While I was sitting in my car on Dundas waiting for the Art Gallery of Ontario to open, the rapper k-os was on CBC radio trying to explain what he meant when asked about an old quote in which he said the Tragically Hip helped him understand white people. He back-pedaled a bit, didn’t exactly remember saying just that, and then told a story about a girl he had a crush on in university. My guess is that he was thinking more about the band’s fans than the band itself, but it heightened my self-consciousness as a white critic on his way to see the two Black artists who were currently featured in the gallery’s contemporary floors. Art (and music in particular) has always been my gateway to learning about people with profoundly different experiences than my own, but the politics of that relationship are never simple. Hence k-os’ justified hesitation and my own concern with how I say what I would eventually say after seeing the exhibitions.

 First up (and now unfortunately down because it closed last weekend) Hurvin Anderson’s vibrant paintings of scenes from England and Trinidad reflect both personal and cultural history as they are grounded in his experience as the son of Jamaican parents growing up in Birmingham. The opportunity to see them from a variety of angles — be it in the boldness of their colour schemes, their connections to post-Doig Expressionism, or as approximations of dissipating visual memories — make them rewarding to behold, while at the same time opening the gates for an artist of colour to be seen amongst his equals.

Theaster Gates, How to Build a House Museum, installation shot (detail), 2016 (©Theaster Gates)

 Gate-opening is at the heart of Theaster Gates’ expansive installation How to Build a House Museum. His proposals for institutions dedicated to Black creativity are the gallery-bound symbolic spaces that parallel those houses he has realized in the world. Through his purchase of real estate in Chicago and his accumulation of archives such as DJ Frankie Knuckles’ record collection, he has created bricks-and-mortar institutions to house the history of the Black community. In doing so, he ensures that it remains a living thing that is as much about the present and the future as it is about the past.

 The first room to be entered, House of House, addresses the very questions of how and why such sites are created. The exhibition then proceeds by linking well-known figures like Knuckles, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Muddy Waters with lesser-known individuals like the brick maker George Black and 19th Century Black painter Robert S. Duncanson to weave together a history through visual cues that are at home in an art gallery — paintings, sculptures, installations, video projections — while also drawing some energy from the more propulsive environment of club culture.

Theaster Gates, How to Build a House Museum, installation shot (detail), 2016 (©Theaster Gates)

 Gates’ strength as an artist is his ability to generate — and see through to fruition — righteous projects that catalyze communities and feel like they are accomplishing something meaningful. Without his drive, it’s possible to be disappointed when you walk through the installation, to wonder what the deal is with the unexceptional graph-inspired paintings, to wish the music was louder, to imagine what it would feel like outside of this restrictive institution. The gallery houses the proposals, but doesn’t fulfill their promise. Gates is the mover and shaker who excites and inspires because he’s taking on the forces of history and bureaucracy to create something in a new way, something that teems with possibility. Those things are happening elsewhere and the exhibition only hints at that, but even a hint is reason enough to visit.


Art Gallery of Ontario: http://bit.ly/2bQNuPV
 Theaster Gates: How to Build a House Museum continues until October 30.


Terence Dick is a freelance writer living in Toronto. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art, BorderCrossings, Prefix Photo, Camera Austria, Fuse, Mix, C Magazine, Azure, and The Globe and Mail. He is the editor of Akimblog. You can follow his quickie reviews and art news announcements on Twitter @TerenceDick.

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