Welcome To Canada
ARTIST
Esther Calixte-Bea is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Longueuil of Haitian and Ivorian descent. Calixte-Bea is also a body hair activist known as “Queen Esie”. Her artistic practice expands through various art forms such as painting, photography, fashion and poetry. Her work addresses topics such as identity, individuality and vulnerability in various forms that are often inspired by her personal life and culture. Through her work she challenges the lack of diversity in the Quebec art industry. She confronts Eurocentric beauty standards by addressing the taboo of female body hair and glorifies it on the bodies of her black female character. Her body of work presents a universe full of vibrant colours, a safe space where everyone can be themselves unapologetically. Recently, Calixte-Bea has created a fictional tribe called Fyète Souhou-te, a complex group of women that live by their own rules. She has been studying visual arts since high school, completed her visual arts studies at Dawson College and received her Bachelor’s Degree at Concordia University in Painting and Drawing. Her work has been featured in the CANADIANART magazine, GLAMOUR UK, TVA Nouvelles and more. She exhibited in several group shows such as HUMA-I-N at Rad Hourani and This is what Compels me to Compel them at Livart to name a few.
LOCATION
Nine Circles
705 Broadway
(East-facing wall)
West Broadway BIZ
ABOUT / ARTIST STATEMENT
Esther Calixte-Bea’s “Welcome to Canada” illustrates a black-indigenous woman with a unibrow and visible arm hair smoking a cigarette in a landscape. She is covered by detailed drapery with illustrations of maple leaves surrounded by crows and legless Canadian birds. The issue addressed in the painting is Canada’s history of eraser of Black & Indigenous communities. It also addresses the lack of information and consideration of these groups as being part of Canadian history. The circle inside a square or squircle symbol, created by the artist, has many different meanings. It is used in Calixte-Bea’s work to represent unity while simultaneously representing the feeling of being stuck, spinning in circles, controlled & being blind. The work welcomes the hidden face/s of Canada by putting them in the forefront and paints a peaceful scenery with hidden meanings & disruptions.
PARTNERS & SUPPORTS
Wall-to-Wall Mural & Culture Festival, West Broadway BIZ, Synonym Art Consultation, Graffiti Art Programming, Signex Manufacturing Inc.