In Memoriam: Wendy Toogood

The AGA was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Wendy Toogood who passed away on January 18, 2025. Toogood graduated from the Alberta College of Art in 1969, and did post-graduate work at the Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in 1970. After time in Toronto and touring Europe, she returned to Calgary in 1974 and worked primarily in the fibre department at the Alberta College of Art + Design until her retirement in 2006. She contributed greatly to the Alberta art community and helped develop and shape Alberta’s textile art history. Her work has been included in many national and international exhibitions, including Rebellious: Alberta Women Artists in the 1980s at the AGA in 2019.

Toogood is known for her vibrant and distinct cloth constructions. Her fabric collages often revolve around her daily life. Within narrow restrictions of scale and format, Toogood displays a range of textile effects, and their overall graphic style is bold and recalls elements found in comic strips. Her collages map the world of everyday, and every stitch explores ideas of integrity, memory, and self-reflection.

The AGA was honoured to recently acquire 20 works from Wendy Toogood’s Nakusp Narratives series, which the artist began working on after moving to Nakusp in 2006. The figure in all of these works is Toogood herself and each panel documents the artist’s life and interests. Gardening, friendships, shopping, cooking, news events, and international political events are all captured in this series. These works are included in the exhibition AGA100: Act 3 Words to Worldbuilding, on view from February 8-June 1, 2025.