PUBLIC ART: Billboard on Shaw by Jorian Charlton

March 8, 2021 - April 21, 2021

Billboard on Shaw presented by Gallery TPW in partnership with Critical Distance, featuring Untitled (Angaer) by Jorian Charlton, 2020.

The individuals in Jorian Charlton’s photographs become stand-ins for everyday Black folks, whose beauty and culture often lack recognition and representation as they are. Taking cues from fashion photography, Charlton’s way of working emphasizes her sitter’s active role in being photographed.

Here, Charlton carefully captures the movement in her muse’s hair, distilling a sense of freedom and agency. She is unbound by the static nature of the frame.

Curated by Emilie Croning, Wedge Curatorial Projects.

Untitled (Angaer)  is on view at 180 Shaw Street, outside Artscape Youngplace, through March to April, 2021.


Image: Jorian Charlton, Untitled (Angaer), 2020. 8 x 8 foot billboard at 180 Shaw Street in Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood. 

About the Curator(s)

Emilie Croning

Emilie Croning is a Toronto-based emerging curator, artist, and scholar. Her work explores notions around identity and representation through visual language, working at the intersections of feminist theories, post-colonialism, and art history. She received her BFA in Art History & Studio Art from Concordia University (Montreal) and an MA in Art History with a Curatorial Studies in Visual Culture Diploma from York University (Toronto).

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About the Artist(s)

Jorian Charlton

Jorian Charlton is a portrait photographer based in Toronto. Her work focuses on Jamaican-Canadian culture through her personal experiences, highlighting beauty and style when it comes to contemporary modes of Black representation. She explores reflections of identity and diasporic relationships to homeland, while her poetic approach to these themes characterizes her method of visual storytelling.

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