Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  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  century (and many never seen in public), are from the recently acquir

Walk or do a Drive By. Absence/Presence: Morant Bay  New Photography Exhibition Opens  By Stephen Weir While all art galleries are closed in the province, there is a new curated photography show on display in downtown Toronto! The Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue (BAND) gallery in concert with the Contact Photography Festival has just launched an exhibition of the work of Jamaican-Canadian photographer Christina Leslie. Although the BAND building on Brock Avenue  remains closed the new exhibition Absence/Presence: Morant Bay is open for viewing on the building’s tall wooden alley fence! The black and white photography show can be seen on foot or from a slow moving car! Christina Leslie takes photographs that delve into and respond to her Jamaican-Canadian heritage and personal family histories. Recently, she returned to her father’s hometown of Morant Bay, the capital of St. Thomas Parish in Jamaica where she found the area in decline. “It was as if time had forg

Opening Saturday at North Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre Eddie Grant photo of PM Manley Way back in the 70s and 80s a quintet of Caribbean Canadian photojournalists were literarily the Ears, Eyes and Voice of Toronto’s many hard-hitting community newspapers!  Press photographs taken by Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody and Jim Russell are on display beginning Saturday at the Meridian Arts Centre in North Toronto as part of Black History Month celebrations in the city. This free exhibition, presented by TO Live, brings together important historic works by the five “shooters”. Their combined collection of photographs is a rare pictorial record of newspaper stories that covered the evolving history of the community. Ears, Eyes, Voice bring back both good and bad memories from the streets of Toronto. There are pictures of reggae star Peter Tosh at the O’Keefe Centre; Caribana as a giant Blocko on University Avenue, and a large Africa Liberation Day march

New Biannual art fair for Caribbean art, all set for Mandeville Painting by Jamaica's Krystal Ball By Stephen Weir Attention Jamaica, a group of Caribbean Canadian art experts is about to   put the spotlight on art and artists from Jamaica and other Caribbean nations.   A 3-day exhibition and sale of local art beginning January 30th will take place in Mandeville Jamaica. The fair is being spearheaded by well-known founder of the Black Artists Network Dialogue and CArt’s Creative Director.   Karen Carter. She describes the upcoming CArt Festival as a contemporary art fair connecting artists from the Caribbean region to the international art world. “CArt is an opportunity for fair goers to meaningfully connect with local artists, and acquire original art to add to their art collection,” Karen Carter told the Camera.  It will take place at the Mandeville Hotel in Mandeville. This is the first installment of CArt which will be a biennial Art Fair. The weekend

Breakthrough Exhibition Opening At Toronto's AGO By Stephen Weir as published in the Caribbean Camera A first for a noted American artist is about to be made at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).  Opening next Thursday is a solo exhibition by African-American artist Mickalene Thomas – this is the first Canadian solo show for the famed painter / photographer. Recognize the name? She is best known as being the first artist to create a portrait of the First Lady Michelle Obama.  Thomas's silk-screen portrait, "Michelle O," was a riff on Andy Warhol's famous portrait of former First Lady Jackie O and captured the attention of all Americans. Thomas has made a career out of creating powerful portraits of Black women.  The Brooklyn-based 47-year old artist comes to the  AGO  November 29th with a remarkable exhibition that sparks urgent questions about race and sexuality and how society sees the Black female body.  Portrait of Kalena by Mick