When Simone Elizabeth Saunders embarks on a tapestry, she begins by collaging images, by hand or digitally, from the “beautiful milieu of hairstyles, gestures, gazes and poses” she finds in magazines or online. To render them in the vivid colours and intricate details that have earned the Calgarian a solo exhibition at Toronto’s Textile Museum of Canada “u.n.i.t.y,” on until January 29), Saunders employs a punch needle and tufting gun.

Predominantly used for domestic items like rugs and pillows, these tools are as much a statement as the artworks themselves — powerful odes to the Afro diaspora, Black sisterhood and her own personal history that include Four Queens, a quartet of goddesses that riff on Alphonse Mucha’s art nouveau...