Woven Topographies

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 11, 6-8pm at Open Studio

Elizabeth D’Agostino’s practice examines the tensions between biodiversity and urban expansion. In Woven Topographies, her prints and sculptures explore humanity’s connection to the natural world alongside the urgent realities of ecological disruption, considering the fragile balance between living and non-living systems.

Drawing on scientific illustration, Canadian flora and fauna, and the traditions of botanical art, D’Agostino creates imagined landscapes that challenge perceptions of the environment. Fieldwork is central to this process: she documents biodiversity and gathers visual references from plants, animals, microorganisms, and the environments they inhabit. Though largely fictional, these landscapes incorporate organic and ephemeral forms, including insects, birds, botanical structures, and complex layers of pattern.

The resulting works are speculative ecosystems constructed through drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and digital technology. By removing subjects from their original contexts and reimagining them within invented environments, D’Agostino creates dense, interconnected compositions where plant and animal forms merge. These subtly dystopian landscapes evoke both wonder and unease, reflecting on the experiences of organisms adapting to habitat disruption and climate change.

The surrounding urban landscape, including lakes, wetlands, tree canopies, and meadows, serves as an ongoing field site. Each composition traces the intersections between ecosystems and human activity, revealing the delicate systems that sustain life and the ways in which that balance can be lost.

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Elizabeth D’Agostino is a Canadian artist working across print media, sculpture, and installation. Her work investigates materiality, process, and the transformation of images and objects through layering, repetition, and spatial relationships. She is a member of Open Studio, a leading centre for contemporary printmaking in Canada.

D’Agostino holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Windsor and a Master of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally at venues including Kelowna Art Gallery, Manhattan Graphics Center, The Print Center, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, and Atelier Mondial.

Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the University of Changchun Jilin, China; Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec; Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Australia; the Global Affairs Canada Visual Art Collection Program; the Embassy of Canada in Denmark (Copenhagen); the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italy; Toronto Pearson International Airport; Ernst & Young Canada; and Canada House, the High Commission of Canada in London, United Kingdom.