Threadlines brings together more than three decades of studio work by senior Canadian artist Marlene Hilton Moore, whose practice spans textiles, sculpture, photography, drawing, and sound. Rather than tracing a career history, the exhibition presents an evolving body of work.
Raised in New Brunswick and Montréal before settling in rural Ontario, Hilton Moore began shaping her artistic path after the birth of her children, advancing her practice through self-directed learning. Recognized for public art projects across Canada, this exhibition focuses on the studio as a site of inquiry, where labour, touch, and repetition are foundational. Storytelling and lived experience connect her works to narratives that foreground women’s voices and broader histories of labour, place, and social expectation.
The works in Threadlines reflect a lifelong engagement with process and the history of materials. In her eighth decade, Hilton Moore remains engaged with making, treating art as an active and relational practice.
Grateful thanks to Brian Hodges and Robert Paul for their exhibition support, and to Max Lupo for technical support.
Additional Programming:
Public Art Panel Discussion with Marlene Hilton Moore, Sandra Fraser, and Liza Mishko
Date and Time: Thursday March 19, 10:00 am
Location: Campus Gallery, Georgian College, Barrie (room 140, D Building, Helen and Arch Brown Centre for Design and Visual Arts)
In partnership with Georgian College
Marlene Hilton Moore, Made to Measure 2 (Thin Venus), 2008, resin, pearl autobody paint, wheels, speakers, 153 x 44 x 29 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Marlene Hilton Moore’s studio work for the past twenty-five years engages the identity of the female in today’s society through sculpture, audiovisual installations and photography. Encoded cultural messages are imbedded in these artworks that weave together a subtle social history. Her extensive schedule of solo and group exhibitions includes galleries in Ontario, Quebec and the East Coast.
Marlene has also been a recipient of many Public Art Commissions over the last twenty-five years. Her distinctive profile in Canadian visual arts is marked by outstanding achievements at local and national levels, particularly in the complex arena of Public Art and Monuments.
Marlene retired from her professorship at the School of Design and Visual Arts, Georgian College following a distinguished 25-year teaching career. In 2014 Hilton Moore received the City of Barrie’s Excellence in Arts Award.
Sandra Fraser is an independent curator, writer, and researcher specializing in modern and contemporary art. For nearly three decades her curatorial practice has been grounded in careful research and attentive collaboration, and she is known for producing exhibitions that are both timely and resonant, often engaging broader questions of cultural production and place. Deeply invested in how museums create meaning and foster a sense of belonging, Fraser approaches curating as a critical and ethical practice, attentive to context, audience, and lived experience.
Fraser has a Masters in Art History (York University), certificates in Museum Management and Curatorship (Fleming College) and Research Analyst (Georgian College), and a BA in Art History (University of Toronto). She has held senior curatorial roles at Remai Modern, the Mendel Art Gallery and MacLaren Art Centre, and previously taught Art History and Gallery Studies at Georgian College. Fraser currently teaches in the Museum and Gallery Studies program.
