September 21 – December 1
The Biennial presents a special focus on Winsom, honoring her influence on Toronto’s art scene. The exhibition brings together an array of her paintings and whittlings, including 8 paintings and one mixed media installation. This selection of works, created from 1995 to 2024, provides visitors with an insight into her unique approach of bridging the terrestrial and the spiritual realms. This connection is achieved through the use of dreams, visions, and symbols, offering alternative perspectives of the world. The artist strives to revive our comprehension of spirituality and employs various strategies to render the unseen visible.
The mixed media art installation, titled Travelling Time (2024), stands as the centerpiece of Winsom’s exhibition. It symbolizes our unique life journeys. The uses a tree metaphor to depict growth and the passage of time, akin to the increasing rings of a tree trunk. Nine branches, representing a rich life, extend upwards, adorned with mementos. Rooted in concentric circles, they symbolize grounding and centering, with the number 9 dedicated to the Goddess Oya. Metal snakes depict rebirth, while altars to the five elements awaken us as we journey through time. The work encourages reflection on our transformation and renewal, and the experiences we carry with us. For the artist, this installation is a celebration of our sacred journey in the universe, connecting us to the great dance of time.
Winsom Winsom is a child of the universe and a multimedia artist, educator, and activist. She employs various mediums—including textiles, painting, video, installation, and puppetry—to explore human spirituality and its connection to earthly experiences. Her paintings are characterized by bold colours, dynamic brushstrokes, spiritual themes, and a sense of movement and energy. Since the mid-1980s, her work, which is often inspired by subconscious thoughts and Afrocentric values, has been displayed globally. Winsom’s travels through West Africa significantly influenced her artistry.
Bio
Winsom Winsom (1945; she/her) child of the Universe with lineage of the Maroons, Arawak and Spanish grounded in Maroon Land of the Cockpit Mountains and now Canada. Winsom does not separate her life and art: her life is her art, her art is her life. Winsom’s work interprets the elements, land, animal, and human presence from the context of the Afro-centric value system where spirituality is central as “respect for the elements guides human passage.” Through a variety of media such as painting, sculpture, film and installation connections are established between different levels of existence through symbols in line and colour. Winsom’s current imagery can be ascribed directly to the Ancient African religion of Ifa and the Ashanti which have mediated the relationship between the land of the living and the dead with an organic living structure.
Location
- Accessibility
32 Lisgar St and Park
Accessible entrance
– Note: If you have access needs and are being dropped off at the venue, use ’36 Lisgar’ as the drop-off address instead of 32 Lisgar. This will bring you closer to our entrance.Washrooms
Elevator
AODA compliant building
Parking: Limited Street, Underground Parking (Paid)
There is ample paid parking nearby, including a Green P lot in the building, a lot accessible from the alley between Dovercourt and Lisgar off Sudbury, and street parking on both Lisgar Street and Abell Street.
- Getting There
32 Lisgar St and Park
By subway: Line 1 – From St. Andrew Station, take the 504 King streetcar west to Abell Street, walk 2 minutes. Line 2 – From Dufferin Station: take the 29 Bus south to Queen Street West, walk 7 minutes
By streetcar: Take the 501 Queen streetcar and get off at Abell Street, just east of Gladstone. Or, take the 504 King streetcar. Get off at Sudbury Street, and walk north/west along Sudbury to Lisgar Street.