Hannah Traore Gallery is pleased to present Love Letter, an ode to Toronto, Canada— The city where all sixteen artists in this exhibition live and work. With works by Sandra Brewster, Jorian Charlton, June Clark, Delali Cofie, Sameer Farooq, Oreka James, Bushra Junaid, Natia Lemay, Adewole Louis, Kent Monkman, Native Art Department International, Isabel Okoro, Chiedza Pasipanodya, Tushar Patel, Curtiss Randolph, and Winsom Winsom, this exhibition connects artists across generations, some of whom were born in Toronto, and others for whom Toronto is an adopted home. Recognized as one of the most multicultural cities in the world, each of these artists reflect a complex and nuanced relationship to a place that is at once a major metropolitan city, a site of intersecting diasporas, and a territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.
While these artists do not use Toronto as the subject of their work, this exhibition approaches the city as a textured, eclectic, and fruitful environment for creative practice. Translated into various forms—in moments, connected by photographic processes, archival materials, and saturated palettes—much of the work on view considers place as an expression or extension of identity, explores lesser-known histories of Canada’s past, and honors the pre-colonial cultures of the country’s many provinces. Isabel Okoro’s Fond Traces of Fluid Landscapes series, which includes Runnin’, depicts scenes of Toronto alongside those from Lagos, Mexico City, and New York. Oroko explains, “weaving these distinct points in time into a single extended sequence, the work explores the converging and diverging ways we experience people and space”. Sandra Brewster’s series, Take a Little Trip, clips together interviews by artists and activists from Nina Simone to Claudia Jones to “allud[e] to the unfixable nature of their being and their tendency towards movement—geographically and imaginatively—while expressing themselves in ways that question perceived notions of monolithic Black communities.” For Bushra Junaid, art is a means of layering “fragmentary records, oral histories, and visual culture to create images and narratives that restore presence and complexity to lives and histories that have been overlooked or obscured.”
In forming a dynamic portrait of Toronto, this exhibition brings together artists at unique, pivotal moments in their careers. For Adewole Louis—who just graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design—works created during the formative years of his practice are devoted to exploring “how materials’ aesthetic meanings are absorbed into the creation of form, offering a way to understand larger systems of cultural production. Sculptural, architectural, and historical references are manipulated through material decisions to highlight elements that relate to the urban context. Tensions between violence and protection, fine art objects and consumable objects are made material in an attempt to examine our complicity in the structures that dominate cultural production.” For Kent Monkman—based between Toronto and New York, where he was commissioned to make two colossal paintings for The Met’s Great Hall in 2021—this prolific period in his practice deepens and expands the recurring themes across his portfolio, including his gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, whose “story and the histories embedded within it are grounded in our research and talks with Indigenous scholars and Knowledge Keepers…. Their frameworks helped us to provide a critical look at the shared history of these lands and re-examine the experience of life on this continent from a perspective of the traditional keepers of the land now called Canada.”
Just an hour-and-a-half plane ride or an eight-hour road trip between Toronto and New York, this exhibition encourages a more sustained dialogue linking these nearby North American cities. Curated by Hannah Traore—proudly born and raised in Toronto—this exhibition is a love letter that reflects the gallerist’s personal devotion to the creative landscape of each city, encouraging a rich and evolving correspondence between them.
Hannah Traore Gallery is pleased to present Love Letter, an ode to Toronto, Canada— The city where all sixteen artists in this exhibition live and work. With works by Sandra Brewster, Jorian Charlton, June Clark, Delali Cofie, Sameer Farooq, Oreka James, Bushra Junaid, Natia Lemay, Adewole Louis, Kent Monkman, Native Art Department International, Isabel Okoro, Chiedza Pasipanodya, Tushar Patel, Curtiss Randolph, and Winsom Winsom, this exhibition connects artists across generations, some of whom were born in Toronto, and others for whom Toronto is an adopted home. Recognized as one of the most multicultural cities in the world, each of these artists reflect a complex and nuanced relationship to a place that is at once a major metropolitan city, a site of intersecting diasporas, and a territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.
While these artists do not use Toronto as the subject of their work, this exhibition approaches the city as a textured, eclectic, and fruitful environment for creative practice. Translated into various forms—in moments, connected by photographic processes, archival materials, and saturated palettes—much of the work on view considers place as an expression or extension of identity, explores lesser-known histories of Canada’s past, and honors the pre-colonial cultures of the country’s many provinces. Isabel Okoro’s Fond Traces of Fluid Landscapes series, which includes Runnin’, depicts scenes of Toronto alongside those from Lagos, Mexico City, and New York. Oroko explains, “weaving these distinct points in time into a single extended sequence, the work explores the converging and diverging ways we experience people and space”. Sandra Brewster’s series, Take a Little Trip, clips together interviews by artists and activists from Nina Simone to Claudia Jones to “allud[e] to the unfixable nature of their being and their tendency towards movement—geographically and imaginatively—while expressing themselves in ways that question perceived notions of monolithic Black communities.” For Bushra Junaid, art is a means of layering “fragmentary records, oral histories, and visual culture to create images and narratives that restore presence and complexity to lives and histories that have been overlooked or obscured.”
In forming a dynamic portrait of Toronto, this exhibition brings together artists at unique, pivotal moments in their careers. For Adewole Louis—who just graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design—works created during the formative years of his practice are devoted to exploring “how materials’ aesthetic meanings are absorbed into the creation of form, offering a way to understand larger systems of cultural production. Sculptural, architectural, and historical references are manipulated through material decisions to highlight elements that relate to the urban context. Tensions between violence and protection, fine art objects and consumable objects are made material in an attempt to examine our complicity in the structures that dominate cultural production.” For Kent Monkman—based between Toronto and New York, where he was commissioned to make two colossal paintings for The Met’s Great Hall in 2021—this prolific period in his practice deepens and expands the recurring themes across his portfolio, including his gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, whose “story and the histories embedded within it are grounded in our research and talks with Indigenous scholars and Knowledge Keepers…. Their frameworks helped us to provide a critical look at the shared history of these lands and re-examine the experience of life on this continent from a perspective of the traditional keepers of the land now called Canada.”
Just an hour-and-a-half plane ride or an eight-hour road trip between Toronto and New York, this exhibition encourages a more sustained dialogue linking these nearby North American cities. Curated by Hannah Traore—proudly born and raised in Toronto—this exhibition is a love letter that reflects the gallerist’s personal devotion to the creative landscape of each city, encouraging a rich and evolving correspondence between them.
