Ruth Wickremesooriya

Ruth Wickremesooriya is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist and weaver creating conceptual abstract art and bespoke cloth that explore themes of brokenness and repair. Her artistic practice is a tactile meditation on the paradox that finds beauty and pain residing side by side in our lives, particularly in the realms of mental wellbeing, ecological sustainability and societal assumptions about waste.

Born and raised in England, she earned her BFA in Woven Textile Design from Loughborough University, UK, before relocating to Toronto, Canada. Prior to her appointment to the OCADU Textiles Faculty in 2022, Ruth has taught design and weaving skills to a variety of age groups around the world, including members of underrepresented communities in Albania, Sri Lanka, the UK and Ontario. She regularly collaborates with Upper Canada Weaving to produce bespoke cloth for the Ontario Fibreshed, as well as providing weaving + design assistance for Handwork Studio’s work with artisan-producers in Chile, Peru, Pakistan and India. In 2017, as the winner of international design competition the ABURY Design Experience, Ruth developed a capsule collection of fashion accessories in collaboration with master weavers in Ethiopia. She has exhibited her work at the head office of Selvedge Magazine in London, UK, and has received esteemed bursary awards from the Worshipful Company of Weavers and the Toronto Guild of Spinners and Weavers.