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Paula Mitas Zoubek
- born in 1940 in Batawa, Ontario
- parents emigrated from Austria and Czech Republic in 1939
- B.F.A. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (1962);
studied from 1961 to 1964 at Académie Julien, Paris, Goldsmith College, London, and the
University of Mexico
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Textile artist Paula Mitas Zoubek has painted on fabric,
exhibiting wall hangings in batik in the 1970s and early 1980s, at the same time selling
hand-painted silk clothing across Canada as part of a popular movement called
"wearable art." In the 1990s she began to use textiles to explore the lives of
women, particularly women of eastern Europe, in her artwork. Of her 1991 quilted work, Pillow,
she has written: "Women have been the pillows to lie on, cry on--the comforters in
life. The big feather beds and large pillows are an integral feature of central Europe.
The pillow is also an instrument of sexual oppression and sexual dominance" (1999).
In the quilted series The Immigrant Goddess Tryptich (1993), she tells the story of
the Czech women who settled the village of Batawa in Ontario in the 1940s (also the town
where Zoubek was born), using it to tell, in effect, the story of all immigrant
women." Through the use of symbols, Zoubek literally puts a face to these women's
lives and struggles, whether it be the 'river' of inner strength they showed in adjusting
to life in their new homeland, the paradoxical views of womanhood--they were both
oppressed and considered to be a valued possession at the same time--they experienced on
the road to a new life outside the community that beckoned the younger women" (Diane
Pinder-Moss, 1993). This series uses the traditional form of female expression in the
Czech Republic, textile work, to celebrate female immigrant life and to explore its
hardships. "Women are the backbone of small communities everywhere," she writes
of the first tryptich part, call The Ovas. The houses are Batawa houses, the hills,
Batawa hills. The women are called the Ovas because that is the ending of Czech women's
names. Ova is . . . also the ending of genitive or possessive case meaning you belong to,
or are a possession of . . . the women framed, bound by a rigid tradition . . ."
(1999). During the 1990s Zoubek also returned to painting. As she tends to focus on still
life she finds textiles and fabrics always make their way into her work, whether they are
the central subject or simply part of the background. "Sometimes the textile is the
main subject, other times it forms part of the background for the flowers from my garden
or the crockery from my kitchen. Textiles and flowers bring us so much color and comfort.
Presently I am celebrating their presence in our lives," she has written (1998).
Zoubek has been an instructor of art, art history, and batik painting in various schools
of the Ontario School Board, and has worked as an assistant curator at the Royal Ontario
Museum (1964-68), and as curator at the Santé Gallery/Restaurant in Ottawa, Ontario
(1998). She has created murals for Carleton University (1998) and for the National Capital
Commission (1995) in Ottawa, Ontario, and served on the Ontario Crafts Council from 1994
to 1997.
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1997-95 |
Immigrant Women
Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte, Ontario |
1995 |
Agnes Etherington Gallery
Shop Show
Agnes Etherington Gallery, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario |
1994-92 |
Immigrant Goddess
First Unitarian Church of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario; Guelph, Ontario; Belleville Municipal
Art Gallery, Belleville, Ontario; Homer-Watson House, Kitchener, Ontario; Prague, Czech
Republic |
1989 |
One-Woman Show
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Bata Shoe Company
Batawa, Ontario |
1981 |
Upper Edge Gallery, Kingston,
Ontario |
1980 |
Hiberna Gallery, Ottawa,
Ontario |
1979-77 |
Wearable Art
Centre des arts visuels, Montréal, Québec; Gallery of Fine Canadian Craft,
Kingston, Ontario |
1973 |
Ting Sung Gallery, Toronto,
Ontario |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 |
On the Rocks: Brenda Davies
and Jean Jewer [curated by Zoubek]
Santé, Ottawa, Ontario |
1991 |
Annual Elmwood Art Fair
Ottawa, Ontario |
1990-89 |
Exhibition of
Czechoslovakian Artists
Montréal, Québec; Toronto, OntarioAntique
Display/Fashion Show
Hastings West District Women's Institute, Sidney Township, Ontario
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1988 |
Festival of the Arts: Arts
on Sparks
Scotiabank, Ottawa, Ontario |
1987-86 |
Annual Elmwood Art Fair
Ottawa, OntarioCanadian Shop Gallery,
Kingston, Ontario
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1980 |
The Wedding Show
Hiberna Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario |
1979 |
Surfacing '79
Ontario Craft Council, Toronto, Ontario |
1976 |
Two-Woman Show
Ontario Craft Council, Toronto, Ontario |
COLLECTIONS
Bata Shoe Company Collection, Toronto,
Ontario
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Kulili Estataes, Kar Kar Island, Papua New Guinea
J.D. Hall, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
Hoover House, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Municipal Offices, Frankford, Ontario
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
"The Immigrant Goddess. Homer Watson
House & Gallery. Kitchener. Review." Ontario Craft 18, no. 4 (Winter
1993): 20-21.
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