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

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.