u•n•i•t•y• | Simone Elizabeth Saunders

AUArts alum Simone Elizabeth Saunders explores personal history, Afro-diaspora, and Black sisterhood through bold and colourful textiles.

Borrowing motifs and iconography from her Jamaican heritage, art history, literature, music and current events, Simone Elizabeth Saunders creates tufted portraits of singular figures, each a montage of powerful, inspirational Black bodies that collectively surface as a strong and resilient community.

Portraits such as Lady Justice, young, courageous and keepin' six, or Four Queens, recalling Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau work Precious Stones, reconsider iconic figures and gestures in a contemporary light. Lady Justice takes a knee echoing Black Lives Matter and the senseless deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor amongst so many others, while the Four Queens pose seductively and defiantly above calls for Black Love, Black Dreams, Black Magic and Black Power.

This unabashed presence is common throughout all her works, at once challenging the viewer and demanding to be seen.

The exhibition "u•n•i•t•y•" is on at Contemporary Calgary until January 30, 2022.