Desire Lines : Setting a Tone

"Intergenerational mentoring is a central experience of cultural transmission; within publishing networks we can sense a print-based trace of Black feminist sensations of belonging. Magazines of the 1980s, such as Fireweed and Tiger Lily, offer a view into activist spaces where gaining access to print was a means to rewrite the terms of racialization and socioeconomic oppression. This panel will conjure personal memories around institutions such as Sister Vision Press and Fresh Arts as crucibles for cultural production in Toronto." -- Publisher's website

Sight Specific : Lesbians and Representation

Fernie situates eight Toronto artists in the context of Toronto and the debates surrounding sexuality, representation and censorship, also providing a history of lesbian cultural practice. Includes "artworks", "textworks" and artists' statements. Biographical notes. 19 bibl. ref

Mickalene Thomas : Femmes Noires

"Mickalene Thomas's vivid paintings, collages, and photographs explode off the wall. Their larger-than-life women stare back and down at the viewer, confronting them head on. Over the course of her prolific career, Thomas has created a body of work that expands notions of beauty, gender, sexuality, and race, offering a complex vision of what it means to be a Black woman. In Femmes Noires, Thomas moves breezily between pop culture and the long history of Western and African art, inserting images of Black women into iconic paintings. At times she poses them nude; at other times, she draws on elements as diverse as 1970s black-is-beautiful images of women, Edouard Mamet's odalisque figures, the mise-en-scène studio portraiture of James Van Der Zee and Malick Sidibé, and her own collection of personal portraits and staged scenes. Her ability to detect and contain contradictions and to wrestle with stereotypes translates into powerful, self-possessed depictions of Black women that confront and subvert stereotypes." -- Distributor's website