New exhibit from Toronto artist explores ‘true beauty of all colours’
Posted July 19, 2022 4:52 pm.
A new exhibit from a Toronto artist explores how the colour black can unveil the “true beauty of all colours.”
Black Palette: Colour Odyssey by Yaw Tony launches this Friday at Broken Cage Gallery on Richmond St.
Tony tells CityNews where his inspiration comes from “the idea of colour they see is like a collection of ourselves.” “So the concept of Black Palette is that when you mix all colors, you get black and when you take out the black, you get all the other colors.”
“The black is used as a means of a symbol that symbolizes the needs in life. So when we put the needs in life, everything that exists is pretty much fulfilled. When we take out the needs, there are some distractions or chaos in our society,” explained Tony.
He says his exhibit aims to answer five questions through the use of colour. They are:
- Who am I?
- Where am I from
- Why am I here?
- What can I do?
- Where am I going?
Many of the artworks he displayed are also inspired by folk stories from Ghana, where Tony was born and where his parents are from.
“I’m using storytelling to answer these questions, so most of the stories are extracted from folk stories coming from Ghana. There’s symbols called Adinkra that that I use to convey like moral structures in the Ghanian community. So are the Ghanaian culture.”
“There’s like 7.9 billion people on earth and I believe everybody has their own talent, their own gifts. But many people will never discover the gifts and so they will never become who they’re meant to be. So every human being is on an excursion.”
The exhibit will be free and will run for one month. If you would like to attend, organizers ask that you register online.
“I believe that the artwork is me. So whatever it is, they’re going to see who will be an extension of me. So how intricate how colorful how the forms or the use of colors that will be the I think that will be seen me in the our work.”
With files from Meredith Bond of CityNews
