Wednesday 18 August, 2021
More than 200 people were at the the National Gallery of Canada, which, in partnership with Black History Ottawa, held a special presentation of the exhibition Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition, and the newest installations featuring the work of Jamaican-Canadian Tau Lewis, Brooklyn-based Rashid Johnson and Congolese-Canadian Moridja Kitenge Banza. Pride of place went to artist Rashid Johnson’s “Capsule”, a humongous pyramidal steel structure, located at the glass-domed main entrance to the Gallery. It consists of various house plants housed in hand-built ceramic pots made and decorated with the recurring imagery found in Johnson’s paintings. It also features carved blocks of shea butter, one of the artist’s signature materials, that were a fixture of his childhood home, plus a selection of books related to the artist’s lived experience of race and class.
The vastly entertaining evening included two performances by Juno award winner, Kelly Lee Evans, whose sultry fusion of jazz and blues made her audience yearning for more. On hand to welcome the guests were National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO, Dr. Sasha Suda; NGC Senior Communications Manager, Denise Siele; Black History Ottawa President June Girvan, and Black History Ottawa Board members: Jean-Marie Guerrier, Sarah Onyango, Joanne Robinson and Godwin Ifedi.
Black Ottawa Scene was there to bring you pics of this historic event.
