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Estuaries: Opening Vernissage at Owens Art Gallery
October 4 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Join us on October 4th, 2024 at the Owens Art Gallery for the opening vernissage of the new exhibition Estuaries.
Curated by: Joana Joachim
Works by: Denise Ferreira da Silva & Arjuna Neuman, Sylvia D. Hamilton, John Hammond, Oluseye, Camille Turner, Denyse Thomasos, and Gary Weekes.
About the Exhibition: Estuaries form when freshwater rivers meet the ocean and become slightly salty. The Atlantic is the saltiest of the five ocean basins. It is also the body of water across which more than 30,000 ships carried over twelve million abducted Africans into slavery through the lethal crossing known as the Middle Passage. These ships returned laden with goods produced through the forced labour of Black captives. John Owens, eponym of the Owens Art Gallery, was a successful shipbuilder, as was his executor, Robert Reed. Using funds from Owens’ estate, Reed worked with artist John Hammond to develop a teaching collection now housed at the Owens Art Gallery.
The Maritimes, like the rest of Canada, profited from shipbuilding and colonial economies linked to transatlantic slavery and trade. Meanwhile, Black histories in New Brunswick and elsewhere were systematically washed away. To this day, the histories and contributions of small Black communities in New Brunswick and across Canada are overlooked due to their size, their seemingly limited archival presence, and, in some cases, the common, inaccurate belief that they simply do not exist. Estuaries floats in the space between these facts, musing on Black diasporic peoples’ relationship to the ocean. Featuring artworks by both contemporary and historical artists, as well as archival documents and artifacts, it contends with the tensions that arise once we allow the freshwater river of Canadian history to meet the ocean of Black Atlantic life. Read more…
owens@mta.ca
