Downtown Brampton launching art show of contemporary Caribbean Art

 Contemporary Caribbean Art Exhibition to Launch at PAMA in downtown Brampton, On

BRAMPTON, ON (Wednesday, October 23, 2020) Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) is pleased to partner with the CArt (Caribbean Art) Fair, the Black Artist Network in Dialogue (BAND), and guest curators Karen Carter and Greg Manuel to present the exhibition, when night stirred at sea: Contemporary Caribbean Art opening Oct. 29, first as a virtual exhibition and then on-site once PAMA re-opens to the public. PAMA is inviting the public to a special, virtual launch celebration for the exhibition on Thursday, Oct. 29. Register now to reserve your spot for the event.

Featured Artists:

• Krystal Ball (Jamaican/Canadian, Toronto-based)
• Vanley Burke (Jamaican/British, London-based)
• Katrina Coombs (Jamaican)
• Owen V. Gordon (Jamaican/Canadian, Toronto-based)
• Ila Lovelace-Kuhnert (Trinidadian)
• Christina Leslie (Canadian, Toronto-based)
• Miles Regis (Trinidadian/American, Los Angeles-based)
• Janice Reid (Jamaican/Canadian, Brampton-based)
• Storm Saulter (Jamaican)

This exhibition showcases a selection of artists who were featured in the inaugural CArt (Caribbean Art) Fair in late January and early February 2020 in Mandeville, Jamaica. The Fair seems like another lifetime as a little over a month later the world began to go into isolation facing the uncertainty of a global pandemic.

The rising health crisis made the need for a comprehensive look at Caribbean art seem far less urgent. Then came the rise of the Black Lives Matter global movement, the protests, the conversations about racism, and about how the free labour of indigenous Africans from the transatlantic slave trade was used to build our modern capitalist society. These events shifted the conversations about the role the Caribbean has played in the development of the “new world” making the voice of the artists from this region and the larger diaspora more relevant than ever.

In difficult times, art has been an essential part of human survival. Artists create works that provide everything from a temporary escape to an important interpretive record of the human condition that lasts long past any given challenging time. The artists featured in this exhibition are all connected to the English Caribbean islands. Their works explore themes of identity, community, colonization, globalization, social justice, activism and climate change. The exhibition provides a small window into the complex beauty and inherent tensions of Caribbean cultural identity that connect this region and the larger Caribbean diaspora to the world.

Virtual Programming Highlights

• Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 pm: Exhibition Opening Reception – Register Now
• Thursday, Nov. 26, 7 pm: Art & Book Club in partnership with Brampton Library. This month’s feature book is These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card - Register Now
• Saturday, Nov. 28, 2 pm: Artist Talk - The Photographers, featuring Vanley Burke, Javier Dayes, Christina Leslie, Janice Reid, and Storm Saulter
• Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021: Artist Talk - Painting and Textiles, featuring Krystal Ball, Katrina Coombs,  Owen V. Gordon and Miles Regis

Quotes

“It is a pleasure to be working with such a wide range of artists with connections to the English Caribbean on this exhibition.  During the inaugural CArt fair in Mandeville, Jamaica, in January of this year, we could never have imagined that only nine months later, we would be opening an exhibition with PAMA in a world even more in need of these artists voices.  

To be able to bring some of the artists together for a second time and to a broader international audience at PAMA is wonderful and in keeping with the mandate of CArt to connect Caribbean artists to the broader art world. To be able to do so at this particular moment in history adds yet another significant layer to our belief of the important role artists play in our understanding of the human condition.” Co-curators Karen Carter and Greg Manuel

“We are thrilled to finally see this showcase come to fruition after a year in the making and to welcome guest curators Karen and Greg to the PAMA family. As a Canadian of Jamaican descent, I felt very passionately that this was an important story to tell, now more than ever. We are so very pleased to include local and international Caribbean artists in the exhibit including Brampton’s own Janice Reid.” Rene Nand, Manager, Community and Cultural Engagement at PAMA

Special thanks to our media partners at One Caribbean TV, Toronto Caribbean News, Sauga 960 AM, New Theory Radio, Brampton Guardian, Caledon Enterprise and Mississauga News.

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  Operated by the Region of Peel, PAMA is located at 9 Wellington Street, East in Brampton. Visit pama.peelregion.ca to learn more.

Media Contact:

Erin Fernandes Marketing Coordinator, PAMA M: 416-312-3425  Erin.fernandes@peelregion.ca

Issued by  Stephen Weir stephen@stephenweir.com

Sunday afternoon talk by famous Haida artist / graphic novelist Yahgulanaas

For Immediate Release: Rare Ontario Appearance at PAMA by Artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

  Brampton, ON (August 16, 2019) Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) is pleased to welcome award-winning, British Columbia-based artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas on Sunday, August 18 from 2 – 3 p.m.to discuss his epic graphic work, RED: A Haida Manga, currently on display in the exhibition For A Social Cause.  This talk is included in the price of general admission. Pre-registration is required.

Image credit: Farah Nosh

About the Artist

From: http://mny.ca/en/biography

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an award-winning visual contemporary artist, author and professional speaker. His work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries and private collections across the globe. Institutional collections include the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum and Vancouver Art Gallery. His large sculptural works are part of the public art collection of the Vancouver International Airport, City of Vancouver, City of Kamloops and University of British Columbia. Yahgulanaas's publications include national bestsellers Flight of the Hummingbird and RED, a Haida Manga. When not writing or producing art, Yahgulanaas pulls from his 20 years of political experience in the Council of the Haida Nation and travels the world speaking to businesses, institutions and communities about social justice, community building, communication and change management. His most recent talks include the American Museum of Natural History and TEDxVancouver.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Canadian b. 1954, RED, 2008, Watercolour, ink on paper, 168 cm x 381 cm, Private collection of Michael and Inna O'Brian. © Michael Nicholl Yahgulanaas, 2019. Brm
His work RED: A Haida Manga on view now at PAMA was first manifested in 2008 as a large-scale, six-tiered band of 18 panels each, across a nearly three-and-a-half-meter-long composite of hand-painted watercolour and ink drawings. The drawings were reproduced in a scripted graphic novel of the same name in 2009.

The work follows the life of an orphaned young boy named Red and his sister Jaada who live in the peaceful village of Kiokaathli on a secluded island in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of British Columbia. Their idyllic existence is cut short when a band of raiders attack the village, abduct Jaada and successfully escape without a trace.  Separated from his sister, Red grows up alone to become a leader of his community all the while consumed by rage and vengeance. When he unexpectedly stumbles upon the chance of rescuing Jaada, he will do anything and stop at nothing to bring her back home without thinking about the recourse of his action. In the process Red kills an innocent man and eventually ends his own life.

This action-packed tragedy combines traditional Pacific Northwest Coast Haida imagery and oral narrative with Manga (popular contemporary graphics found in Japanese comics and cartooning) to create a unique hybrid style that has come to define the work of its artist-author.  Yahgulanaas’ distinct brand is an integrated culmination of his studies of the artistic methods of his ancestors and Asian influences including the teaching he received from Chinese brush painter Cai Ben Kwon.  Learn more about this dynamic work on view now at PAMA. 

Issued by Stephen Weir - stephen@stephenweir.com 416-489-5868

on behalf of PAMA

KOMAGATA MARU and other true stories in Brampton

Tough Stories are an Important Part of Canada's Past

A nation’s history can hurt. This spring there are exhibitions at the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) in downtown Brampton that explore tough stories of Canada’s past as the nation celebrates its 150^th year. These are questionable historical events that are told for learning and reflection and as catalysts for positive change for this country’s collective future.

Passengers aboard Komagata Maru in 1914, Vancouver Public Library.

KOMAGATA MARU: A JOURNEY TO CANADA

Runs until June 11, 2017

 Last month the city of Brampton named on park after the ill-fated Komagata Maru.  Why would a landlocked city pay homage to a tramp steamer that sailed the North Pacific a 103 years ago?

The story begins in May 1914, when the Japanese registered ship, the Komagata Maru arrived at the Port of Vancouver. Her passenger list included 376 British subjects (most were Sikh, Hindu and Muslims) from India who wanted to immigrate to Canada. They were and all were denied entry.  Now in the 21^st century the Canadian government has apologized to the descendants of that voyage. Canada Post has issued a stamp in their honour, and here in Brampton the new park and the PAMA exhibition are key to exploring racism and are part of  the museum and gallery’s Canada 150 program.

Upper Canada Gazette 19 August 1795 N31 ARCHIVES OF ONTARIO

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Runs Until - September 4, 2017

Most people don’t realize that Black enslavement existed here in Canada. But it did from the 1600s until it was abolished in 1834. This exhibition, presented in partnership with the Archives of Ontario, looks at untold stories that are now being told for our understanding of true Canadian history.

THE BLACK COMMUNITY IN PEEL IN THE 19TH CENTURY

On now - Sept. 4, 2017

This small but impactful exhibition shares some of the results of PAMA’s ongoing research into the history of Black residents of Peel in the 1800s. To date, this research has raises more questions than answers. However, they are essential questions to ask in order to better understand our history and our communities.

JAMES SIMON MISHIBINIJIMA: RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL PAINTINGS

Opening June 29 – October 15, 2017

          

This early summer exhibition will turn the spotlight on First Nations artist James Simon Mishibinijima. The 63-year old painter lives and works on the Wikwemikong Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island. Though given the name James Alexander Simon by the missionaries who could not pronounce his native name, he proudly signs his work Mishibinijima.

James Simon Mishibinijima, Angels came to me              

Simon Mishibinijima, @the artist

There are 45 paintings in the show and they are all about Mishibinijima’s mother and her experiences while she was a student at a Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. They present in symbolic forms her trauma as a student.

WE ARE HERE:  THE STORY OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN PEEL REGION

This permanent exhibition was created in collaboration with an Aboriginal Advisory Committee in Peel.

Aboriginal people have lived in Peel for generations, but, their personal stories, music and art aren’t known by many outside of the Aboriginal community. This exhibition changes that - visitors are invited to come into the lodge and listen. The show also looks at the genocide, which took place within the residential school system.

PAMA is a located at the corner of Wellington Street and Main Street, opposite Brampton's City Hall. We are open seven days a week except on some civic and statutory holidays. Check the website for hours of operation https://pama.peelregion.ca/en/visitpama/hoursandadmissionfees.asp. 

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