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In this display by American-born, Toronto-based artist June Clark, the American flag is both symbol and material. Growing up in Harlem and attending school there for eight years, Clark remembers being told that she was lucky to live in “the greatest, strongest, most compassionate and free country in the world.” In this installation of nine artworks, first exhibited in 2020, Clark harnesses the abstract and illusory associations of the American flag – freedom and equality among them – and through repetition and material inventiveness, re-imagines it until it feels unfamiliar. Materials, Clark writes, “are the grammar of my visual language,” a grammar that here reveals itself in work made from rust, tea stains or found objects.
“Unrequited Love” is dedicated to Colin Rand Kaepernick, the football quarterback who knelt during the national anthem in 2016 to call attention to the continued violence towards and oppression of Black people in America and around the world. This exhibition is curated by Julie Crooks, AGO Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora.
Event’s Website/Socials
Where
Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4
When
May 6th, 2023 to May 26th, 2024
Tuesday, 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Wednesday, 10:30 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday, 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, 10:30 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
Sunday, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
Admission
Free for Members. General Admission goes for $30.
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