Persimmon Blackridge

Persimmon Blackridge:  Emma Goldman at the Frick Museum

This exhibition brings together sculpture, story, history, humour, and political imagination. The work begins with Emma Goldman, the notorious anarchist, feminist, and activist, but opens into a much wider conversation about wealth, inequality, power, racism, immigration, activism, and the ways history continues to echo(!!) in the present.

Many of you will already know Persimmon as an artist, an extraordinary creative presence and neighbor. A celebrated Canadian trailblazer in socially engaged art, with a long practice rooted in queer, feminist, and disability art. Her work has been shown widely across Canada and internationally and has played an important role in conversations around identity, access, justice, and lived experience.

The exhibition is visually stunning in the Hornby Arts Centre, but it is also deeply layered. This is the kind of show that rewards time, reflection, and return visits. We are very pleased to have it on for a longish run, giving visitors the chance to come back, listen, look closely, and absorb the full story of the work.