Join us for a discussion between photographer Jorian Charlton and multidisciplinary artist Shantel Miller as they explore the ways in which their practices address the representations of black women in visual culture.

How do bodies become racialized, gendered, sexualized and made hyper or invisible? What are the consequences of these processes? How do our public institutions, cultural discourses and individual practices sustain, reproduce and legitimize them? How might we reclaim, subvert or otherwise undermine the various oppressive gazes that have traditionally objectified and assigned meaning to raced, gendered and sexed bodies?

Jorian Charlton is a portrait photographer whose work focuses on Caribbean-Canadian culture. Her delicate approach to these topics characterizes her style of visual story telling. She observes her environment through a personal perspective, and with each story, Jorian highlights the beauty of simplicity within the contemporary culture, while her portraits reflect community with a unique curiosity. Through her exploration, she has discovered that even though these rich cultures seem to be blended, they still remain distinct.

Shantel Miller’s figurative paintings create visual languages that interrogate representational models of meaning, specifically constructs of race, gender and religion. She inserts allegorical meaning, layering biblical texts and lived experiences with photographic techniques to suggest relationships between cultural signifiers that influence perception and identity. Miller invites viewers into what she describes as “spiritual encounters”, documented moments of divine reflection in her every day. Graduating from OCADU in 2013, Miller has exhibited internationally in Toronto, Edmonton and Miami. She completed a residency on Cuttyhunk Island in Boston and is currently an artist-in-residence at Nia Centre for the Arts in Toronto.

In the Living Room is a series of three conversations programmed by artist Ojo Agi and held in the Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires exhibition on the AGO’s Fifth floor Contemporary Tower.

In the Living Room: The Dis/Appearing Black Body
with Jorian Charlton and Shantel Miller
2 pm Saturday January 19, 2019

In the Living Room: The Ethics of Black Aesthetics
with Amber Williams-King and Oreka James
2 pm Saturday February 9, 2019

In the Living Room: Space, Race and Gender  
with Noah Brown and Adrienne Matheuszik
2 pm Saturday March 2, 2019