Ingrid Mesquita | Billboard Unveiling

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Ingrid Mesquita, "Untitled," 2018

oil on canvas, 48” x 48”. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Public Unveiling: Saturday, 3 December @ 3pm, with opening remarks by Mayor Alto. 

Artist in attendance.

With funds from the City of Victoria Participatory Budgeting campaign, the Victoria Arts Council has selected an artwork by local artist Ingrid Mesquita to be reproduced 10 feet by 10 feet and installed on the exterior of their main gallery at 1800 Store Street.

Partnering with STEPS Public Art, a national organization that fosters dynamic and inclusive communities through public art and creative placemaking, the VAC convened a selection panel of arts professionals, artists, curators, and community leaders who chose Mesquita's proposal from a dozen others submitted. Noting,

The untitled work by Victoria's Ingrid Mesquita is an illustration of identity that leaves an audience with a curiosity to uncover more… All the entries had something meaningful to say, which was wonderful to see, but Ingrid’s stood out. It is bold and vibrant, and clearly references identity, but not in a superficial way. There is a strength in the feminine gaze of the woman portrayed, and a hint that paths travelled had not all been easy. The image will undoubtedly spark conversation amongst the Victoria community as onlookers perceive the new billboard.

When informed that her work was selected for the new VAC Old Town billboard, the artist said, "Knowing how much immense talent there is in this city, being chosen is such an honour! This opportunity to share my work on a massive scale is both thrilling and surreal."

Ingrid Mesquita (born 1975) is an artist of Jamaican/European descent, who lives and works in Victoria, BC, Canada. She uses various disciplines including painting, textiles and woodworking. Her work layers realistic representation and symbolic components to explore human hybridity, transformation and identity. The disparities and inconsistencies between the inner world and outer veneer inspires much of Ingrid's work.

This project has been further supported by the Victoria Foundation who provided a community grant from The Racial Equity and Reconciliation Fund so that the VAC's Call to Artists could be translated through the Inter-Cultural Association, into Arabic, Punjabi, and Simplified Chinese reflecting the diversity of spoken languages locally.

"We designed this opportunity specifically to provide a platform for artists who are racialized, from Indigenous backgrounds, or who identify as a person of colour as a way of addressing historical prejudice and systemic barriers to access within equity deserving communities", says VAC Executive Director Kegan McFadden, "and we're honoured to be working with Ingrid Mesquita in such a huge way."