Migration, Memory, and Being

Toronto artist Sandra Brewster foregrounds Black diasporic experience in her multidisciplinary practice. Born to parents who emigrated from Guyana to Toronto in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brewster examines the effects of migration on her family and other individuals of Caribbean and African descent in her community. Working with photography, video, drawing, and painting, she uncovers the complexities of diasporic identities while challenging fixed notions of Blackness. This exhibition features works made by Brewster over the past fifteen years, from her early charcoal drawings to the photo-based gel transfers that comprise her widely acclaimed recent series Blur, 2017–19. Through her highly evocative and multilayered images, Brewster reveals how her subjects are shaped by memories, stories, and histories that encompass great spans of distance and time.

 

Click here to read the essay that accompanies this online exhibition.


  • A Trace | Evidence of time past

    A Trace | Evidence of time past 2017

  • Heirloom

    Heirloom 2017

  • Hiking Black Creek

    Hiking Black Creek 2018

  • Blacksmith 2 / Blacksmith 3

    Blacksmith 2 / Blacksmith 3 2020

  • From Life

    From Life 2015

  • Untitled (Blur)

    Untitled (Blur) 2017–19

  • Untitled (Blur)

    Untitled (Blur) 2015–16

  • Fela Sleeping

    Fela Sleeping 2006

  • Sacrificial lambs leave stains on clean hands

    Sacrificial lambs leave stains on clean hands 2008

  • Token (Monkey Jar) / Token (Powder Puff Box)

    Token (Monkey Jar) / Token (Powder Puff Box) 2019

  • Calabash Decorated

    Calabash Decorated 2018

  • Medicinal Herbs / Oxford Dictionary

    Medicinal Herbs / Oxford Dictionary 2018 / 2019

  • Place in Reflection

    Place in Reflection 2016

  • Place in Reflection (detail)

    Place in Reflection (detail) 2016

More Online Exhibitions

Download Download