September 19, 2024 – April 6, 2025
AGO
A vibrant installation centred on the vocal performances of four Black female musicians, Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way opens on Sept. 19, 2024, at the Art Gallery of Ontario in partnership with the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art. Recipient of the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, stepping into this immersive exhibition is to become a part of the rehearsal process, as visitors encounter five colour-tinted videos, sounds both harmonious and clashing, wallpapers, posters, reflective gold geometric structures and a rich display of music memorabilia.
As a key figure in the Black Arts Movement in the early 1980s — whose work was last seen at the AGO as part of Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art, 1950s–Now — Boyce’s recent work explores the intersection of art and social interaction. Blurring the line between artist and audience, Boyce utilizes performance and audio-visual elements, encouraging collaboration, improvisation, and participation.
For Feeling Her Way, she set out to explore how listening to people vocalize freedom, imagination and playfulness can lead to new possibilities for the future. “My desire in bringing you together,” Boyce describes, “is to explore how you might feel free. What kind of conditions might you need to feel free to express yourself, when not constricted by what others feel you should be or could be? What does it mean to feel free … and how might you play?’
Spanning two adjacent galleries, the centrepiece of the exhibition are videos featuring improvised vocal performances by acclaimed musicians Poppy Ajudha, Jacqui Dankworth MBE, Sofia Jernberg, and Tanita Tikaram. Recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London and Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, the singers are guided by award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen CBE. Wallen leads them beyond the safety of their perfected and polished vocal stylings into a space of humour, discomfort, delight, and unguarded experimentation.
Sonia Boyce, Feeling Her Way, 2022. Commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion for the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2022. © Sonia Boyce (Copyright Visual Arts-CARCC, 2023). Installation view, Leeds Art Gallery, 2023. Image credit: Rob Battersby.
These videos play amidst a vibrantly collaged backdrop of tessellating wallpaper, and reflective gold geometric seating. The surfaces of the gold geometric objects – referencing the mineral, Pyrite – reflect their surroundings and visitors as they approach, immersing them in the performance space.
Co-curated by Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López, with Emilie Croning, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of Global Africa & the Diaspora, AGO, Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is a highlight of the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art. The Canadian presentation of Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is initiated and organized by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. Additional programming details will be announced closer to opening.
“Boyce’s ability to translate into sound and video the often-intangible qualities of collaboration and playfulness, stems entirely from her generosity and commitment to exploring what it means to give artists voice,” says Emilie Croning, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of Global Africa & the Diaspora, AGO.
“Sonia’s collaborative efforts, which always emphasize audience involvement, highlight cultural differences and their mediation within artwork and showcase the evolving dynamics between the artist, vocalists, and audience members,” says Dominique Fontaine & Miguel A. López, co-curators, 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art.
Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way opens Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. for AGO Members, and to Annual Pass holders and the public on Saturday, September 21, 2024. Admission to Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is free for all Ontarians under 25, Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members and Annual Passholders. On view through April 6, 2025, same day tickets can be booked in person and online. For more details on how to book your tickets or to become a Member or Annual Passholder, visit AGO.ca.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sonia Boyce DBE RA (born 1962) is a British interdisciplinary artist and academic working across film, drawing, photography, print, sound, and installation. A key figure in the Black Arts Movement in the early 1980s, Boyce continues to address issues of race and gender in Britain. Her recent work explores the intersection of art and social practice. She utilizes performance and audio-visual elements, encouraging collaboration, improvisation, and participation to blur the lines between artist and audience. In 2024, the artist received an DBE for art services in the King’s New Year Honours List and holds Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, The Courtauld, and Birmingham City University, UK. Her work appears in the collections of many British and international museums, including the TATE in London, Saastamoinen Foundation in Helsinki, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is presented at the AGO in partnership with the Toronto Biennial of Art 2024. The Canadian presentation of Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is initiated and organized by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. The work was originally commissioned by the British Council for the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2022. The Biennial is from September 21 – December 1 at venues across Toronto – for more information visit torontobiennial.org or @torontobiennial
ABOUT THE AGO
Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists to European masterpieces. The AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, including solo exhibitions and acquisitions by diverse and underrepresented artists from around the world. The AGO is embarking on the seventh expansion project undertaken since it was founded in 1900. When completed the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection and reflect the people who call Toronto home. With its groundbreaking Annual Pass program, the AGO is one of the most affordable and accessible attractions in the GTA. Visit ago.ca to learn more.
About LG Electronics Canada, Inc.
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About the Toronto Biennial of Art
The Toronto Biennial of Art’s mission is to make contemporary art accessible to everyone. A ten-week event every two years, the Biennial commissions artists to create new works for a city-wide exhibition in dialogue with Toronto’s diverse local contexts. Year-round public and learning programs bridge Biennials and invite intergenerational audiences to explore the ideas that inspire our events. Building upon past editions and offering new ways of seeing and listening, each Biennial connects people to spark meaningful dialogues and imagine new futures.
