BARRY ACE

Barry Ace is a practicing visual artist and currently lives in Ottawa, Canada. He is a band member of M’Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. His mixed media paintings and assemblage textile works explore various aspects of cultural continuity and the confluence of the historical and contemporary.

My textile practice draws its inspiration from historical Anishinaabeg arts of the Great Lakes that incorporate floral and geometric beadwork motifs. I up-cycle reclaimed and salvaged electronic components and circuitry (capacitors and resistors) transforming the refuse of the technological age into complex floral motifs. In doing so, I am referencing Anishinaabeg beadwork as a metaphor for cultural continuity, bridging the past with the present and the future, and as a demonstrable act of nationhood, resistance and modernity. My contemporary practice intentionally, yet respectfully, transcends and moves forward conventional Anishinaabeg cultural boundaries as a confluence between the historical and contemporary.

Read more at www.barryacearts.com.