Black artists go topless to call for more representation at Winnipeg Art Gallery

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is looking at ways to increase its representation of black artists, after a group of art students from the University of Manitobatook their shirts off and staged a provocative performance to call attention to the issue.

The artist who organized the performance on Feb. 22said it wasn't a protest, it wasa statement.

"I'm a painter,I'm a performer and I'm an artist," said ChukwudubemUkaigwe, a second-year art student from Nigeria.

"I think we needed to get past the protest and make it a performance art, so it's not forgotten like everyother protest," he said.

Ukaigwe said the group, which included two women, was able to get past security while carrying a saxophoneand madetheir way into the main section of the art gallery surrounded by European renaissance paintings.

Video of the performance shows the students walking around slowly while hummingand removing their shirts.

"We used ideas from art and performance to make a statement that's going to last and have a lot of impact," Ukaigwe said.

After almost 20 minutes he said securityshowed up and told them to stop and threatened to call police.

Ukaigwe is calling for more inclusion when it comes to work featuring black people's faces, and art made by black artists.

Hecame up with the idea after visitingseveral art galleries in Ontario last summer, and said he was shocked at the lack of black figures he saw in the paintings.

"I was just going from gallery to gallery and looking at paintings and it struck me to the point where I couldn't find any black figures in, like, Renaissance paintings and like all the older paintings and newer paintings, there's no black figures," he said.

He said when he came back to Winnipeg he also noticed a lack of blackart and programsat the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

"I looked at the catalogue at the WAG and it shocked me, " he said. "Are they not making any effort at all?"

"When I started doing research I noticed it wasn't just black figures. It was like Asians, there's no presence of Asians in a lot of art galleries," saidUkaige.

He adds there is a need for more art in the gallery from non-white artists.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery said it is listening.

"I totally agree," said Stephen Borys, the gallery's director and CEO.

"Itmeans the WAG is an active, accessible place and forum for dialogue, and it's a chance to work with them."

Boryssaid he believes there is room for more representation of black artists, and is open to learning more on what the students want to see.

'No harm was done but we learned something'

Boryssaid he thought the performancewas respectful even though the students were topless, but he said security did have to intervene for safety reasons.

"When visitors are coming in the building with objects and backpacks and boxes we do have to check them for security purposes."

He said the students were eventually asked to leave by security but they invited the students back to have a meaningfuldiscussion.

"No harm was done but we learned something," Borys said.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery has one of the largest indigenous collection of its kind in the world with plans to build a newInuit art centre.

Construction on the $65-million Inuit Art Gallery is expected to befinished by the spring of 2020.

But there are very few collections of African art.

"I wouldsay historically and to this date the WAG's collection focuses first on Winnipeg, Manitobaand Canadian art, and sometimes international collection," Borys said, adding that the gallery is planning to workwith Filipino artists in the future as well.

He said including more black artists in their collection is a work in progress.

"African American and African Canadian art are certainly areas we'd be interested in."

A meeting was scheduled to take place Thursday evening between officials from the WAG and the art students to hear more about their concerns.

Ukaigwe said he looks forward to having regular meetings with the WAG.

"We're not just talking aboutthe art community, we're looking at inclusion in terms of government, inclusion when it comes to public spaces, open spaces,inclusion when it comes to art."

He believes there is room in the community for more diverse art, andadds it's important for the younger generation.

"What you see really impacts on how you think or how you see yourself in the future, I feel like young kids who grow up and go to the gallery and don't see themselves in figures or as artists, they don't see themselves as accepted."

Borys said the Winnipeg Art Gallery willcontinueto consult with various groups on how to change the collections of art that reflectthe people who live in the community.

"We also want to reflect what's out there, and art making is changing with everydecade."

Performance art with a purpose

6 years ago

Duration 1:15

Art students go topless to draw attention to what they say is a lack of representation of black artists at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.