growing dreams
anna vagramova
august 4 – september 3, 2025
10 - 5:30 | mon - sun
artist talk
august 23 | 6–8p
craft council bc gallery
artist statement about the work
As a Ukrainian Canadian artist this installation is a celebration of my 30 years living and creating in Canada. This installation explores the topic of immigrant women replanting themselves and thriving away from their roots. This concept is conveyed through the use of Ukrainian ceremonial towels, towels made out of moss, large multicoloured moss frames, linen, and multicoloured cotton threads.
I have created abstract art compositions in upcycled golden frames. The technique that I have invented is called “The Italian Tapestry” design. Moss tapestry and the embroidered towels display an innovative concept of immigration and new life.
The installation serves as a meeting place between tradition and transformation as well as “dreams embroidered and dreams reimagined.”
Growing Dreams
Once, young girls sat by lamplight, embroidering ceremonial towels with careful hands and hopeful hearts. Each stitch carried a dream – of a perfect life, a perfect husband, a future written in thread. These towels are relics of that time, when a woman’s worth was often measured by the beauty of her dowry.
But time, like moss, moves slowly – and with it, stories evolve.
Moss teaches us that life can thrive without permission, in shadows, on stone, against all odds. It grows softly, but with fierce intention. Like moss, modern women write new paths.
We no longer wait for a perfect life to arrive.
We build it – softly, persistently, beautifully – on the edges, in the cracks, with hands that still remember how to stitch, but now also sculpt, plant, lead, and rise.
anna vagramova bio
Moss Affair conveys the idea of being engaged with something, but you’re still not sure if it will stay.
After seeing moss art at airports around the world, Vagramova was inspired to use the material to create mosaics and puzzles, each telling a different story. She compares this technique to magic realism in literature, a genre where narrative techniques are combined with fantasy.
It’s a story within a story. “I’m trying to create a composition where if you put it in the office, and look [at it] every day, you will find something new.” Vagramova says.
She explores three-dimensional moss application in her art, meaning some pieces are short and tall, while others are flat and fluffy. One of the techniques Vagramova says she uses in her art is lavish, which involves combining multiple colours and shapes into a mosaic. Vagramova says she wants her work to be exposed and free to touch rather than being behind glass. She also uses a combination of antique and modern up-cycled frames for her art.
“Some people pass by, and they just touch it, and they are in a better mood after that.”
