Pamela Edmonds’ Essay on Sandra Brewster Published by the Art Canada Institute
January 24, 2022
On January 21, 2022, the Art Canada Institute (ACI) launched a new online exhibition “Sandra Brewster: Traces of Home: Migration, Memory, and Being.” The exhibition explores how Toronto artist Sandra Brewster draws inspiration from the meaning of home, migration, and memory for the Caribbean Canadian community.
Born and raised in Toronto, Brewster has spent over two decades examining the effects of migration on her family and other individuals of Caribbean and African descent in her community. Incorporating their personal photographs, recollections, and cherished possessions from back home into her multilayered works, Brewster foregrounds the complexities of Black diasporic experience and identity.
McMaster Museum of Art’s Senior Curator Pamela Edmonds has written an essay to accompany the exhibition, titled “Shifting the Gaze”. According to Sara Angel, ACI Founder and Executive Director, the essay “invites us to reflect on the role of the family in sustaining cultural heritage, identity, and community”.
“Shifting the Gaze” examines Brewster’s formal and conceptual strategies from her early work to today, and explores how the artist uses these strategies to both disrupt representational space and expand notions of contemporary portraiture.
According to Edmonds, “By complicating tropes of visibility and (mis)representation, her powerful imagery gives emphasis to the performative nature of Black identity in the Americas, opening up ways of thinking about how her subjects negotiate and re-narrativize historical and contemporary geographies.”
Read the full essay here.
View the online exhibition, Sandra Brewster: Traces of Home.
Recognizing Emerging Voices: 2026 Integrated Arts (iArts) Awards at the McMaster Museum of Art
May 7, 2026
The McMaster Museum of Art is proud to present and celebrate this year’s graduating Integrated Arts students through a series of awards, recognizing artistic excellence, collaboration, and innovation. From work that reflects the core values of the School of the Arts to projects that push creative boundaries and foster community — the SOTA Mission Award, Leadership & Community […]
Christina Leslie Announcement on TFVA Award and Acquisition of Pinhole Remix (2020) for M(M)A Collection.
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Beyond February: Collecting Care and Reimagining Black Histories
March 3, 2026
The Black Madonnas of Perpetual Murmurs 19, 2023 collage, composition gold leaf, cutout on paper Museum of Art Collection Trust, 2024 As this year’s Black History Month come to a close, the McMaster Museum of Art wishes to extend its sincere appreciation to the Equity and Inclusion Office for their leadership and dedication in creating […]
