This Toronto art collector showcases Black community, identity and power ⬇️ BlackHistoryMonth
Toronto dentist and art collector Kenneth Montague grew up in Windsor, Ont., and his parents would sometimes take the family across the border to attend baseball games or visit the Detroit Institute of Arts. It was there he first saw a riveting image shot in 1932 by New York photographer James Van Der Zee showing a Black couple in raccoon coats posing beside their Cadillac roadster outside a row of brownstones.
He has concentrated exclusively on Black artists, establishing the Wedge Gallery in Toronto in 1997 and then the non-profit Wedge Curatorial Projects, to show and support their work. Today, that Van Der Zee photograph is one of dozens included in, an art book issued by Aperture, a non-profit U.S. photography publisher. The subtitle is a geographic reference to West Africa and the countries of the diaspora: the Caribbean, Canada and the United States.
As Montague began collecting, he started the Wedge Gallery, so named for the shape of his Richmond Street loft in the Queen West neighbourhood. For five years, it hosted salons and exhibitions devoted to a growing collection of work by Black photographers. Montague built the venture as a testament to Black identity and also liked the idea the gallery was wedging itself into the mainstream.
While a lot of art by African Americans is being snapped up these days, much of it is by white collectors in the United States.
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