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Art Art & Books

Soulless From The Soul

FROM THE SOUL at the Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queen’s Park), to August 15. $24, stu/srs $21, half-price Friday 4:30-9:30 pm, free Wednesday 4:30-5:30 pm. 416-586-8000. Rating: NN


As people take to the streets for Caribana, the Association of African-Canadian Artists puts on its annual show, with a whopping 50 artists. Aimed at the Caribbean community and visitors in town for the event, it’s not the usual art world fare.

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Most of the participants are painters working in a commercial illustration style. Among the many celebrating music, standouts are Rachel Natalie Rawlins’s portraits of women grooving to headphones, David Vasquez’s colourful evocations of jazz musicians, and Izzy Ohiro’s bright elongated violin and bass players.

Pretty women, Caribbean scenes and posterish depictions of musical and political heroes abound, so those doing something a little different stand out. Nicole Peña and Janet Rose Manning employ swirling abstract patterns. Garett Campbell Wilson’s figures, executed with loose, Impressionist brushwork, and Darren McCalla’s pointillist sad-faced woman demonstrate technical mastery.

Work in other media also gets attention. The show’s only photographer, Jenny Baboolal, captures the merry crush of mas in her vibrantly hued portraits of paraders. More photography, please. And book artist Chantal Gibson’s Book/Mark, a large black rose of charred sheets of paper hanging from strings, inspired by The Book Of Negroes, seems to have wandered in from another world of gallery installation art.

It gives emerging artists exposure to viewers who might not visit art galleries, but From The Soul leaves me wondering: Where is the street art? If graffiti by Romanian Dan Perjovschi is okay at the ROM, why not by African Canadians? How about celebrating the people who make those amazing costumes? Are such ethnicity-based shows really a good idea? And if so, how about holding one at a more affordable venue?

art@nowtoronto.com

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