<div dir="ltr"><div><div><span id="gmail-m_-4903184539975422575gmail-docs-internal-guid-ec3fb667-7fff-d363-b7c5-a565a22f0a9e"><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:2.28704;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><b><span style="font-size:large;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap">Denyse Thomasos</span><br></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:2.28704;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap"><font size="4"><b>Odyssey  </b></font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:8.00861pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font size="4">November 27, 2021 – February 20, 2022</font></span><span style="font-size:large;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:8.00861pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font size="4">Curated by Gaëtane Verna and Sarah Milroy  </font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:8.00861pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;font-size:11.0294pt;font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:8.00861pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;font-size:14.0266pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap">Denyse Thomasos: Odyssey  </span><br></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.54895pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.9885pt;font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols",sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">• </span><span style="font-size:11.9885pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">AGGV to host only stop in Western Canada  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.649353pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.9885pt;font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols",sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">• </span><span style="font-size:11.9885pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Organized by McMichael Canadian Art Collection  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:11.4485pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria presents the ground-breaking and much anticipated  exhibition </span><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Denyse Thomasos: Odyssey</span><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, opening on Nov. 27 with a free Public Open  House, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.8123pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"We are grateful that our community will have the opportunity to experience the powerful  work of Denyse Thomasos. Work that has the capacity to provoke in us questions,  curiosity, and a range of emotions that connect deeply with the human condition,” said  AGGV Curator of Engagement, Nicole Stanbridge. “This is articulated so poignantly by Esi  Edugyan, the Victoria-based award-winning novelist, who contributed a moving and  insightful essay to the exhibitions catalogue that references how Thomasos' work lives in  a place of tension between things, like freedom and confinement, Edugyan states; "the  work is subtle and refuses to show us what we expect to see.”  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.968pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The exhibition is co-curated by Gaëtane Verna, Director of The Power Plant  Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, and Sarah Milroy, Chief Curator of the McMichael  Canadian Art Collection. The show brings together more than 50 works from every phase  of Denyse Thomasos’ (1964–2012) career, celebrating her historic contribution to  Canadian art.  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.9823pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Denyse Thomasos was a Trinidadian-Canadian artist whose epic paintings incorporate  imagery from a range of sources, including Caribbean textiles, historic slave ships,  industrial shipyards, graveyards, villages and maximum security prisons.  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.9823pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Thomasos explained her choice of subject matter in an artist statement in 2012, shortly  before her untimely death: “I was struck by the premeditated, efficient, dispassionate  records of human beings as cargo and also by the deplorable conditions of the slave  ships—so many Africans stacked and piled into the tiny, airless holds. In my artworks, I  used lines in deep space to recreate these claustrophobic conditions, leaving no room to  breathe. To capture the feeling of confinement, I created three large-scale black-and white paintings of the structures that were used to contain slaves—and left such  catastrophic effects on the black psyche: the slave ship, the prison, and the burial site.  These became archetypal for me. I began to reconstruct and recycle their forms in all of  my works.”  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.9712pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The structures that confine and define us — whether political, social or architectural —  served as the subject of her works. With her lush painterly approach, Thomasos  compounded these subjects into form and colour. The result is a body of work that recalls  the history of the African diaspora with boundless energy and force. Thomasos’ art enacts  a delicate balance between representation and abstraction, and holds a unique place in  the history of Canadian art, adding to a narrative from which Black, Indigenous, and  people of colour’s voices have for too long been excluded. The McMichael’s exhibition  gathers works from all phases of Thomasos’ career in celebration of her historic  contribution.  </span><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.9712pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">About the Artist </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin:0pt 2.15918pt 0pt 0.285517pt;text-indent:0.397654pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Denyse Thomasos was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, emigrating with her family to Toronto at the age of six, where they joined the city’s  dynamic Afro-Caribbean community. She studied at the University of Toronto and Yale School of Art, eventually taking up a teaching  position at Rutgers University. Her extensive international travels and research fuelled her understanding of the histories and legacies of  oppression, examining the ways in which we organize ourselves in physical and social space.  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin:12.9823pt 0.598938pt 0pt 0.00998306pt;text-indent:0.385721pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Denyse Thomasos: Odyssey </span><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue including a curatorial conversation between Verna and Milroy, as  well as an essay by illustrious Victoria based author Esi Edugyan. The catalogue is available at the AGGV Gallery Shop.  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-left:0.23036pt;margin-top:12.8621pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The exhibition runs through Feb. 20, 2022 with support from TD Ready Commitment.  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-left:0.759266pt;margin-top:12.4487pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">For more information visit <a href="http://aggv.ca/" target="_blank">aggv.ca</a>  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:8.00861pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;font-size:11.0294pt;font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap">Media Contact:  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.568649pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">See <a href="http://aggv.ca/" target="_blank">aggv.ca</a> for details </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.9885pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Sandra Hudson  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11.9885pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">250-216-1380  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-size:11.9885pt;font-weight:normal"><a href="mailto:media@aggv.ca" target="_blank">media@aggv.ca</a> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-size:11.9885pt;font-weight:normal"><br></span></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-size:11.9885pt;font-weight:normal"><i>Photo Credits:</i></span></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Denyse Thomasos (1964–2012)</span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><i>Sparrow,</i> 2010</span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Acrylic on canvas</span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">152.4 x 182.9 c m</span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">© Courtesy of the Estate of Denyse Thomasos and Olga Korper Gallery</span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Denyse Thomasos (1964–2012)</span><br style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Odyssey, 2011</span><br style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Acrylic on canvas</span><br style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">185.4 x 243.8 cm</span><br style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">© Courtesy of the Estate of Denyse Thomasos and Olga Korper Gallery</span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></span></p><p style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(143,145,156);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></span></p></span></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Art Gallery of Greater Victoria  </span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">1040 Moss Street  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-size:11.0294pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.262299pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><img src="https://aggv.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/email-logo.png" width="96" height="61" style="font-family: tahoma, arial, sans; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700;"><br></p></div></blockquote></blockquote></div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p style="font-weight:700;font-family:tahoma,arial,sans;font-size:10pt"><i style="font-size:13.3333px;font-weight:400">With deep gratitude for living and working on these beautiful lands of the Lkwungen people, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.</i></p></div></div></div>