Opening in February 2026 is Whispers of a Peregrina by local artist Patty Leinemann!
Whispers of a Peregrina breathes life into the experience of personal loss, transition, and renewal. It reflects the threads of Patty Leinemann’s life, capturing emotional endurance through intergenerational grief.
This body of work began eighteen years ago, 900 kms through Spain’s Camino de Santiago de Compostela. With each step, she navigated through mental chatter, seeking a new direction. The recollection of this journey now informs her current practice—site-specific installations within her to-be sold family homestead.
Questions of letting go resurface. Careers, relationships, even the echoing ordeals of her parents: the displacement of her mother during WWII, her father’s migration to Canada with only $5 in his pocket, and both their death anniversaries. Leinemann’s father always told her to stop worrying because it wasted energy. But fears continue to ripple in, contradicting her moment of standing strong at the end of the Camino.
Cyanoprints made over a year of every plant from her mother's garden, along with the collaged flowers, are both documentation and ceremony. The cyanotype silhouette captures her hugging the family homestead goodbye, while the sewing needles symbolize both pain and the labour of mending. Her use of wood and cloth is significant because of the symbolism of these materials within her parents’ lives. This entire body of work fits into the family hope chest, ready for departure, ready for moving on.
Leinemann's artwork transforms private loss into a shared human experience. The exhibition is a living legacy—an invitation to begin again. She dedicates this installation to all those who are silently grieving.
Patty Leinemann’s artistic process is exemplified by Socrates’ words: “I know that I know nothing.” She begins with an idea and then ventures through many phases of “I Don’t Know.” Interested in relation to place, she integrates themes of family and memory into site-specific installations using a variety of media, including found and personal items. Leinemann has presented solo shows at the Alternator, Kelowna Community Theatre, Casa Lü Sur in Mexico City, and two exhibitions in the house her father built. She completed her BFA at UBCO in 2018 and continues to exhibit artwork internationally.