I am very inspired by Dr. Kenneth Montague and The Wedge Collection. Established in 1997, his collection is one of Canada’s largest, privately owned contemporary art collections focusing on exploring African diasporic culture and contemporary Black life. In 2019 I attended a talk he gave at McMaster Museum of Art about Wedge Curatorial Projects and art collecting. You can read about that talk here. In January 2020 I went on an art road trip to Detroit to see works from the collection at The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context presented work that addresses the concerns, thoughts, and desires of contemporary artists from the Southern African region as they grapple with the legacy of post-colonial structures. You can read about that trip here. I have the Wedge Collection book As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, and the recently released record As We Rise: Sounds from the Black Atlantic. Yes, I’m a fan.
My appreciation of the Wedge Collection and in my interest in seeing what is in people’s art collections led to me to visit MOCA Toronto in September to see Dancing in the Light, an exhibition of portraiture drawn from The Wedge Collection. This exhibition is part of MOCA Toronto’s ongoing series, The City is a Collection, which brings some of Toronto’s most engaging private collections to the public.
Featuring the work of over 40 artists, Dancing in the Light examines portraiture across a variety of mediums as a way of entering into a more nuanced consideration of contemporary Black life. The curation and design of the exhibition by Farida Abu-Bakare and Kate Wong is thoughtful and inviting. This is the type of exhibition that makes you want to spend time taking it all in, staying a while. The long Research Table with seating and prominent placement adds to this feeling. The Research Table features books that have been important to Montague on his art collecting journey, as well as a selection of album covers from his collection of vinyl records. Don’t be like me and take a ton of photos of books to add to your reading list. Save yourself and download the Book and Records List from the MOCA website. MOCA Toronto invited DJ and cultural curator Kazeem Kuteyi to create a mix from records selected by Montague and the curators of the exhibition. The mix can be accessed via a QR code on the table or this link .
The Research Table
The Research Table
Dancing in the Light is in its final weeks, closing on February 4th.
Story by Glodeane Brown
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