Kareem–Anthony Ferreira

Towards is pleased present Bright Sun, Cold Winter, an exhibition of new paintings by Kareem–Anthony Ferreira. 

Drawing upon familial photographs from Kareem’s early childhood, the works within Bright Sun, Cold Winter chart the Ferreira family’s relocation from Trinidad to Hamilton, Ontario, and the subsequent experiences and community they would go on to build there. 

Upon entering the gallery, viewers immediately encounter October of 93, a large-scale painting depicting the arrival of the artist’s younger brother. The artist’s father sits upright in a hospital chair, looking directly at the viewer with his new son propped against his chest. On the left is the artist, four years his brother’s senior, tenderly embracing the newest addition to the family. Ferreira masterfully captures the casual intimacy of this occasion, highlighting a moment that is simultaneously both profound and commonplace all at once.

Throughout Ferreira’s work, there is a productive tension between the seemingly “snap-shot like” compositions of the source material, and the level of care and detail in which he renders his subjects. His paintings are carefully considered, revealing a warmth and an intimacy and reverence for his subjects. His compositions hover back and forth between moments of representation and abstraction, with materially dense backgrounds being built up through collage.

Uniting the works within Bright Sun, Cold Winter is a story of contrast. Ferreria’s paintings oscillate between the intensely personal and the universally identifiable. They are about the countless, quiet moments, shared with loved ones, that make up a life, while simultaneously charting a larger human story about resiliency, adaptation, and change.