Fall Arts Preview: See Family Patterns at the AGNS

Family Patterns
Oct 16-Feb 28, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1723 Hollis Street

“We’re not really represented a lot…or in a positive light,” artist Letitia Fraser told The Coast back in 2019, explaining why her portraits of the African Nova Scotian community are so vital as she was showcasing her first exhibit, at the Anna Leonowens Gallery. “I just wanted to give people a look into my community through my lens and see what we’re actually like, as opposed to what you might hear somewhere else.”

Fraser’s rich brushwork and warm tones have been capturing the art world by storm ever since, with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia even scooping up a few Fraser originals for its permanent collection. Now, the AGNS gives the North Preston painter a much-deserved spotlight as part of the show Family Patterns, on view starting October 16. Sharing the exhibit alongside Fraser? The Halifax-based artist Darcie Bernhardt, winner of Creative Nova Scotia’s 2020 Indigenous Artist Recognition Award for their oil-on-canvas renderings of everyday moments of familial life from their Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories childhood.