Art Pick of the Week: Untitled (Blur)

If you want to gain insight into what someone is thinking, chances are a glance at their face will tell you what they’re feeling. You’ve seen the confident, self-possessed eyes that seem to follow you on both the Mona Lisa and the Marchesa Casati. But what information can you glean from someone whose features appear in a blur? Discover your own interpretation with this week’s Art Pick located on Level 2 in the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art (Gallery 228), where Sandra Brewster’s larger-than-life gel transfer, Untitled (Blur), grabs your attention.

Having been an AGO Artist in Residence in 2018, Brewster holds a special place in our Gallery. The Toronto-based artist was born to a Guyanese immigrant family and completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University in 1997 and Master of Visual Studies at University of Toronto in 2017. As a Black Canadian, Brewster’s work deals with themes of identity and representation in a world that is often excluding. She is especially attuned to the experiences of Caribbean-Canadians with their migration to Canada and relationships back home.

Untitled (Blur) depicts Toronto singer Tuku Matthews and takes up almost the entire wall on which it’s set. Matthews, a personal friend of Brewster, is a fitting subject for the artist’s work exploring legacy. Matthews’ mother is jazz musician Salome Bey and her father was a co-founder of The Underground Railroad, the first soul food restaurant in Canada. In the 1990s, Matthews was part of the band Blaxäm, which for Brewster “represented the texture of Toronto.”

After taking her subject’s photo, Brewster uses a gel medium to transfer the image, a process that captures changes and imperfections. Untitled (Blur) is both subdued and gritty, with creases, tears and empty spaces showing throughout the obscured image.

“I work on the walls of spaces because I am drawn to the idea of the work being everlasting,” says Brewster. “Even when the work is being removed, after it has been sanded down then painted over, it’s still there. We may not see it, but there is lasting legacy.”

The work, which was commissioned by the AGO, is just one of Brewster’s that explores layered experiences of Black identity throughout time and space, from their native lands to their journeys in Canada. With Brewster’s laborious transfer process and the experiences of the pictured Matthews, this idea of movement is multi-faceted. Movement is seen through multiple angles, from the creation of the piece to its subject, to its end result.

To see more of Brewster’s work, don’t miss her solo show just a few steps away in the Mary & Harry Jackman Gallery (Gallery 238). Sandra Brewster: Blur will be closing on March 29, but Untitled (Blur) will be on view until June.

Stay tuned for next week’s Art Pick.