Join us on September 5, 7pm, for the re-launch of Yaniya Lee’s sold-out book Selected Writing on Black Canadian Art. A compendium of essays, reviews, and artist interviews, written by Lee and mostly published between 2017 and 2021, the publication gathers the testimonies and achievements of African diasporic artists and curators from across Canada and beyond.

On the occasion of the book’s second printing by Art Metropole and figure ground, Lee will be in conversation with Artspeak’s Director Nya Lewis and The Polygon Gallery’s Curator Elliott Ramsey about the importance of writing Black Canadian art history. The discussion will be followed by a book signing.

Presented in partnership with Artspeak

Doors at 6:30pm
Conversation at 7:00pm
Signing at 8:00pm

RSVPs are helpful

Admission is by donation, courtesy of BMO Financial Group

About the speakers

Yaniya Lee is the author of Selected Writing on Black Canadian Art (2024, figure ground), and Buseje Bailey: Reasons Why We Have to Disappear Every Once in a While, A Black Art History Project (2024, Artexte). She has written about art for museums and galleries across Canada, as well as for The New York Times Magazine, British Vogue, Flash Art, The FADER, Art in America, Chatelaine, Asia Art Archive, Canadian Art and C Magazine. Lee is a PhD student in the department of Gender Studies at Queen's University.

Nya Lewis’s hybrid practice is a culmination of centuries of resistance, love, questions, actions, study rooted in the theorization of the conditions of diasporic cultural production. She holds an MFA in Curatorial Practice and Museum studies, working across the disciplines of art making, curating and writing. Lewis is a freelance critic and lecturer with institutions across Canada including The Polygon Gallery, Dunlop Gallery, Capture Photography Festival, Femme Art Review and Canadian Art, University of British Columbia, Royal Museum of Victoria, SFU Contemporary, Vancouver public Library, Printed Matter. She currently serves as the Director/Curator of Artspeak Gallery and Curator-in-residence at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Elliott Ramsey is Curator of The Polygon Gallery. He holds a Master of Arts in Comparative Media Arts (2015) from Simon Fraser University. Ramsey is an alumnus of the Association of Art Museum Curators’ Professional Alliance for Curators of Colour, and has sat on numerous panels, advisories, and art juries including the Sobey Award and Capture Photography Festival. His recent exhibition As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, presented by Aperture and featuring works from the Toronto-based Wedge Collection, is currently touring.