Sandra Brewster examines history, memory and movement

Known for her multifaceted practice across photography, drawing, painting, video and installation, Sandra Brewster uses her work to examine the Black diasporic experience, often presenting images that appear both fleeting and enduring.

Unlike conventional photography that captures a single moment, Brewster’s portraits suggest movement and transformation. Figures appear weathered or still forming, evoking layers of history and memory. “I’m intrigued when something becomes worn, because the wear carries histories and stories and memories — the evidence of people over a long period of time,” she said. Through this approach, she aims to convey the complexity and continuity of Black identity.

Brewster’s art has been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally, including at Toronto’s Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her work is now featured at the National Gallery of Canada as part of the Sobey Art Award exhibition, with the winner to be announced on November 8.

For the exhibition, Brewster selected works that reflect dialogue and connection. Feeding Trafalgar references an old photograph of her mother feeding pigeons in London’s Trafalgar Square. The piece evokes movement, freedom and history, while drawing attention to the influence of environment and social structures on human life. Another piece, Guyana Girls, is a three-panel photograph depicting schoolchildren in uniform taken during a visit to Guyana in 2005.

A layered video and screenshot series titled Take a Little Trip honours influential Black figures, including Nina Simone, Minnie Riperton, Toni Morrison, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Josephine Baker and activist Claudia Jones. The work interweaves interviews discussing culture, politics and community, inviting reflection on shared legacies.

Other installations include long mylar panels depicting the Essequibo River in Guyana, a recurring metaphor for migration and passage, and Blur, a recently published book containing “almost portraits” of people in motion. Brewster transfers photographic images to paper to create tactile surfaces that reference aged photographs, further emphasizing the intersection of memory, time and identity.

Brewster describes her practice as an exploration of being, using her materials to investigate surfaces that appear unfinished or in transition. She views her art as a means to bring internal reflections into the public sphere, encouraging viewers to consider history, identity and community in nuanced ways.

Her artistic path has been lifelong, rooted in a family environment that fostered creativity. Though she initially worked in arts-adjacent roles, Brewster eventually committed to making art her central focus, navigating the precarious nature of an artist’s life with determination. For her, the process of creation and reflection is inseparable from understanding the lived experience of Black communities across time and space.

Through her intricate layering of media and narrative, Brewster invites audiences to confront both personal and collective histories, offering a visual language that is at once reflective, probing and enduring.