Varvara Kronberg

About the practice

Varvara is a textile artist, curator, and designer based in Vancouver, BC. Across more than fifteen years of international practice — in Russia, Finland, Europe, and Canada — she has worked through every stage of the textile and apparel lifecycle, from traditional and jacquard weaving to fabric development, pattern-making, and product design. Her artwork transforms discarded and domestic materials — fashion-industry textile waste, vintage frames, donated yarns — into layered, hand- and machine-stitched paintings and tapestries. Two ongoing bodies of work anchor her practice: Painting Waste | Textile Stories (2017–), textile paintings made from upcycled fashion waste, and Social Ryijy (2013–), a project in textile storytelling and community building. Since 2017 she has curated solo and group exhibitions on sustainability, textile waste, and the impact of war on people and the environment, and she runs community design, weaving, care and repair and storytelling workshops through her Vancouver studio. She is an Aalto University Alumni Ambassador for British Columbia. She holds an MA in Fashion and Clothing Design from Aalto University (Helsinki) and studied clothing design at Kosygin Moscow State Textile University. Her professional background includes product design at Lululemon and sustainability-focused research at Aalto, and her work has been published in Bloomsbury’s Zero Waste Fashion Design (2016, 2023) and the Fashion Studies Journal. The art practice, and unique artworks made of textile waste from other brands and artisans - are to bring attention and question our human wasteful practices. The repairs, creative alterations, and teaching classes on radical care and repair - is to support sustainability movement in community. Upcycled one of a kind designs - is to support slow fashion movement and reuse what was produced already. Varvara is also training for art therapy path, with primary focus on textile methodology. Varvara is actively collaborating with other artists and brands to support co-creation and help with other creatives' practices. Program development, workshop facilitations, and community events with film screenings. Consultancy & commissions.