June Clark | Witness

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June Clark, “Harlem Quilt (detail),” 1997

photo transfers on fabric, light fixtures (courtesy of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery)

June Clark: Witness is the first survey in Canada of the Toronto-based artist June Clark, who, since the late 1960s, has developed a unique and groundbreaking practice spanning photo-based work, text, collage, installation, and sculptural assemblages. Born in Harlem, New York, Clark immigrated to Canada in 1968 and subsequently made Toronto her home. The questions of identity formation and their connection to our points of origin fuel her practice. In this deeply personal exhibition, she explores how history, memory, and identity—both individual and collective—have established the familial and artistic lineages that shape her work.

Organized by The Power Plant, June Clark: Witness brings together four significant bodies of work that stretch from the 1990s to the present, many of them seen here for the first time. These include her iconic installations Family Secrets, 1992, and Harlem Quilt, 1997, a series of photo-based works from 2004 titled 44 Thursdays in Paris, Perseverance Suite (a new project the artist began in 2021), and Homage, a collection of sculptural assemblages.

The exhibition also includes a body of work titled Unrequited Love, that is dedicated to Colin Rand Kaepernick, the football quarterback who knelt during the national anthem in 2016 to call attention to the continued violence towards and oppression of Black people in America and around the world. Initially presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in tandem with June Clark: Witness at The Power Plant, Unrequited Love will be shown as part of this iteration of Witness at Contemporary Calgary.