Dawit L. Petros | The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

Tiwani Contemporary is delighted to announce Dawit L. Petros⁠’s participation in the group show We Are Story: The Canada Now Photography Acquisition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, on view from January 28, 2023.
 
We Are Story: The Canada Now Photography Acquisition brings together ten artists who showcase the vitality and range of contemporary Canadian photography.
 
Featuring recent works by asinnajaq, Raymond Boisjoly, Aaron Jones, Laurie Kang, Robert Kautuk, Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill, Sanaz Mazinani, Jalani Morgan, Louie Palu and Dawit L. Petros, this exhibition is curated by AGO Curatorial Fellow Marina Dumont-Gauthier with Sophie Hackett, AGO Curator, Photography.
 
The works, all new to the AGO Collection, were purchased through the Canada Now Photography Acquisition Initiative, conceived in 2020 by Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky and gallery owner Nicholas Metivier in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on artists across the country.
 
The AGO is grateful for the generous support of a Photography Fellowship provided by the Schulich Foundation.
 
About the artist: 
 
Dawit L. Petros is an Eritrean-born, Canadian-raised, Chicago and Montreal-based artist. He spent his formative years in Ethiopia and Kenya before settling in Saskatchewan with his family in the 1980s. These experiences of migration helped shape his artistic practice. Through his work, Petros investigates the entanglements of colonialism and modernism that bind Africa and Europe − from both a historical and contemporary point of view. He works across a range of media, including sculpture, video, sound and installation, but his core medium is photography. His photographs raise questions about displacement, identity and the transnational experience of cultural negotiation.
November 15, 2022