had lived. The complex trajectory of fate and journey are visualized to tell the story of the destiny and journey of life.
The Chinese sage Wang Yangming’s “investigating things to gain knowledge (格物致知)” is about obtaining true knowledge through exhaustive investigation of things. Su’s artistic practice, artistic works, and artistic style well reflect this cognitive proposition. She gained new knowledge from the “investigation” of traditional crafts, regional culture, and creative media, and maintained and managed her relationship with history, tradition, humanity, and nature, and then used new artistic techniques and forms to interpret new world and era.
Intricately Woven: Art by Xiangmei Su will open at Lipont Gallery, 4211 No. 3 Road, Richmond BC from 7:00pm to 9:00 pm on Wednesday October 11, 2023. The exhibition remains on view until November 4th. The gallery opens from Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. Admission is free.
On Saturday, October 14th, from 2:00pm to 4:00 pm, Su will lead the audience in a hands-on workshop during the Culture Days (https://culturedays.ca/), using canvas, pins, thread, and other materials to create installation works. The workshop is free and open to people of 12 years old and above. Please register at https://suworkshop.eventbrite.ca.
On the evening of Wednesday, October 18th, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Su will introduce her creative process and works to the audience in detail. The talk is free and open to public. Please register at https://sutalk.eventbrite.ca.
千丝万缕 – 苏向艺术展
开幕：2023年10月11日星期三19:00 – 21:00
艺术手工坊：2023年10月14日星期六14:00 – 16:00
https://suworkshop.eventbrite.ca
艺术家讲座：2023年10月18日星期三19:00 – 21:00
展览：2023年10月12日至11月4日，周二至周六11:00 – 18:00免费开放
艺术家苏向所处的时代是自然气候急剧变化，经济方向加速转变，人类生产力大步飞跃的时代。新能源，新材料，5G通讯，人工智能等等把人类带往更广阔的未知领域。艺术作为人类社会的另一侧翅翼，必定会伴随着科技与经济的步履发展和演进。
苏向从目睹祖母使用木制织布机制作传统纺织品，到父亲工厂里的机械流水线，到自己进行当代艺术创作并成为全职艺术家，她用才华、智慧、以及个人移民经历创作出独树一帜的艺术作品。她穿过了中国的文化名城苏州，轰鸣的当代工业城市，抵达了各族裔文化交织荟萃的加拿大。绘画、装置和纤维材料艺术在她手中幻化出新的外延和内涵。
【千丝万缕】系列绘画作品中的线条经纬分明、疏朗有致、精致立体，变化莫测。它们把我们的视线带入深邃的空间维度，激发我们透过现象而探究本质的悸动。她用单一色调线条描绘出来的迷宫一样的“工厂”“车间”“零件”“机组”等当代工业的意象，让我们不禁对人类的伟大智慧和生产力肃然起敬，同时也让我们倏然意识到人类的渺小。我们征服了物质，提高了效率，那么技术将会把我们带往何方？
在装置作品中，她以画布为二维介质、用大头针和线在画布表面悉心地编制出三维立体的装置作品。这一系列作品既不是纺织品，也不是绘画，而是利用纤维材料、光、颜色和空间的装置作品。社会生产力通过艺术家特殊的视角，在特定环境中、将物质材料变造为崭新的事物。
本次还将展出苏向最新装置作品【交织】。她沿用古老的技术，传统的工具，和她惯用的物质文化符号——线，以母亲的嫁妆皮箱为“棱镜”，把自己生活过的两座城市苏州和温哥华的地图“折射”到墙面上。繁复的命运轨迹和旅途轨迹瞬间被视觉化，以宣叙人生之旅的故事。
华夏先贤王阳明的“格物致知”，是讲在穷究事理中获得真知。苏向的艺术实践、艺术作品、艺术风格很好地体现了这一认知命题。她在对传统工艺、地域文化、创作媒材的“格物”中获得新知，并保持、管理着自己与历史、与传统、与人文、与自然的关系，而后运用崭新的艺术手法和形式诠释崭新的世界和时代。
【千丝万缕 – 苏向艺术展】将于2023年10月11日星期三晚19:00 – 21:00时在温哥华力邦美术馆开幕。展览至11月4日结束。周二至周六11:00 至18:00免费开放。
10月14日星期六14:00 – 16:00时, 苏向将于 “加拿大文化日 (Culture Days)” 期间带领观众进行艺术手工创作，用画布，大头针，线等材料创作装置作品。免费对12岁以上人士开放，敬请注册 https://suworkshop.eventbrite.ca
10月18日星期三晚19:00 – 21:00时，苏向将以讲座的形式为观众详解她的创作历程和作品。免费开放，座位有限，敬请预订 https://sutalk.eventbrite.ca
Xiangmei Su – Artist Biography
Xiangmei Su is a Vancouver-based multidisciplinary visual artist originally from Suzhou, China. Working across installation, mixed media, painting, photography, and video, she uses thread as a central material and visual language through which she explores memory, migration, belonging, and the relationship
between people and place.
Growing up in Suzhou in a family connected to the textile industry, Su developed an early familiarity with thread and textile materials. Rather than approaching thread through conventional textile processes, she repositions it as line, structure, and spatial form. Through layering, knotting, stretching, and connecting, thread moves across surfaces and increasingly extends into physical space, carrying traces of movement, tension, memory, and connection. Her practice brings inherited material knowledge into dialogue with contemporary experiences of migration, memory, and belonging.
Su holds a BA in Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia. Since 2012, her work has been exhibited in China and Canada, with solo exhibitions at Changshu Art Museum, R Space, Seymour Art Gallery, Lipont Gallery, and Canton-Sardine Gallery. Recent presentations include Neighbours, a two-
person exhibition at the West Vancouver Art Museum (2025), and Reverse Chinatown in Vancouver (2026).
She was Artist-in-Residence at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in 2022 and was selected for the Deer Lake Artist Residency in Burnaby in 2025. She has published four exhibition catalogues and delivered the TEDx talk Becoming Who I Am.
苏向 – 艺术家简介
苏向（Xiangmei Su）是一位常驻温哥华的跨媒介视觉艺术家，出生于中国苏州。她的创作涵盖装置、综合材料、绘画、摄影与影像，并以“线”作为核心材料和视觉语言，探讨记忆、迁徙、文化身份、归属感，以及人与场所之间的关系。
苏向成长于有着深厚纺织传统的苏州，自幼便对线与织物有着熟悉而亲密的感受。在当代艺术实践中，她不再将线局限于传统的纺织工艺，而是将其转化为线条、结构与空间语言。通过层叠、缠绕、拉伸与连接，线从平面逐渐延展至实体空间，承载着运动的轨迹、内在的张力，以及关于记忆与联结的隐喻。她将传统材料所承载的文化记忆，与自身关于迁徙、身份和归属的生命体验交织在一起，形成跨越个人记忆、地域与文化的持续对话。
苏向拥有卑诗大学（UBC）视觉艺术学士学位。自2012年以来，她的作品曾在加拿大和中国展出，并先后于常熟美术馆、R Space、西摩美术馆（Seymour Art Gallery）、Lipont Gallery及Canton-Sardine举办个展。近期重要展览包括2025年在西温哥华美术馆举办的双人展《邻·礼》（Neighbours），以及2026年在CICA Vancouver展出的群展《反转唐人街》（Reverse Chinatown）。
她于2022年担任温哥华中山公园（Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden）驻地艺术家，并于2025年入选本拿比鹿湖艺术家驻地项目（Deer Lake Artist Residency）。她出版了四本个人展览画册，并曾发表题为《成为我自己》（Becoming Who I Am）的TEDx演讲。
Artist Statement – Intricately Woven
During my childhood, I always saw my mum sitting on a big loom. A wooden shuttle was flying back and forth between two layers of cotton thread. Different plaid patterns slowly appeared. Hundred thread under my her hands were eventually transforming into a beautiful piece of cloth.
However, as time passed, the traditional wood loom began to vanish. New industries were rising in China. My father started to build up his high tech-knowledge factory. The conventional oil went through different, giant machines and came out white powder which was the main material of insulation for iPhone and space flight in the world. China’s economy was growing very quickly.
At the same time, the significant migration was brewing in China. People left rural areas for urban centres and foreign countries, in order to look for new opportunities. My family was part of this great migration, moving from the countryside to the city, and I, myself, left for Canada to pursue education. My new life in Canada brought about substantial changes, presenting both harmony and discord. I faced the challenge of adapting to a new culture while still feeling a strong connection to my roots. This internal struggle led me to question my true identity.
Over time, I eventually shifted to a different investigation of my cultural identity with a new understanding. Like the mum’s thread and father’s conventional oil have gone through long and hard processes, eventually becoming the final products with their specific missions. I have discovered a metamorphosis within myself, where the interplay of space and time weaves intricate patterns of individuality and identity, blending the past and present, the internal and external, and the realms of inclusion and exclusion. This amalgamation has given rise to my new transcultural identities. – Xiangmei Su 2023
艺术家陈述 – 千丝万缕系列作品
小时候,我常常看到妈妈坐在一台大织布机上。一只木梭在两层棉线之间来回⻜行。不同的格子图案慢慢出现。数百根棉线在她的手中最终变成了一匹美丽的布。然而,随着时间的推移,传统的木织机消失了。中国新兴产业不断崛起。我父亲开始建立他的高科技工厂。原油经过不同的巨型机器,最后生产出白色粉末产品,这是世界上苹果手机和太空⻜船中运用到的主要绝缘原材料。中国的经济在⻜速地增⻓。与此同时,中国正在酝酿大规模的人口迁移。人们离开乡镇地区到城市或国外,去寻找新的机会。我的家人是这次大移⺠中的一部分,从农村搬到城市,而我本人则前往加拿大留学。加拿大新生活给我带来了巨大的变化,有和谐,也有冲突。我面临着适应新文化的挑战,同时仍然感受到与我的根紧密联系。这种内心的挣扎让我质疑自己的真实身份。
慢慢地,我对我新的文化身份有了不同地理解。就像妈妈的织线和爸爸的原油一样,经历了漫⻓而艰苦的过程,最终成为具有特定使命的新产品。我发现了自己内心的蜕变,空间和时间的相互作用编织出复杂的个性和身份,融合了过去和现在、内部和外部、包容和排斥的领域。这种融合成就了我新的跨文化身份。
XIANGMEI SU – CV
Disciplines: Thread-based Installation, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Video
Research Interests: Migration, Memory, Place and Belonging, and Transcultural Identity
Education
2005–2010
Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 — Solo Exhibition (forthcoming), True Color Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, Canada
2024 — Here—There, Canton Sardine, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2023 — Intricately Woven, Lipont Art Gallery, Richmond, BC, Canada
2022 — Intangible Thread: Part Two, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2022 — Intangible Thread: Part One, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2020 — Interweaving, Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, Canada
2019 — Fragments of Memory, Yeats Studio & Gallery, West Vancouver, BC, Canada
2018 — Crossing Between Grids, R Space, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2012 — The Wind, Changshu Art Museum, Jiangsu, China
Two-Person Exhibitions
2025 — Neighbours, West Vancouver Art Museum, West Vancouver, BC, Canada
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 — Reverse Chinatown, CICA, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2025 — CICA Vancouver Emerging to Mid-career Art Awards 2025, CICA, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2025 — Interwoven, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Burnaby, BC, Canada
2025 — Ephemeral Echoes, Richmond City Hall Galleria, Richmond, BC, Canada
2018 — Bliss, Silk Purse Arts Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2011 — Identity, Asian Centre, UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Artist Residencies
2026 — Atelier Artist in Residence, Paris, France
2025 — Deer Lake Artist Residency, Burnaby, Canada
2022 — Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden Artist Residency, Vancouver, Canada
Community-Engaged Projects
2023–Present — Into A River (Greater Vancouver, BC; expanding across British Columbia)
* Ongoing community-engaged project exploring waterways, migration, memory, and transcultural
identity through photography, interviews, participatory workshops, and thread-based installations.
Presented in collaboration with museums, public galleries, and cultural organizations, including the
Museum of Vancouver and Burnaby Art Gallery.
Selected Exhibition Catalogues
2025 — Neighbours, West Vancouver Art Museum
2024 — Intricately Woven, Lipont Gallery
2018 — Crossing Between Grids, Canton Sardine
2012 — The Wind, Changshu Art Museum
Public Talks
2020 — Becoming Who I Am, TEDx Talk, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Advisory & Jury Roles
2023 — Present — Committee Member, Youth Visual Art Contest (International Youth Art
Competition)
2023 — Juror, International Art Competition (Online)
2022 — Exhibition Advisor, West Vancouver Community Arts Council (Kay Meek Centre Jury)
艺术家履历
媒介: 线状装置、混合媒介、绘画、摄影、视频
主题: 移民、记忆、地方与归属感，以及跨文化身份
学历
2005-2010 视觉艺术本科,加拿大温哥华卑诗大学。
个展
2026年 个展（即将举办），True Color Gallery，加拿大北温哥华
2024年（Here—There），Canton Sardine，加拿大温哥华
2022 【千丝万缕 – 苏向艺术展】温哥华力邦美术馆
2022 “隐形的线:第二部分”,加拿大温哥华孙中山公园。
2022 “隐形的线:第一部分”,加拿大温哥华孙中山公园。
2020 “交织”,加拿大北温哥华Seymour画廊。
2019 “记忆的碎片”,加拿大西温哥华Yeats画廊。
2018 “格子”,加拿大温哥华融空间。
2012 “风”,中国江苏省常熟美术馆。
联展
2026年 Reverse Chinatown，CICA，加拿大温哥华
2025年 CICA温哥华新晋至中坚艺术家奖（CICA Vancouver Emerging to Mid-career Art Awards 2025），CICA，加拿大温哥华
2025年《交织》（Interwoven），Shadbolt艺术中心，加拿大本拿比
2025年《短暂的回响》（Ephemeral Echoes），列治文市政厅画廊，加拿大列治文市
2018年《极乐》（Bliss），Silk Purse艺术中心，加拿大温哥华
2011年《身份》（Identity），亚洲中心（UBC），加拿大温哥华
驻留项目
2026年 — Atelier 驻留艺术家项目，法国巴黎
2025年 — Deer Lake 驻留艺术家项目，加拿大本拿比
2022年 — 温哥华中山公园（Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden）驻留艺术家项目，加拿大温哥华
社区参与项目
2023年至今《汇入河流》（Into A River）（不列颠哥伦比亚省大温哥华地区；正扩展至全省范围）
* 这是一项持续进行的社区参与项目，通过摄影、访谈、参与式工作坊及纤维艺术装置等形式，探索水道、迁徙、记忆与跨文化身份认同。
* 该项目与温哥华博物馆（Museum of Vancouver）、本拿比美术馆（Burnaby Art Gallery）及各类公共画廊和文化机构合作呈现。
画册
2025年《邻·礼》（Neighbours），西温哥华美术馆
2024年 Intricately Woven），Lipont Gallery温哥华力邦美术馆，加拿大列治文
2018年 Crossing Between Grids，Canton Sardine 加拿大温哥华
2012年《风》（The Wind），常熟美术馆，中国常熟
公共演讲
2020年《成为我自己》，TEDx 演讲，加拿大温哥华
艺术顾问
2023年至今 青年视觉艺术大赛（国际青年艺术竞赛）委员会成员Contest (International Youth Art
Competition)
2023年 国际艺术竞赛（线上）评审 International Art Competition (Online)
2022年 西温哥华社区艺术委员会展览顾问（Kay Meek中心评审）
