Provenance:

Purchased directly from the artist

Note:

From another collection


PAT STRAKOWSKI (1937 - )

"I am interested in stories, legends and how they change from telling to retelling to being written down. I like the possibilities and interpretations one can make that are offered from the information that is found in the written books."

- Pat Strakowsky -

Pat Strakowsky is best known for her papier-mâché sculptures that are carefully painted and adorned to emphasize the mythical quality of her creations.

Pat Strakowski was born in 1937. She waited until her daughters were in high school to enroll at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary, and graduated in 1979 with a Diploma in Textiles. Throughout the greater part of her artistic career, Strakowski has created mythical sculptures with papier mâché adorned with found objects, her work influenced by the likes of Marisolo Escobar, Magdalena Agakanowicz and Frida Kahlo. More recently, Strakowski has focussed on altering books: she finds discarded hardcover books and builds them up with found objects, based on a specific theme or imagery. In 2009, a book on her works was published, entitled Moon Nibbler: The Art of Pat Strakowski. Strakowski lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections

Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, Alberta

Alberta Craft Council, Edmonton, Alberta
Alberta Energy
Alex Chapman Design
Bass Ticket Services Ltd
British Petroleum  Canada Ltd.
Calgary Allied Arts Foundation, Calgary, Alberta
Canadian Resources Ltd
Charles Bronfman Collection, Montreal, Quebec
Claridge Collection, Montreal, Quebec
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
Esso Canada Resources Ltd
Franklin Silverstone Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec
Home Oil Canada
Imperial Oil Ltd, Toronto, Ontario.
Kanesko Holdings Ltd 
MacKimmie Matthews
Macleod Dixon
Marshall Cummings & Associates, Toronto, Ontario
Norcen
PanContinental
Rice Brydon
Rockyview Hospital, Rockyview, Alberta
Trizec Equities
University of Alberta Bruce Peel Special Collection
University of Calgary Special Collection

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2000 Silent Stories and Personal Visions, Alberta Craft Council Discovery Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
1995 Love Follies, Alberta Craft Council Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
1994 Revival, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
1991 Window Project Installation, Calgary Centre for Performing Arts, Calgary, Alberta
1990 Small Sculptures, The Gallery, Banff, Alberta
1989 Paper Routes, The Front Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
 Private Spaces, Public Spaces, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
1988 Small Sculptures, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
1987 Collectanea - Installation, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
1986 Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta

Selected Group Exhibitions

2013 Boxed In, The Room, Craft Council of Newfoundland & Labrador, St. John’s, NL
2012 A View Through the Windows, Windows Galleries, Canadian Bookbinding Guild, Calgary, Alberta
2008 Full Circle, Meeting Point Artists Association 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta
2006 Two of a Kind, Alberta Craft Council, Calgary, Alberta
2002 Visions of Wellness, McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta
2001 70th Anniversary Millennium Show, The Alberta Society of Artists South Branch
 Leighton Foundation Museum and Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Go Figure, Alberta Craft Council Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
1999 Friends and Mentors Revisited, Muttart Public Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
 Triple Take: Past, Present and Future, Muttart Public Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
1998 Six Degrees of Separation, Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the AFA Collection, The Prairie Art Gallery, Grande Prairie, Alberta
Saints and Sinners - Presented by the Alberta Society of Artists, The Works International Visual Arts Festival, Edmonton, Alberta
1996 Alberta Society of Artists 65th Anniversary Exhibition Leigton Centre, Calgary, Alberta
Miniatures, Triangle Gallery Art Rental, Calgary, Alberta
Five Corners, Meeting Point Artists Association 9th Annual Exhibition, Seoul Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Oppertshauser Gallery, Stony Plain, Alberta
1995 Transit of Venus, Alberta Society of Artists Invitational Group Show, Performing Art Centre, Calgary, Alberta
Spring Values, Alberta Society of Artists Juried Group Show, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Apocrypha, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia
 Hearts & Flowers, Front Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
 ARK, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta
 Vital Passages, Commerce Place, Edmonton, Alberta
 Do the Art Thing II, Alberta Society of Artists
 ART WALK: ART WEEK, Mount Royal Village, Calgary, Alberta
Focus In, Meeting Point Artists Association
 ART WALK: ART WEEK, Mount Royal Village, Calgary, Alberta
Alberta Fibrations, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Masks & Magic, Old Court House Art Gallery, Red Deer, Alberta
1994 Apocrypha II: Mythic Images Outside Orthodoxy, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia
 Group Show by Canadian Women Artists, Virginia Christopher Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
 Diversity In Action, Harcourt House Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
 Hong Kong Visual Artist Society & Meeting Point Artists Association Fung Pingshan Museum, Hong Kong
Art at Terminal 3, Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Ontario
Calgary's Civic Art Collection: Selected Works From The Last Quater-Century, 
 Old City Hall, Calgary, Alberta
Wild Things, ManuLife 1 Place, Edmonton, Alberta
Meeting Points Artist Association Annual Group Exhibition, Chinese Culture Centre, Calgary, Alberta
International Organ Festival Invitational ASA Group Show, Doll Building, Calgary, Alberta
1993 International Monoprinters guild, Max Bell Theatre, Calgary, Alberta
 Apocrypha - Mythic Images Outside Orthodoxy, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia
The Canadian Painterly Print, International Monoprinters Guild, Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, Alberta
 Figurative/Portrait Exhibition, Bowman Arts Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta
Nursery Tales and Fairy Rhymes II, Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, Alberta
CollAlbertaoration: Squeeze and Stretch, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Good Things Come In Small Packages, Alberta Craft Council Group Show Traveling Alberta
Way Out West, The Works, Edmonton, Alberta
Western Art, Oppertshausr Gallery, Stony Plain, Alberta
1992 Meeting Point, The Meeting Points Artists Association, Nova Garden Court Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Off The Wall, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
Magic and Mythology, North Park Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia
Return to Exceptional Pass, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta
Vision Scapes, International Monoprinters Guild, Red Deer Museum, Red Deer, Alberta
Canadian Flags Revisited, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
 Comedy in 3D, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Miniature Group Show, Muttart Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
 Whimsey, Harcourt House Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
1991 Myth and Magic, Alberta Society of Artists, The Works, Edmonton, Alberta
 Our Own Back Yard, Alberta Society of Artists, Nova Garden Court Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Soulcatchers Too, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Art Magic II, Calgary Winter Festival, Nova Centre, Calgary, Alberta
ARTLOTTO, Glenbow Museum Acquisitions Society 8th Annual Invitational, Calgary, Alberta
1990 The Opera Ball, Edmonton Opera Invitational, Edmonton, Alberta
Soulcatchers: An Exhibition of Masks, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
 Made in Canada, ASA, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
 Art Magic 1990 (Art You Can Really Get Into), Calgary Winter Festival, Nova Garden Court, Calgary, Alberta
1989 Polarities: North/South and In Between, Prairie Gallery, Grand Prairie, Alberta
The Works, Celebration of Women in the Arts, The Alberta Society of Artists
 Edmonton, Alberta
Alberta Sculpture Survey '89, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
First Impressions: Recent Acquisitions of the Alberta Art Foundation, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
Beaten to a Pulp, Contemporary Paper Sculpture and Basketry Invitational
 International Gallery, San Diago, California, USA
1988 Imagine This, Gulf Canada, Calgary, Alberta
 Deception and Revelation: The Art of the Mask III, International Gallery, San Diego, California, USA
Visions of Alberta, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
The Works - Celebration of Women in the Arts, Manulife Place, Edmonton, Alberta
Alberta Ambience, ASA Western Canadian Place, Calgary, Alberta
Nocturnes, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
 Olympic Arts Festival Winter Group Show, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
 The Individuals, Celebrating a Decade of Alberta Art, Muttart Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta

Selected Awards

1996 The World Who's Who of Women, International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England
1995 Who's Who of Canadian Women
1994 Alberta Who's Who
1991 Canadian Who's Who
The Canada Council Explorations Program, The Calgary Region Arts Foundation
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, for "Soulcatchers Too" invitational group show
1984 Honorable Mention Award, Reflections on Three Plains, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Selected Links

Moon Nibbler: Pat Strakowski

Women’s Art Museum Society of Canada