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.

Come With It, Black Man

A documentary on calypsonian Black Stalin

Thursday 31 January, 7 pm, at Alice Yard

Filmmaker Tamara Tam-Cruikshank will host a screening of her documentary film Come With It, Black Man: A Biography of Black Stalin’s Consciousness at Alice Yard, followed by an informal conversation. All are invited.

Read a review of the film by B.C. Pires in the Trinidad Guardian here.

Collaborative Gestures

WDD25/The Cult of the Woman

Saturday 19 January, 2 to 7 pm, at Alice Yard

On Saturday 19 January, Alice Yard will host two informal events examining creative collaboration:

From 2 to 5 pm, the We Does Draw group will meet with artist Christopher Cozier for a conversation about his Development Patterns project, which invites open participation in his upcoming exhibition In Development at David Krut Projects in New York.

From 5 to 7 pm, Barbadian artist Shanika Grimes — currently artist in residence at Alice Yard — and her Trinidadian counterpart Michelle Isava will present the collaborative performance The Cult of the Woman, investigating “how women indoctrinate other women into submission to men” and the relationship of food and gender roles in both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Both events are open to the public and all are invited.

More Than Just a Place to Sit

An exhibition of new objects by Marlon Darbeau

11 to 15 December at Granderson Lab (a project of Alice Yard), 24 Erthig Road, Belmont

Designer Marlon Darbeau will show his Peera for the first time in Trinidad and Tobago, along with other new design objects, at Granderson Lab in Belmont. First shown in the Global Africa Project exhibition (2010) at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Peera is a reinterpretation of a familiar and ubiquitous little bench. Usually made by their users and constructed out of wood, peerahs are used for sitting on, and as a step up to reach items on a shelf. Says Darbeau, “I remember seeing my father sitting on a peerah while polishing his shoes or while painting the mailboxes he made. To this day he still has two of them.” 

Combining aluminium and cedar, Darbeau’s Peera is a contemporary and beautifully designed interpretation of a very mundane object. Writing on the Interior Design blog, one critic commented: “It is wonderful to see such forward-thinking design coming from parts of the world that the design world traditionally glazes over; Darbeau’s work is locally inspired, locally functional, and beautifully combines smart design aesthetics with local resources.”

More Than Just a Place to Sit: An Exhibition of New Objects by Marlon Darbeau opens on Tuesday 11 December, 2012, 7 to 9 pm, and continues from Wednesday 12 to Saturday 15 December, 11 am to 6 pm daily, at Granderson Lab, 24 Erthig Road, Belmont.

Alternative Open Studio 2012

For two days in December 2012, Alice Yard will host an Alternative Open Studio event, featuring work by four Trinidadian designers working in jewellery, fashion accessories, and woodwork.
This is a satellite event of the Style Spirit Fashion Weekend 2012.

Friday 7 December, 4 to 9 pm
Saturday 8 December, 10 am to 5 pm

For more information, contact:
Janice: 769 0771
Lupe: 490 8853
Jade: 325 8524
Richard: 726 4010

The Ballad of Francisco Bobadilla

An installation by Marlon Griffith

31 October to 2 November at Granderson Lab (a project of Alice Yard), 24 Erthig Road, Belmont

Artist’s conversation on 3 November at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook

V.S. Naipaul’s 1962 travel narrative The Middle Passage begins with his return to Trinidad on board “the Spanish immigrant ship Francisco Bobadilla.” Marlon Griffith borrows the name of the vessel for his new installation project, which runs for three consecutive nights (Wednesday 31 October to Friday 2 November, 7 to 10 pm) at Granderson Lab in Belmont (a project of Alice Yard).

In The Ballad of Francisco Bobadilla, Griffith explores the experience of returning to Port of Spain — and the Belmont neighbourhood where he grew up — after an absence of three years. The artist contemplates the ways the city has changed, the ways it hasn’t, and how his own work changes in different geographical and social contexts. It involves “learning to be comfortable in an uncomfortable place.”

On Saturday 3 November, from 7 pm at Alice Yard, Griffith will discuss the evolution of the project and his recent work, in conversation with Christopher Cozier. The evening will also mark Alice Yard’s 6th anniversary as an independent space and network for experiment and collaboration.

All are invited.

Images above: details from the artist’s sketchbook 

Allen Prize fundraiser

The Allen Prize for Young Writers is a programme supporting budding writers aged 12 to 19 in Trinidad and Tobago. On Saturday 27 October, from 9 am to 2 pm, Alice Yard will host an Allen Prize fundraising event: