Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Denyse is coming home to the AGO this fall   By Stephen Weir Early in October the Art Gallery of Ontario is presenting the first major retrospective exhibition of the late Trinidadian-Canadian artist  Denyse Thomasos.  She is considered one the finest painters to emerge in the 1990s. The exhibition is entitled  Denyse Thomasos: just beyond  and is co-organized by the AGO and the Remai Modern art gallery in Saskatoon.  “Thomasos had a singular style that employed abstraction as a means to explore contemporary issues of race, the architecture of confinement and our complex relationships to space and place, and the environment” said the AGO in a recent release about the coming show.   Denyse Thomasos: just beyond  is co-organized by the AGO and Saskatoon’s Remai Modern contemporary art gallery. Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Thomasos was raised in Toronto and spent most of her professional career in Philadelphia and New York City. Thomasos ear...

Foodways: Caribbean Flavours.  Three chefs bring sunshine to  the Art Gallery of Ontario La-toya Fagon By Stephen Weir There is an art to appreciating Caribbean cooking and fine dining, and there is no better place to learn about it than the Art Gallery of Ontario! For the next two Friday afternoon, two of the city’s most loved Caribbean chefs will be on-line schooling AGO patrons about the fine art of Caribbean Flavours!  The 45-minute talks are called  Foodways: Caribbean Flavours  and feature chef and food stylists Roger Mooking, La-Toya Fagon and  Selwyn Richards ( pictured left ). Hosted by the gallery’s Executive Chef Renée Bellefeuille, Foodways is a new conversation series that brings together food experts the art world to explore the intersection of culinary practices, memory and art.  The guest chefs reflect on their own Foodways, inspired by the AGO’s current exhibition  Fragments of Epic Memory. The large art Caribbean exhibi...

  A Caribbean Art Exhibition Of Epic Proportion Opens Friday At The AGO.  Only the Hoopla Is Missing By Stephen Weir Curse the Toronto Covid shutdown.  This Friday there should be balloons, fireworks, and revellers in the street to mark the opening of Caribbean-centric art exhibition the likes Canada has not seen before. But, the reality of the age is that on Friday morning the  Art Gallery of Ontario  will quietly open its Dundas Street front doors on the exhibition  Fragments of Epic Memory , a detailed exploration of the complex history of the Caribbean in this made-in-Toronto major exhibition.   The big show is an amalgam of a huge collection of historic photographs of 19 th  and early 20 th  century life in the Caribbean displayed beside contemporary Caribbean Canadian artists including  Ebony Patterson, Rodell Warner, Sandra Brewster  and  Zak Ové.  The black and white photographs many dating back to the 19 th  ...

  Art Bites: Cultural News That Arrived On My Virtual Desk This Week  By Stephen Weir Cian Knights Joins the AGO On Wednesday morning Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario announced that  Cian Knights  has joined the gallery as their first Manager  of Diversity and Inclusion. She leaves the  Toronto based Centre for Young Black Professionals to take on this new role at the AGO. In announcing her appointment the Gallery said that following  “the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by George Floyd's death the AGO took heed to the urgent call to accelerate our efforts and take a more critical eye towards (diversity). How do we, as a leading Canadian museum, pledge to accurately reflect the diversity of our community through our internal culture, exhibitions, collections and programming?”  “I am looking forward to taking on this new role to lead and partner in efforts of equitable transformation at the AGO,” Knights said. “This is going to be a journey of ...

Important Collection of Caribbean Photographs Donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario Two Women, Trinidad, ca 1890 J ust as the Caribbean Camera was going to press the paper learned  that $300,000 has been raised by members of Toronto’s Black and Caribbean communities to bring The Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs to the AGO . The Art Gallery of Ontario announced late  yesterday The Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs, a  collection of more than 3,500 historical images from 34 countries including Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. This may be the world's largest collections of such images. This incredible visual record contains studio portraits, landscapes and tourist views. Bringing to life the changing economies, environments and communities that emerged following the abolishment of slavery, the Collection includes nearly every photographic format available during the years 1840 to 1940, including prints, postcards...

Solo Show Will Attract The Masses To The AGO Photos and Story By Stephen Weir Even though the Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noire exhibition doesn't open until this evening, there is a big buzz in the downtown Toronto already! Internationally acclaimed for her powerful portraits of Black women - New York based artist Mickalene Thomas has brought to Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario a remarkable exhibition that sparks urgent questions about race and sexuality and how we see the Black female body. On Tuesday the artist came to  Toronto to hold court at a crowded morning media scrum. A large group of television, radio and print journalists (including me on behalf of Caribbean Camera) followed the artist through the large multi-media show as she gave the background of each piece in the show. " I don't speak French," the artist told the Caribbean Camera. "I used French because it is very descriptive (to call the show Femmes Noires).When you get off the el...

Carnival Themed Fete At the Art Gallery Of Ontario Attracts Hundreds and Hundreds Rhoma in costume at the AGO - photo by Craigg Slowly By Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camera Rhoma Spencer, Macomere Fifi, traditional costumed carnival performers and dancer Jasmyn Fyffe took the AGO by storm last Thursday night as part of the art gallery's First Thursday fete. The theme last night was Carnival, and thousands crammed into the Toronto public gallery to jump up. Rhoma Spencer, a well-known Trinidadian Canadian actor and producer, recreated the custom of Viey la Cou (The Old Yard), where traditional Mas was performed over two centuries ago. The characters that she brought to the Dundas St W building were larger than life. There was Dame Lorraine, a Trinidadian mas character of the 18th century, was known for love of dance and shakes it up in a big way with huge padded breasts and an equally large padded butt. Pictured with the Dame is Rhoma Spencer dressed as the Midnigh...

Feature story by Stephen Weir in today's Caribbean Camera Shake it? Rhoma Spencer is going to Rock, Dazzle And Amaze downtown millennials at the Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario bills its February evening millennial bash as Shake It. But, actress playwright Rhoma Spencer plans to take it up a notch, dazzling, rocking and ‘Carnivalizing” hundreds of downtown hipsters who will be taking in the First Thursday party this February 1st, from 7-11:30pm. Shake It is a unique programme meant to attract new (and younger) audiences to the downtown Toronto art institution. Shake It looks at traditional in a contemporary way, and as always through the eyes of the artist,” reports the art gallery about next month’s event. “ We will be honouring the season, history of Carnival.”  Rhoma Spencer Headlining the event will be Rhoma Spencer, Macomere Fifi, traditional costumed carnival performers, dancer Jasmyn Fyffe and New York artist and DJ Juliana Huxtable. She is ...