Artist Archive
Roots
November 5, 2022
“In her outdoor photographic installation, Roots, Toronto-based artist Sandra Brewster explores the long history of Black presence in the urban wilderness. Developed during her tenure as Koerner Artist in Residence at Evergreen Brick Works, the photographs document the area’s plant life, greeting visitors as they explore the valley. ” “Brewster’s evocative imagery shifts between presence and absence, […]
2022 | Work
Take a Little Trip
November 3, 2022
Take a Little Trip is a series of photo-based gel transfers of iconic people who have passed on and who have inspired me and many with their commitment to expressing themselves as who they are – complex human beings – through their talent, activism and study. Each piece consists of an image developed from multiple […]
2022 | Work
DENSE
November 3, 2022
“In DENSE, Brewster transforms The Fleck Clerestory into a world made out of memories that family members shared with her, interwoven with her own lived experiences. Two images face each other: the Essequibo River in Guyana on the east wall, a collage of Canadian and Guyanese forests on the west wall. Together, these works engage our […]
2022 | Work
Blur Art Gallery of Ontario
September 14, 2019
“In her Blur series, Sandra Brewster explores layered experiences of identity — ones that may bridge relationships to Canada and elsewhere, as well as to the present and the past. The artist directs her subjects to move while she takes their picture. Then, using a gel medium, she transfers her image to a new surface, […]
2019 | Work
Token | Contemporary Ongoing
September 14, 2019
“In Token | Contemporary Ongoing, Sandra Brewster re-presents objects selected and transported from various Caribbean geographies and temporalities, projecting them beyond the private and intimate spaces of their belonging. These objects are belongings, possessions. The deliberate and deliberated presence of these object-images bears witness to our movements through time and space. The objects themselves function […]
2019 | Work
It’s all a blur… Georgia Scherman Projects
September 14, 2019
It’s all a blur… is a series of gestural portraits made with photo-based gel transfers. Brewster uses the medium as a metaphor for movement or change from one place to another, specifically in reference to the migration of her parents and their peers who left Guyana for Toronto in the late 1960s. Inspired by the […]
2019 | Work
A Trace | Evidence of time past
May 2, 2017
A Trace | Evidence of time past, Masters of Visual Studies thesis, Art Museum, University of Toronto, March 2017. Metaphor, materiality, and storytelling is used to reflect on the transition of home, using my family’s migration from Guyana to Toronto as inspiration. Heirloom. a jar containing fruits and currents soaked in rum and wine in […]
2017 | Work
Untitled Smiths
January 11, 2015
Untitled Smiths 2011- Untitled (Smiths), mixed media on wood, 48x60in., 2011 Untitled (Plain Black), mixed media on wood, 48x60in., 2011-12 Untitled (Plain Black 2), mixed media on wood, 18x48in., 2012 Untitled (Whiteout), mixed media on wood, 48x48in., 2014
2015 | Work
Smith
January 11, 2015
SMITH 2009 The surname Smith takes up the largest section of a Western telephone directory. Its volume conjures up ideas of sameness, commonality and anonymity as there are so many. In the series I am mocking the notion of a monolithic Black community – of course not all Smiths are related, or look or act […]