ARTIST STATEMENT
 

I create canvases out of the un/holy materials of Jewish things left unsaid.

Since I was a child, I have always been fascinated by the space between Jewish holy text – the definitive shape of the letters, the finality of the permanent black ink – and the margins therein.

My mind, my heart and my hands float to this imagined but real place, where ancient Jewish words coincide with uncreated space to draw and dream Jewish worlds hitherto unknown but have, nonetheless, been part of our bodies and our breathing since the dawn of the world.

If there is anything I hope to evoke in my art, it is imagination; the creation and choosing of different fates other than what has traditionally been offered to Jews, in broader society or in our own communities.

I am and continue to be trans-fixed by the spiritual notion that each one of us is not only someone else’s ancestor long after us, but our own ancestor, perfectly imperfect, in the moment, existing in the black and white spaces, colours, contours and hues of our deepest selves that encompass each and all people across time and space.

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

Devon Spier (she/they) is an accidental but intentional Canadian poet of paper, cloth and canvas.
 

With short and pithy turns of phrase, she unlocks the sacred and profane in contemporary Jewish lifespans, reaching into in-most questions, wavering possibilities, and down-to-earth doubts to pull out un-glimpsed horizons and the absent presence of hope.
 

​Having received early and notable praise from staff of The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Devon is looking forward to sharing her first collection of text-based canvases, “18 plus one,” in public spaces across North America, Asia and Europe to attract Jewish and non-Jewish audiences alike to make meaning together as they re-envision the Jewish future beyond present catastrophe.

Devon is a member of Gerrard Art Space in Toronto and Bayit Liturgical Art Working Group, a multidisciplinary and transdenominational collective of Jewish artists.

Devon’s artistic style and work can be glimpsed at devon-spier.com