Spence Gallery Features African, Caribbean, Latin American Artists
By Ingrid Walter
Pride Contributing Writer
For the first time in Toronto, art lovers will have an opportunity to see paintings from African, Caribbean and Latin American artists under one roof, at the newly-established Spence Gallery, on Markham Street, located in Toronto's trendy Mirvish Village (Bathurst and Bloor).
"It's the first of its kind in our city," says gallery owner Joan Spence, who curates her first show with a collection of pieces from three artists, each representing what Spence describes as "contemporary expressions of Caribbean, Latin and African culture".
On display through the month of July, are works by: Pedro Alderete, an artist of Cuban Canadian decent; Olivier Girard of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Sabina Theobalds, a Canadian of St. Lucian origin.
The gallery is the brainchild of Spence, a Jamaican Canadian whose love of art took her into artist enclaves and galleries across the globe. A specialist in international development, Spence says her travels to various parts of Africa made her look at art from that region in a new way.
"While in Kenya, I saw a lot of really great art, paintings and drawings. It took my mind away from the traditional three-dimensional view of African art.
"While in Nairobi, I saw paintings from Ugandan, Tanzanian, as well as South African, artists on display, and while in South Africa, I had the opportunity to see artists from Zimbabwe and even the Congo. "During the 1990s, I travelled within the Caribbean and viewed the works of a number of Cuban and Jamaican artists," says Spence.
Spence adds she is determined to showcase, at her gallery, the works of painters from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, as opposed to putting on display the traditional three-dimensional carvings and pottery that have come to symbolize the kind of art many associate with these regions.
She also points out that, except for large exhibits on the works of Europeans like Picasso and Modigliani, which she is quick to point out are artists heavily influenced by African art, we rarely see much other than local artists on display at galleries in the city.
She plans to change that by presenting the works of artists who live and work in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The current exhibit, says Spence, embodies the gallery's intended focus, which is to display established and emerging international and Canadian artists. Olivier Girard's paintings, on display throughout July, showcase ink on paper. His work has been described as meticulous, as well as a form of artistic rendering that conjures up an eclectic mix of abstract representations of everything, from architecture, to the human body, to even simple biological forms.
Pedro Alderete's paintings are of horses in motion and utilize a range of bright and dark colours. Sabina Theobalds, who is an emerging artist, presents a group of paintings that represent various forms of flora from the Caribbean, as well as African-influenced abstracts.
The Spence Gallery opens from Wednesday through Sunday. Exhibits planned for the future include works from three Trinidadian artists, a number of Cuban painters, as well as artists whose works include photography, as well as other media.