Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Mohammeds
An exhibition and talk by artist in residence Sandra Brewster
Thursday 4 April, 2013, 7 to 10 pm, at Alice Yard
Sandra Brewster has been artist in residence at Alice Yard during February and March 2013. While in Port of Spain, she has created a new body of work, Mohammeds, which has evolved from her ongoing Smiths series. On Thursday 4 April, to mark the end of her residency, Brewster will show this new work at Alice Yard, and give a short artist’s talk. The exhibition will be open to the public from 7 to 10 pm on 4 April, and from 6 to 9 pm on 5 April.
Brewster writes:
“I’ve enjoyed playing in the Yard this last couple of months, travelling, making friends, and learning about Trinidad. Some of the results of this play will be installed throughout the space, complemented by a talk on how my work has started to travel in other directions at Alice Yard.
“Among the series I’ve worked on, the Smiths have been a recurring theme. The name Smith, a large section of a North American telephone directory, conjures up ideas of sameness and commonality and invisibility, as there are so many. Offering an element of humour, I use the name to mock the notion of a monolithic Black community — of course not all Smiths are related, or look or act the same. The Smiths are afro-headed characters that I present as paintings on slabs of wood, their bodies clothed in solid colour and their faces replaced with the Smith section of the phone directory. I continue to use them in various visual narratives and pieces that offer a questioning around concerns of identity and representation.
“Now the Smiths from Toronto have turned into Trinidadian Mohammeds. I’ve been playing with the components of the form, using them in new narratives, and engaging environments and people with 3D interpretations. I regard this experience, very much inspired by this place, as another new beginning to my practice.”
About the artist:
Sandra Brewster is a Canadian artist of Caribbean ancestry. She is a recipient of numerous grants to develop projects. Her work has been published in several journals and magazines: Of Note, The Walrus, Small Axe, Chimurenga, MIX, and NKA, among others. Recent exhibitions include 28 Days, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto; Serious Play, SPACE, London, UK; (Re) Visions, The Print Studio, Hamilton, Ontario; Listen Installation, Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario; Fortune Tellers, Five Myles Gallery, New York; and Fleeting Face, A Space Gallery, Toronto. Her practice also includes work as an arts educator/community arts facilitator, and she has coordinated numerous exhibitions involving Toronto artists.
This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council
Thursday 4 April, 2013, 7 to 10 pm, at Alice Yard
Sandra Brewster has been artist in residence at Alice Yard during February and March 2013. While in Port of Spain, she has created a new body of work, Mohammeds, which has evolved from her ongoing Smiths series. On Thursday 4 April, to mark the end of her residency, Brewster will show this new work at Alice Yard, and give a short artist’s talk. The exhibition will be open to the public from 7 to 10 pm on 4 April, and from 6 to 9 pm on 5 April.
Brewster writes:
“I’ve enjoyed playing in the Yard this last couple of months, travelling, making friends, and learning about Trinidad. Some of the results of this play will be installed throughout the space, complemented by a talk on how my work has started to travel in other directions at Alice Yard.
“Among the series I’ve worked on, the Smiths have been a recurring theme. The name Smith, a large section of a North American telephone directory, conjures up ideas of sameness and commonality and invisibility, as there are so many. Offering an element of humour, I use the name to mock the notion of a monolithic Black community — of course not all Smiths are related, or look or act the same. The Smiths are afro-headed characters that I present as paintings on slabs of wood, their bodies clothed in solid colour and their faces replaced with the Smith section of the phone directory. I continue to use them in various visual narratives and pieces that offer a questioning around concerns of identity and representation.
“Now the Smiths from Toronto have turned into Trinidadian Mohammeds. I’ve been playing with the components of the form, using them in new narratives, and engaging environments and people with 3D interpretations. I regard this experience, very much inspired by this place, as another new beginning to my practice.”
About the artist:
Sandra Brewster is a Canadian artist of Caribbean ancestry. She is a recipient of numerous grants to develop projects. Her work has been published in several journals and magazines: Of Note, The Walrus, Small Axe, Chimurenga, MIX, and NKA, among others. Recent exhibitions include 28 Days, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto; Serious Play, SPACE, London, UK; (Re) Visions, The Print Studio, Hamilton, Ontario; Listen Installation, Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario; Fortune Tellers, Five Myles Gallery, New York; and Fleeting Face, A Space Gallery, Toronto. Her practice also includes work as an arts educator/community arts facilitator, and she has coordinated numerous exhibitions involving Toronto artists.
This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Verse to Converse
Friday / March 15 / 2013 / 7pm / Alice Yard
Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta
Hosted by Artist in Residence Sandra Brewster, a reading and discussion with Sri Lankan poet Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta, playing on the links between the Arts and History, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Krisantha, who is visiting from Sri Lanka, has read in Colombo, Beijing, New York, San Francisco, London, and Toronto. He will read from his latest work, Transfixion in Twilight. He is presently compiling: A Very Personal English History of the World. His books of poetry include: Cheqpoint in Heaven (2005), Aay Wha’ Kinda Indian Arr U? (1997), The 52nd State of Amnesia (1992), The Only Minority is the Bourgeoisie (1985), and Domestic Bliss (1981).
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sandra Brewster, artist in residence
1 February to 31 March, 2013
Sandra Brewster, Alice Yard's current artist in residence, is a multi-media artist creating work (drawings, paintings, video and mixed media) that engages issues of race, identity, representation, and memory. Her current focus is African-Canadians born in North America and those who arrived in North America from the Caribbean during the 1960s and 70s. At times, she references old photographs and recreates elements using painting, drawing, and gel transfers, juxtaposing imagery to provide a dialogue through contrasts or likenesses. In this work she visually represents a time or a memory and provides a platform to tell stories of “back home”. In other pieces Brewster presents portraits of individuals that challenge stereotypes and perceptions. Her ongoing series Smiths questions prevalent assertions about the existence of a monolithic Black Community.
 |
| Untitled (Smiths), mixed media on wood, 48x60 in., 2011 |
Brewster is a
recipient of numerous grants to develop projects. Her work has been
published in several journals and magazines: Of Note, The Walrus, Small Axe,
Chimurenga, MIX, and NKA, among others. Recent exhibitions include 28
Days, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto; Serious Play, SPACE, London, UK; (Re) Visions, The Print Studio, Hamilton, Ontario; Listen
Installation, Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University,
Waterloo, Ontario; Fortune Tellers, Five Myles Gallery, New York; and
Fleeting Face, A Space Gallery, Toronto. Her
practice also includes work as an arts educator/community arts
facilitator, and she has coordinated numerous exhibitions involving
Toronto artists.
See a conversation by Sally Frater on Brewster's work here.
This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council
Thursday, February 14, 2013
A conversation with Pinky & Emigrante
Thursday 21 February, 7 pm, at Alice Yard
Artists Luis Vasquez La Roche and Alicia Milne have been producing work together in the public space in Trinidad since 2011. Their tag, P&E, short for Pinky & Emigrante, is a playful reference to their shared interests in ideas of home and perception. While they both maintain individual artistic practices, they also collaborate in creating street installations and pastings, zines, exhibitions, and murals. They have participated in the Trinidad leg of the Urban Heartbeat mural project in the Queen’s Park Savannah (March 2012) and were specially invited to send work for an installation of their street pastings at the WOMA exhibition in Grenada (April 2012). In July 2013 they will participate in the Open Ateliers Zuidoost Artists in Residence (OAZO AIR) programme in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In their talk at Alice Yard, Vasquez La Roche and Milne will discuss their recent collaborative work and their experience of working in the public space. All are invited.
About the artists:
Luis Vasquez La Roche was born in 1983 in Caracas, Venezuela. He moved to Trinidad and Tobago in 2002. He later studied visual arts at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. His works are explorations of personal experiences and his new adopted space and culture. He has participated in several group shows, such as Erotic Art Week TT (2010), Mensajes Positivos in Chile (2011), and PFC (pon una foto en la calle) in Venezuela (2012). In 2012 he had his first solo exhibition in Trinidad, titled The Search – La Busqueda.
Alicia Milne is a Trinidadian artist who enjoys working with tactile materials. She also has an interest in manipulating moving images. Her drawings, plaster, ceramic and video works have been exhibited in Trinidad, Grenada, and the United States. After a voluntary sabbatical while settling into teaching art in a local secondary school, she is currently working on a series that merges digital and drawn images on tactile surfaces.
In their talk at Alice Yard, Vasquez La Roche and Milne will discuss their recent collaborative work and their experience of working in the public space. All are invited.
About the artists:
Luis Vasquez La Roche was born in 1983 in Caracas, Venezuela. He moved to Trinidad and Tobago in 2002. He later studied visual arts at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. His works are explorations of personal experiences and his new adopted space and culture. He has participated in several group shows, such as Erotic Art Week TT (2010), Mensajes Positivos in Chile (2011), and PFC (pon una foto en la calle) in Venezuela (2012). In 2012 he had his first solo exhibition in Trinidad, titled The Search – La Busqueda.
Alicia Milne is a Trinidadian artist who enjoys working with tactile materials. She also has an interest in manipulating moving images. Her drawings, plaster, ceramic and video works have been exhibited in Trinidad, Grenada, and the United States. After a voluntary sabbatical while settling into teaching art in a local secondary school, she is currently working on a series that merges digital and drawn images on tactile surfaces.
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