Where Visual and literary art meet

Two works by internationally acclaimed Black Canadian artists were installed outside the Red Chamber on September 18, 2020 — the first art display in the Senate arranged specifically to honour Canada’s Black artists.

Stolen Identities, by Winnipeg painter Yisa Akinbolaji, and Who’s Who in Canada 1927 — a mixed-media piece by Vancouver-based artist Chantal Gibson — will be on display for the next nine months.

“One of these artists is looking at the complexity of cultural identities now and one is addressing our systemic writing of Canadian history,” said Senator Patricia Bovey, an art historian and former gallery director who is chair of the Senate’s Artwork and Heritage Advisory Working Group.