Black Every Day

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Installation view of “Black Every Day,” 2021

at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (photo courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta)

As news headlines flash past at accelerating speeds, vital issues are soon forgotten. Black Lives Matter raised awareness of Black culture and racial injustice, but what happens when the news cycle moves on? A small Edmonton-based organization, 5 Artists 1 Love, led by curator and producer Darren Jordan, ensures that Black identity, pride and experience are not just another media trend, but an ongoing celebration of visual art, music, spoken word and performance.

Until now, the organization has put on an annual exhibition featuring five Black artists during Black History Month in February. This year, on the 15th anniversary, the show is making a big splash. It has moved from its usual spot, the community gallery in the basement of the Art Gallery of Alberta, to a prominent second-floor location. It features 15 local African-Canadian artists with roots from as close as Amber Valley, Alta., and as far away as Angola. 

The show embraces diversity in several ways. A strikingly broad selection of established and emerging artists present works that range from large murals and human-sized sculpture to oil paintings and photographs. Bodies of work hang in sets – like mini solo shows – while labels offer far more than titles: they guide viewers into the mind of each artist. Walking through the show feels like a conversation.

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Richard Lipscombe, “I Can Fly,” 2019

oil on canvas, 24″x 20″ (courtesy the artist; photo courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

The exhibition is less a formal discussion and more a deeply personal take on being Black in Canada. Artists address intimate topics such as the thrill of a first date – expressed through painterly abstraction in Jubilee by Hollee McKerchar – or scenes from daily life, lovingly depicted in Richard Lipscombe’s oil paintings. But many artists tackle social alienation, historic injustices and the lived realities of racism. 

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Judy BL Robinson, “Maafa,” 2012

30″ x 30″ acrylic on canvas (courtesy of artist; photo courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

For instance, Judy BL Robinson, who grew up during the cultural revolution in Grenada, is an activist and human rights campaigner whose art is a form of manifesto. Her symbolic references are subtle and take time to decipher.

In Maafa, a Swahili term for terrible events, she began – as she does with all her paintings – with a black background. A shark swims like a ghostly presence in the depths of the sea. Red blood dripping from its mouth stands out in the darkness. The bodies of sick and dying slaves, tossed overboard and sinking beneath the water, are not depicted literally. Instead, they are shown as the tally marks slave traders logged in their financial tables. The beauty of this painting contrasts with the evil it evokes, the horrors of slavery reduced to banal economics.

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Trevor “Curly” Peters, “Rest in Piece* // Among The Rust,” 2021

acrylic paint, 16' x 26' 8" (courtesy of artist; photo courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

Graffiti artists, marginalized and working in stealth on darkened streets, were initially shunned by the art world, but found ways to communicate. Trevor ‘CURLY’ Peters’ mural, Rest In Piece*// Among The Rust, offers a personal, even mystical, take. A self-taught graffiti and fine artist of Jamaican and Cree ancestry, he honours a counter-culture legacy by referencing hand-drawn hip hop party flyers from New York in the 1970s and 1980s. His mural is not a party invitation, but a poem that draws viewers into a graffiti artist's mind. Looking at it, we are enveloped in swirling words and images that seek expression. As one fragment says, “… so we wrote it on the wall for all to see in the shadows." 

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Raneece Buddan, “Beneath the Surface,” (detail), 2020

wood, synthetic hair and fabric,  62″ x 22″ x 19″ (courtesy of artist; photo courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

Adjusting to a new country is challenging for anyone, but all the more so for racialized people like Jamaican-born artist Raneece Buddan, who arrived in Canada in 2015. Her search for identity – and her sense that differences run deeper than skin colour – permeate her mixed-media sculpture. For instance, Beneath the Surface, began as the trunk of an old tree. Its bark looks like wrinkled skin, but there are also polished undulations that glisten sensuously. A deep crack filled with fabric cuts through the tree. It’s hard to decide if the colourfully patterned Jamaican fabric, symbolic of Buddan’s ancestry, is hiding in the depths or bursting forth.

The quality and vitality of the subject matter and the insights evident in such works pose a disturbing question. Why are only a handful of these artists well-known, widely exhibited and reviewed by local writers? This question is less an accusation – as a longtime arts writer in Edmonton, I share responsibility – than an aspiration. After this exhibition, thanks to the efforts of 5 Artists 1 Love, it looks like things will change. ■  

Black Every Day at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton from June 19 to Sept. 12, 2021. The show features work by artists Shumba Ash, Raneece Buddan, Shoko Cesar, Keon Courtney, jay Dontae, Richard Lipscombe, AJA Louden, Lisa Mayes, Hollee McKerchar, Trevor ‘CURLY’ Peters, Judy BL Robinson, Braxton Santiago-Garneau, Emily Schouten, Shaihiem Small and Fetsum Teclemariam.

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