A landmark exhibition is making its only Canadian stop — and its North American debut — at the AGO in Toronto.

Featuring over 30 Black British artists, Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now was the first exhibition of its kind at London's Tate Britain. The Toronto edition opened at the AGO on Dec. 6 and runs until April 1 next year.

Julie Crooks, the AGO's curator of arts of global Africa and the diaspora, told blogTO the exhibition is about the journeys made by these artists and the Caribbean diaspora.

"Do you make the decision to stay there or you move on to other Commonwealth areas like Canada? And what does that journey look like?"

Neil Kenlock, Black Panther school bags, 1970, printed 2010. Gelatin silver print, Overall: 38.1 × 25.4 cm. Courtesy of the Neil Kenlock Archive. © Neil Kenlock

Crooks' colleague Karen Carter, of the Band Gallery, had seen the London show in 2021 and approached co-curator David Bailey about bringing it to Toronto. Crooks says it took about a year to fully bring the exhibition to life in the city.

The exhibition includes videos, installations, textiles, paintings, sculptures, and photography.

It also features an installation unique to the AGO — Michael McMillan's The Front Room: Inna Toronto/6ix.

Michael McMillan, The Front Room: Inna Toronto/6ix,2023. Mixed media site-specific installation, on view in Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art 1950’s – Now, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, December 6, 2023 – April 1, 2024. © Michael McMillan. Photo: Sean Weaver © AGO.

The English artist built a physical room based on fictional characters. These "front rooms" are meant to evoke the typical migrant home. In the AGO's front room, it's a Caribbean immigrant's home in Canada as shown by their photos, music, and furniture.

"Michael McMillan is taking the tropes of the Caribbean domestic life and inserting all of these different elements and tchotchkes and furniture to create this unique experience," Crooks says.

"So in Toronto, we suggested that perhaps the individual to whom this space belongs should be a nurse — someone who trained in London, like many Caribbean women had."

Michael McMillan, The Front Room: Inna Toronto/6ix,2023. Mixed media site-specific installation, on view in Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art 1950’s – Now, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, December 6, 2023 – April 1, 2024. © Michael McMillan. Photo: Sean Weaver © AGO.

In this case, the house is meant to belong to a woman named Gloria in the 1980s. She becomes a nurse in Scarborough and marries Marcus, a teacher from the Caribbean; together, they have two children, Marcus Jr. and Michelle. 

The images on the walls were provided by the Vintage Black Canada Archive.

Michael McMillan, The Front Room: Inna Toronto/6ix,2023. Mixed media site-specific installation, on view in Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art 1950’s – Now, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, December 6, 2023 – April 1, 2024. © Michael McMillan. Photo: Sean Weaver © AGO.

Other artists included in the exhibition are Aubrey Williams, Donald Locke, Horace Ové, Isaac Julien, Sonia Boyce, Barbara Walker, Alberta Whittle, Steve McQueen, and more.

The exhibition starts with the Windrush Generation — those who came to live in Britain between 1948 and 1971. Then it moves into the economic and social pressures of the following decades.

After that is a small section called "Caribbean Reimagined: Carnival and Creolization." Then comes McMillan's front room and the final section, which focuses on contemporary artists.

Alberta Whittle. We Remain With You, 2022. Raffia, acrylic, cotton, synthetic braiding hair, doillies, wool, felt and cowrie shells on linen, Overall: 172.7 × 165.1 × 20.3 cm. Courtesy of Alberta Whittle and Nicola Vassell Gallery © Alberta Whittle. Photo: Adam Reich Photography

As part of the programming for the exhibition, on Feb. 24 British-Trinidadian artist Zak Ové will be in conversation with Crooks to chat about his own work and the legacy of his father Horace, whose work is featured in the show. The younger Ové's 18-foot sculpture, Moko Jumbie, is on display at the AGO's Galeria Italia.

The exhibition can be seen with general admission to the gallery ($30) and is free for AGO members, annual pass holders, visitors aged 25 and under, and all Indigenous visitors.

If you're visiting the AGO for Life Between Islands, there are other major exhibitions on now to see too — Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody, on until March 17, and Kaws: Family on until March 31.