Statement
Working in textiles is a powerful form of discourse through which Rachelle communicates complex ideas about the role contemporary art practices can have in social and environmental reform. Her process also transforms and celebrates traditional skills while giving high importance to new innovative material processes that help her bring difficult conversations forward through craftivism and its unique role in effecting change.
Rachelle approaches her work like a painter approaches a canvas or a storyteller approaches a story, a surface upon which to build ideas and layers of meaning. The result is very process-oriented; however, her artmaking process shifted a few years ago when she created work for an exhibition made entirely of recycled textiles for the Robert Bateman Foundation. In doing so, Rachelle discovered that the unique quality of reusing materials added substance to the subject matter. She now incorporates recycled/upcycled materials and plastics in every new artwork.
Rachelle is a Canadian/American artist who grew up in rural New Brunswick. Her work is internationally recognized, and she holds a Fashion Technology and Design diploma from the Sheridan College Institute of Technology. She has also studied art at the Glassell School of Art in Houston, Texas. Rachelle has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout Canada, the United States, and Algiers, including the Robert Bateman Foundation Gallery, Art Gallery of Alberta, Alberta Craft Council, Harbourfront Center, Musée des Maître et Artisans du Québec, Yeiser Art Center, Stanford Art Gallery, and Lawndale Art Center. Rachelle is also a current member of the Art in Embassies program of the United States.
Rachelle LeBlanc is also the creator and curator of the I Choose, Therefore I Am Project.