Born in
Montreal, Quebec, Wright Cheney studied visual arts at
Mount Allison University (1983) and Critical Studies in Education at the
University of New Brunswick (2003). She teaches at the
New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. Her
textile art considers "themes pertaining to natural history and domestic labour". For example, one of her exhibits,
Cellar at the
Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton and the
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in
Halifax, featured "hundreds of rats created from recycled vintage fur coats".
Trespass, featured at the
New Brunswick Museum, comprised individual animals and insects such as coyotes, fleas, and a
giant squid, all incorporated into other exhibits throughout the museum.
Disorderly Creatures at
Rodman Hall Art Centre in
St. Catharines,
Ontario "transfigured insects from signs of shabby housekeeping into objects of beauty and power" by
embroidering insects onto linens. Wright Cheney was one of the artists included in the 2012 "Oh, Canada" exhibit of contemporary Canadian art at the
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art: her contribution was a "giant, rose-encrusted grizzly bear". Wright Cheney won the Strathbutler Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2004 and was elected to the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2010. She received the 2013
Lieutenant-Governor's Award for High Achievement in Visual Arts. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Museum, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and the Canadian government's
Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. ==References==