Artist Talk with Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yero: The Hart House Centennial Art Commission

Hart House Centennial Commission at the University of Toronto
Artist Talk with Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yero

Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 12pm
Registration required. Click here to register.
The event is free and includes light refreshments following the Artist Talk.

Hart House at the University of Toronto is pleased to announce that the artist team Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yero are the winners of the 2019 Hart House Centennial Commission. The commission is a collaboration between Hart House and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, of which Hart House is a founding member. The completed work will be unveiled at a special 100th Anniversary Gala on November 12, 2019. It commemorates Hart House’s 100th anniversary as a student-focused centre at the University of Toronto where it plays a pivotal role as a diverse and inclusive gathering place.

The landmark commission will see a major public sculpture entitled waabidiziiyan doopwining (to see yourself at the table) transform the historic Great Hall. This permanent work seeks to acknowledge the history, narratives and people who came before us; to honour the land upon which we live and work today; and to imagine other possible futures for generations to come, from an Indigenous perspective.

Rebecca Belmore is a multi-disciplinary Anishnaabe artist from Lac Seul First Nation and is currently living in Toronto. She is internationally recognized for her installations, sculpture, photo-based and performance works, which often concentrate on land politics, issues of identity, and systemic violence against Indigenous people. She received the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 2016 and was the first Anishnaabe artist to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2005.

Osvaldo Yero immigrated to Canada in 1997 and currently lives in Toronto, where he works in sculpture and installation. Yero’s artistic practice is concerned with his experience as part of the growing diaspora of Cuba. Politically and socially charged, his work contends with issues of national identity and plays with the boundaries of kitsch and high art. His work is in collections in Canada and internationally.

Click here to read the full press release.

For more information about the 100^th Anniversary Gala on November 12, 2019, and other centennial events and initiatives taking place throughout the year, please visit harthouse100.ca.