In her first exhibition in the Atlantic region, Edmonton artist Holly Newman presented long, dark, sheer expanses of fabric hanging six feet from the ground on taught wires which criss-crossed the gallery along its width. The draped fabric was gathered into billowing forms every twelve inches, into which crumbling leaves, painstakingly covered in gold leave, were suspended.

Newman begins with a collection of nature's detritus, objects gathered without violence or destruction from fields, woods and along streams. Once gathered, the specimens are studied and ordered, some of them covered in gold leaf and cradled in the sheer black fabric. In this distinctively funerary work, Newman makes precious that which is dead and disintegrating. By showing us beauty in death and decay, she invites us to consider the complex cycle of regeneration.

Holly Newman holds a BFA from the University of Alberta and has shown her work extensively in Alberta art galleries, such as the Edmonton Art Gallery, Latitude 53, Profiles Gallery and the Harcourt House Gallery. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.