Heather Goodchild (b. 1977) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist working across painting, textiles, ceramics and installation. For over two decades, her practice has explored how meaning is constructed through material culture and systems of belief. Drawing on historical traditions, collective narratives and direct observation, Goodchild considers how acts of making carry knowledge, symbolism and cultural memory. Working across multiple mediums allows Goodchild to examine how ideas shift between materials, scales and durations of labour, while expanding the possibilities of craft within contemporary art.
Her recent work brings painting and textile practices into dialogue through observational oil painting, rug hooking and dyeing, exploring how colour, surface and composition change between fast and slow forms of production. Natural dyes, often collected onsite while painting, further connect material, landscape and process.
Goodchild's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Virginia McClure Ceramic Biennial, Montreal (2024); AYE Gallery, Beijing (2023); LL Contemporary, Richmond Hill (2023); and IA&A at Hillyer, Washington, DC (2022). She was awarded a Chalmers Arts Fellowship in 2019 and has participated in numerous artist residencies, including at the Art Gallery of Ontario and internationally in Morocco, California, Greece, Paris and China.
