Patrick Traer

Patrick Traer has worked during the past eight years in various mediums that include painting, drawing and photography. Since 1990, he has been employing fabrics and machine embroidery to create what are in essence three dimensional drawings. He has also been exploring issues of the body and its representation. The works presented in this exhibition show references to the body that are ambiguous and fragmented yet potent. In the Systemic Drawings, the complex lines and shapes suggest internal parts of the body such as arterial or nervous systems. PLUSH consists of fourteen blood-red divans grouped together in the shape of a large sensuous bed that is not functional. The biomorphic forms of the divans suggest lips, limbs and body fluids. The red taffeta upholstery is elegant and seductive, it calls to be touched, but the sign that stands guard at one end of the grouping states "please do not touch," a reference to both the preciousness of the art object and the danger that is associated with blood in the era of AIDS.

Biography

Patrick Traer lives and works in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He graduated from York University in 1990 and currently teaches at the University of Saskatchewan. His work has been exhibited at Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver; YYZ in Toronto; the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon; and the Art Gallery of Southern Alberta in Lethbridge.

The artist wishes to acknowledge embroiderer Anne Zbirun and Peter Sacher Upholstery, both of Saskatoon.