Simone Elizabeth Saunders & Gordon Shadrach

We are proud to present new paintings by Gordon Shadrach in conversation with the textile work of Calgary-based Simone Elizabeth Saunders, bringing together two distinct yet deeply resonant practices that explore the processes of becoming, memory, and embodied identity.

Simone Elizabeth Saunders’ richly layered textile works centre Black womanhood, amplifying joy, strength, and resilience. Through vibrant compositions and intricate stitching, she draws on motifs and iconography from her Jamaican heritage, weaving together personal and collective histories. Her work engages socio-cultural narratives that reclaim power from oppressive ideologies, positioning the body as both a site of beauty and resistance.

In dialogue, Gordon Shadrach’s practice considers adornment as a language of identity and lineage. His use of beads evokes continuity, ritual, and the marking of time, functioning as both material and metaphor. Through his exploration of familial connection and inherited knowledge, Shadrach extends portraiture beyond the face, emphasizing tactility, presence, and the quiet persistence of memory embedded in objects and materials.

Together, both artists examine how identity is constructed, performed, and preserved through adornment. Whether through beadwork or textile, their practices reflect on the body as a vessel of history, shaped by inheritance, ritual, and personal expression. In this shared space, adornment becomes both archive and assertion: a means of remembering, resisting, and becoming.