Summerside art show celebrates the individuality, diversity of Black artists

An art exhibit in Summerside, P.E.I., aims to overcome theidea that there is a single way to be Black.

Tamara Steele, curator of Collective Intricacies, says the purpose of the exhibition is to showcase Black people as individuals.

"We are many cultures that make up a Black community," Steele said.

"Not just a monolithicbeing of Black people. And I think that goes with Black artists as well."

Steele said when she was putting the show together she was looking for artists working in different mediumsor art styles.

The five artists are Baha Royalty, Chester Hewlett, King Kxndi, Martology and Sammo Mossa, and their creations are being displayed at the Eptek Art andCulture Centre, in partnership withthis town is small an organizationworking to advance the work of contemporary visual artists on P.E.I.

There are large-scale paintings on different types of fabric, digital animations, small paintings, a massive black-and-white sketch, digital artwork and more.

'Giving a piece of myself to someone'

Shawna Gibson, also known as Baha Royalty, said their art is mainly abstract and sharing it with other people is like "giving a piece of myself to someone."

Gibson said this exhibit is meant to show that Black artists come from different backgrounds, cultures and experiences.

"It's always good to break a stereotype," she said. "It's always good to show diversity within a class."

Hewlett said his art is a representation of what he feelsand experiences as a human being.

"It's good to have art that represents us, but then it also misses our individuality. It misses what we are and from the different parts of the world that we're from," he said.

"I feel this is a great opportunity to meet with other artists that also have that ability to share themselves."

Steele said there is talk about "Black art" and "Black music," "Black love and Black joy" as if things should be classified as Black when Black people do them.

"As if Black people are a genre in themselves," she said.

"Not to say that it's wrong to say Black art, or to say Black artists justunderstand thatthere are so many different versions of that one thing that people are considering, and there are five different versions for you to peruse in this exhibition."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.