August 1, 2018 - February 1, 2019
Sandra Brewster is a Canadian artist, born in Toronto where she is presently based.
Her recent photo-based gel transfer works reference a movement from one place to another place through metaphor and image manipulation. Brewster draws inspiration from her own personal travels as well as the stories told by a generation of Caribbean folk – like her Guyanese parents – who left their homes in the 1960s to pursue a “better life” in Canada. Immigration programs facilitated entry into the country. In her work, the resultant change due to migration is likened to an imprint, where pieces of the whole are kept in place and others are left behind. This imprint, for Brewster, also presents a nature of identity, along with a relationship with home, as non-static, influx.
Brewster’s work has been exhibited in Toronto at Mercer Union, Prefix Gallery and the Royal Ontario Museum. Her work has been shown at Musée des beaux arts in Montreal, Thames Gallery in Chatham, Aljira Contemporary Art Center in New Jersey, Eastern Edge Gallery in Newfoundland and Allegheny Art Galleries in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Brewster’s exhibition It’s all a blur… received the Gattuso Prize for outstanding featured exhibition of CONTACT Photography Festival 2017. She is the 2018 recipient of the Artist Prize from Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts and is presently Artist-in-Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Brewster holds a Masters of Visual Studies from University of Toronto. She is represented by Georgia Scherman Projects.
This is a unique residency; Sandra will be in residence concurrently with Seika Boye over a period of six months. This will allow the artists to share the studio space, their ideas and experiences. Areas of focus for both artists synergize around ideas of accumulation; photography and representation; animating the archive.
Junction (detail), Charcoal, photo-based gel transfer wall installation, 2018. (as part of contact landing(s), curated by Ellyn Walker)