Year-long exhibition at Art Gallery of Ontario celebrates Black identities, culture and community

Photographs and time-based media by a creative agency renowned for its vibrant depictions of Black identities will be on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) during a year-long exhibition which opened on Saturday.

Founded by creative director, Nigerian Canadian Josef Adamu in 2017, Sunday School has brought together photographers, videographers, stylists, and models from across Africa and the diaspora to create visual campaigns that straddle both commercial and fine art worlds.

Emilie Croning, who is the AGO curatorial assistant, for the arts of global Africa and the diaspora collection, says the exhibits reflect everyday moments that are happening around us.

"I think it's going to do wonders for our audiences," Croning told CBC Toronto, adding that she hopes the exhibition will serve as an attraction to young, Black artists.

"Even just working with Josef and Sunday School and the other photographers … I consider these my peers. I would love to see more people who look like me, who are my age, occupying these areas and just kind of breaking down those barriers, and this is a step toward that."

Croning says work is underway to "open up our space and these doors to young contemporary visual artists whose work resonates with the community surrounding the AGO, as well as marginalized communities whose stories aren't particularly shown or supported in a way that is authentic."

"So, this is a really exciting moment to kind of demonstrate the work that we do, the work that we can do, and  what's next."

The exhibition — called Feels Like Home — will be on view through May 2024.

'A full circle moment,' Adamu says

Adamu says he's elated for the opportunity to showcase his work at the AGO.

"This is a full circle moment. [I was born and raised in Toronto, in the inner city. Places like the AGO always felt very prominent and kind of, like, out of this world. So, to be back to be a part of a really big experience here is special," he told CBC Toronto.

"To have my community take part in the experience is even more special because you're bringing in people that typically wouldn't be at the AGO … so, to bridge that gap across Africa, across the Caribbean, across the diaspora, it's so much more than special for myself."

Adamu says he's spent the last six years "telling the stories of the underrepresented communities with a primary focus on Black storytelling, but from the perspective of the diaspora."

"Being a first-generation Nigerian, born in Canada, in a very rich environment, a very diverse city — Toronto — I picked up a lot of different nuances that kind of play into the art that I present today," he says.

Adamu says he uses creative direction through photography to illustrate those stories for people "to resonate with and to feel included and [a sense of] belonging."

The exhibition features photographs from three recent series:

• The Hair Appointment (2018).

• Ten Toes Down (2021).

• Jump Ball (2019 – ongoing).

The images by Jeremy Rodney-Hall and select video excerpted from The Hair Appointment (2018) offer a poignant depiction of hair braiding — be it in one's living room as a child or at a salon — as a cultural signifier of Black womanhood.  In these images, home is a shared experience, something both familiar and comforting.

Featuring a Black ballerina posing in her own home, the series Ten Toes Down (2021) photographed by Kreshonna Keane, builds on creative work Sunday School undertook with the British clothing manufacturer Freed of London, one of the first brands to mass produce and market skin tone pointe shoes for Black, Asian and mixed-race dancers. Keane's portraits reveal a longstanding lack of diversity in the dance world, where home is the body — a site for self-expression.

First published in 2019, Jump Ball is an ongoing series exploring the relationship between basketball and African diasporic communities. Potographed by Toronto's own O'shane Howard, Jump Ball features young men in both traditional African attire and street-style clothing posed on the basketball courts of St. Jamestown. The series underscores the ways in which many Black communities navigate the nuances of identity, where home is not tied to one specific location.

In Jump Ball: Mighty Migration (2020) photographed by Joshua Kissi, basketball is a reoccurring talisman in a series of striking family portraits, capturing the proud display of trophies and framed jerseys — symbols of hope, aspiration and kinship.

The exhibition extends with public billboards, on view May 1 to 31. The billboards feature six images by Sunday School and will be installed at the intersections of Lansdowne Avenue at Dundas Street West and at College Street, in Toronto's west end.

Feels Like Home is free for all Indigenous peoples, AGO members, annual passholders and visitors aged 25 and under.

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.