Richard Boulet’s Textile Art Challenges Stigma and Celebrates Identity at Art Gallery of Regina

November 5, 2025

Media Release - Sandee Moore, Director/Curator, Art Gallery of Regina

The Art Gallery of Regina (2420 Elphinstone Street) presents Art Thou the Accuser of Thy Brethren or Art Thou the Inspiration of Their Heart?, a solo exhibition by Edmonton-based artist Richard Boulet, curated by Wayne Baerwaldt. On view from November 6, 2025, to January 17, 2026, this exhibition highlights Boulet’s innovative textile art, which fearlessly explores themes of queer identity, mental health, and belonging—reflecting the Art Gallery of Regina’s commitment to providing free access to contemporary art that deepens our understanding of the world and our experiences.

Unlike traditional quilt exhibitions, Boulet’s hand-stitched textile panels merge words and imagery into vibrant, textured compositions that are deeply personal and narrative-driven.

The artist challenges conventions within fibre art by deliberately avoiding highly technical processes and instead embracing simple, accessible techniques such as cross-stitch, latch hook, needle felting, beading, quilting, loom knitting, and thumb braiding. The result is a body of work that subverts expectations—his bold, graphic, text-centered textiles evoke the dynamism of op art paintings rather than traditional cross-stitch samplers or quilts.

“I made a couple of latch hook rugs with my father when I was about ten,” Boulet recalls. “That is a treasured memory.” Boulet highlights the familial link in the transmission of textile traditions by including textiles by collaborators, his family, and other craft makers. The resulting assemblages are rich with items lovingly crafted by others’ hands and gifted to the artist, carrying their stories—the precious utility of hand-knit dishcloths, a piece of a wedding dress's crinoline, or a cache of thriftily saved buttons. Each textile has a voice, a message, and a story. Some stories are too precious for the artist to use gifted textiles; for instance, a fragment of unfinished cloth left on the loom when the weaver passed away, or a symbolically heavy rebozo shawl from a Mexican-heritage MFA student.

Boulet intertwines his personal narrative with the histories embedded in the textiles themselves, using fabric appliqué and cross-stitched text that is both achingly honest and subtly concealed. Rows of x-shaped stitches that form or affix letters serve as delicate acts of redaction. His confessions reference life as a gay man coming to terms with being raised Catholic. The self-medicating years are over, and the schizophrenia recovery work continues. His recovery is nurtured by the artist’s spiritual practices, grounded in simple pleasures and gratitude. One piece reads: 'I am the type of man who stitches the feet of queer angels down onto his soul wrap it up wrap it up tight.'

In another large-scale textile, cloth lettering reading ‘Keeps It All Neat and Tidy’ marches across a clamorous composition in vibrant pink, black, red, and green patches, demonstrating how textiles soothe Boulet’s internal turmoil. “I can soothe myself,” Boulet says, “ground myself, with repeated gentle hand motions.” On the same piece, an oasis of plain beige fabric is densely covered with rows of forbidden or unsettling words, shifting from the innocuous “dew” to the jarring “pox” and the plaintive “broke,” each in candy-colored alphabet beads. Boulet eschews conventional notions of beauty, instead finding meaning and connection in what is often overlooked or discarded, forging a sense of kinship and belonging that affirms the shared nature of our most difficult experiences.

Boulet says, “We all have lived experiences with mental health challenges. Textiles are gentle and healing. My journey has been quite rough at times, but creating art gives me hope and purpose. I hope others gain something positive from this work.”

Drawing inspiration from the distilled, symbolic language of quilts and banners, Boulet’s compositions churn with color, poetry, and play. When he upends and reverses patterns and text, he articulates the complexities of his own lived experience. His works invite viewers to engage personally, offering messages of hope while illuminating the intersections of handicraft, wellness, and identity.

Regina has a special place in Boulet’s inspirational story: the artist was wandering from city to city in psychosis while self-medicating and living marginally, until, with his mother’s intervention, he accepted treatment and began his recovery at Phoenix House in Regina. As Boulet reflects, “The bond between mother and son was stronger than the psychosis,” a sentiment he bravely weaves into his art, sharing both the hardship and the care that shaped his story.

Regina has a special place in Boulet’s inspirational story: the artist was wandering from city to city in psychosis while self-medicating and living marginally, until, with his mother’s intervention, he accepted treatment and began his recovery at Phoenix House in Regina. As Boulet reflects, “The bond between mother and son was stronger than the psychosis,” a sentiment he bravely weaves into his art, sharing both the hardship and the care that shaped his story.

Discover Richard Boulet’s transformative textile art at the Art Gallery of Regina. Join curator Wayne Baerwaldt and the artist for a free public reception on Thursday, November 6, from 5:00-8:00 PM. Admission to the Art Gallery of Regina is always free; the exhibition Art Thou the Accuser of Thy Brethren or Art Thou the Inspiration of Their Heart? continues until January 17, 2026.