Sunday Scene: Nehal El-Hadi

Nehal El-Hadi is a writer, researcher, and editor whose work explores the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health). Currently, she is researching sand as a material through which to understand social, cultural, environmental, and geographical issues. Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine. She is in residency at the Theatre Centre in Toronto, where she is developing a live arts event that examines privacy, consent, and surveillance in public spaces.

Sandra Brewster is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto, whose work has been exhibited nationally and abroad. Through her community-based practice, she engages with themes including identity, representation, and memory, centering a Black presence located in Canada. The daughter of Guyanese-born parents, she is especially attuned to the experiences of people of Caribbean heritage and their ongoing relationships back home. Brewster’s meditations on being and place are expressed within her drawings, video, and photo-based mixed media works that range from 2-dimensional pieces to installations that incorporate the architecture of spaces.

Recent solo exhibitions include Blur at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2019/20), Token | Contemporary Ongoing at A Space Gallery in Toronto, Or Gallery in Vancouver and the Art Gallery of Guelph. Brewster’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions including Identity in Flux, organized by VISART, Rajko MamuzićGallery, Novi Sad, Serbia; travelling to National Gallery of Macedonia Skoplje in Northern Macedonia; Tivat Cultural Center Gallery in Montenegro; and Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art, organized by the Royal Ontario Museum, travelled to Musée des beaux arts in Montreal, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, NFL, Canada (publication forthcoming). Her works have been featured at LagosPhoto Festival 2018 in Nigeria, Aljira Contemporary Art Center in New Jersey, and Allegheny Art Galleries in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Brewster’s exhibition It’s all a blur… received the Gattuso Prize for outstanding featured exhibition of CONTACT Photography Festival 2017. She was the 2018 recipient of the Artist Prize from Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts. Brewster’s work is in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.Her works are currently on view as part of Breaking The Frame, curated by Phillip Prodger, Royal Ontario Museum (through January 16, 2022) and Fragments of Epic Memory, curated by Julie Crooks, Art Gallery of Ontario (through February 21, 2022) and Blur, an installation in the atrium of Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Upcoming exhibitions include: Blur, Harnett Gallery, University of Rochester, NY, USA (2022); and, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada (2022).

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Speakers from the world of art and beyond offer their responses to the current exhibitions for The Power Plant's Sunday Scene series. Whether focusing on a single work/artist or on multiple exhibitions, guest presenters draw provocative connections between our programs and broader cultural and intellectual debates.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 231 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Canada