Trinidadian-Canadian painter is putting faces on the walls of the Starving Artist Gallery

By Stephen Weir

Marley Berot

IT is not every day that an 18-year gets her own art show in Toronto. There is a dearth of gallery space in the city and usually the wall space is reserved for well-established artist.  But, in the case of Marley Berot, there are not many people who  paint like this Burlington native.

The Trinidadian-Canadian artist will open her first show at the Starving Artist Restaurant and Gallery at 467 Danforth Avenue on April 7, with a kick-off reception starting at 3 p.m.. The Starving Artist is open seven days a week( 9 a.m. – 6 p.m). and her acrylic paintings will stay on the walls until May 18.

“There is so much talk and strife about skin colour and ethnicity these days,” Berot told the Caribbean Camera. “I don’t see the soul that way.  My portraits show the inner self. It is not just a white, black and brown world. The faces I paint can be green, or blue or any colour you want!”

Berot calls the shows Instagram 8Image_Nation, based on her Instagram account of the same name.    “ I want to do more shows after this, but, I am still in school and I want to put in at least another year .The artist studies Fashion Design at Fanshaw College in London.

It could be that Marley Berot comes by her talents from her father Anthony.  He is the long-standing Toronto Caribbean Carnival’s well-know photographer and videographer Anthony Berot – a man quite used to seeing different coloured faces!