David Hartman Captures Sandra Brewster’s Creative Process in New Short Film

Sandra Brewster is a Toronto-based artist working in drawing, video, photo-based works, and installation. Her themes focus on identity and representation, and movement in the depiction of gesture resulting in a reconsideration of the portrait genre. She uses specific landscapes as metaphors and manipulates old photographs to centre the people within them. Born to Guyanese parents living in Canada, her work often refers to the migration of Caribbean people from the region, suggesting a formation of identity that encompasses multiple geographies and temporalities, and a sense of identity that exists within the diaspora. Recent exhibitions include the Musée d’art Rouyn-Noranda (2023), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2022-23), The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2022), Les Rencontres d’Arles (2022), Hartnett Gallery, Rochester (2022), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2018–2022), and Or Gallery, Vancouver (2019).

David Hartman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose recent work is focused on the creative process of some of Canada’s most exciting visual artists. The films take the viewer into the private creative worlds of the artists and offer insight into what drives their work forward. The short films feature a range of artists, from the more established (Kent Monkman, Shelley Niro, Edward Burtynsky) to an exciting younger generation (Meryl McMaster, Jen Aitken, Zachari Logan, Linda Martinello). They have been distributed on PBS and Air Canada flights. David works in Toronto, Canada.