Artist in Residence

Sandra Brewster  

Artist in Residence, May – September 2021

This spring, Evergreen and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival are thrilled to co-host Sandra Brewster as artist-in-residence.

Brewster is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto whose work has been exhibited nationally and abroad. She engages with issues of identity and representation, centering Black presence in Canada. Brewster uses photo-based gel transfers in her work, and the materiality of this process reflects the themes she addresses, of the slippages inherent in movement and memory. 

In residence at Evergreen Brick Works from May through September 2021, Brewster will begin research for a new public artwork around Black presence in the Don Valley, to be presented in spring 2022 by Evergreen and CONTACT. 

Brewster will develop this research in collaboration with Jacqueline L. Scott — founder of Black Outdoors — an activist and scholar who educates and advocates for Black people’s access and enjoyment of the outdoors. Scott’s own work focuses on “the perception of the wilderness in the Black imagination.” Throughout the residency, Brewster and Scott will host a series of walks in and around the Don Valley, sharing and further developing their research in progress and contributing to new narratives around Black experiences and the wilderness in Toronto. 

The project builds on one of Brewster’s earlier works, Hiking Black Creek (2017), which depicts a couple, newly reconnected after separate migrations to Canada from Guyana, as they explore the ravines of Toronto’s Black Creek. In this large scale photo-based gel transfer Brewster asserts their place in the Canadian landscape. In the work, Brewster connects Canada and Guyana, Toronto’s forests and the Amazonian jungle, offering new perspectives on ideas of home and belonging.  

The residency is presented by Evergreen Public Art in partnership with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. 

About Sandra Brewster: 

Sandra Brewster holds a BFA from York University and a Masters of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. Recent solo exhibitions include Blur at the  Art Gallery of Ontario (2019/20), Token | Contemporary Ongoing at A Space Gallery in Toronto, Or Gallery in Vancouver and the Art Gallery of Guelph.

Brewster’s work has been exhibited in group exhibition including Identity in Flux, organized by VISART, Rajko Mamuzić Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia; travelling to National Gallery of Macedonia Skoplje in Northern Macedonia; Tivat Cultural Center Gallery in Montenegro; and Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art, organized by the Royal Ontario Museum, travelled to Musée des beaux arts in Montreal, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, NFL, Canada (publication forthcoming).

Her works have been featured at LagosPhoto Festival 2018 in Nigeria, Aljira Contemporary Art Center in New Jersey, 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 was the 2018 recipient of the Artist Prize from Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts. Upcoming exhibitions include: Blur, Harnett Gallery, University of Rochester, NY, USA (2022); and, I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada (2022).

About Jacqueline L. Scott:  

Jacqueline L. Scott is a PhD student at the University of Toronto, in the department of Social Justice Education. Her research is on the perception of the wilderness in the Black imagination. In other words, how to make outdoor recreation, and the broader environmentalism, a more accessible and inviting space for Black Canadians. She has written about her research for CBC, The Conversation, and the Greenbelt Foundation. She is an avid outdoor fan, and a hike and cycling leader for two outdoor clubs. Follow her work on her blog today.