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Archives 2023 Public Art

Sunday School Feels Like Home: billboards

May 1 – June 2, 2023
  • Billboards on Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and College St
    Jeremy Rodney-Hall, The Hair Appointment, 2018. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Jeremy Rodney-Hall, The Hair Appointment, 2018. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

Founded by Josef Adamu in Toronto in 2017, Sunday School is a creative agency bringing together visual artists from across Africa and the diaspora to share compelling stories. This two-part presentation—including an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario and selected billboards in Toronto—celebrates Sunday School’s first major display in the city, foregrounding notions of identity, fashion, and culture at the intersection of art and education.

Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

The six larger-than-life billboards located at the bustling intersections of Lansdowne Avenue at Dundas Street West and at College Street bring Sunday School’s unique and vibrant reflections of Black identities to the city’s west end. Their subtle gestures and mindful depictions underscore photography’s powerful ability to forge connections, relating to African and diasporic communities represented across Toronto and globally. Highlighting selected images from four series—The Hair Appointment (2018), Obaasima (2020), Ten Toes Down (2021), and Jump Ball: Mighty Migration (2020) —this public installation considers contemporary discourses around the notion of home, for home is an inhabited space both tangible and intangible.

Joshua Kissi, Jump Ball: Mighty Migration, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Joshua Kissi, Jump Ball: Mighty Migration, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Kreshonna Keane, Ten Toes Down, 2021. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Kreshonna Keane, Ten Toes Down, 2021. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

Home is a place, our people, our surroundings. Home feels familiar.

Home is the body. Home is self-expression.

Home is not restricted to private spaces. Home is unity.

Most importantly, home is created in each other’s company.

Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

Read more about the exhibition related to this project, presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Curated by Emilie Croning & Sunday School

  • Sunday School is a creative agency founded in Toronto by Josef Adamu in 2017 in an effort to offer unique perspectives through visual stories and experiences. Bringing together creatives from around the world, the agency aims to shed light on notions of identity, fashion and culture at the intersection of art and education. Sunday School has since gained international recognition for their many collaborations and projects, while actively pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.

Installation Images

  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

Jake Kimble Grow Up #1

460 King St W

Artist Jake Kimble, a Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłıné) from Treaty 8 Territory in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Maïmouna Guerresi Sebaätou Rijal & Villes Nouvelles and Ancient Shadows

Aga Khan, Aga Khan Park

The work of Italian-Senegalese multimedia artist Maïmouna Guerresi invites viewers to look...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Jake Kimble Grow Up #4

Artscape Youngplace Billboard

Artist Jake Kimble, a Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłıné) from Treaty 8 Territory in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Nadya Kwandibens Shiibaashka’igan: Honouring the Sacred Jingle Dress

Artscape Youngplace Billboard

This outdoor component of the exhibition Materialized presents an image by newly-appointed...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Memory Work Collective Memory Work

The Bentway

Situated at the Strachan Gate entrance to the Bentway, Memory Work is...

Archives 2022 Public Art

Genesis Báez Groundcover

The Bentway

Brooklyn-based artist Genesis Báez grew up between the northeastern United States and...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Night Swimming

Davisville Subway Station

Working between the United Arab Emirates and New York, Lebanese-American artist Farah...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Maggie Groat DOUBLE PENDULUM: billboards

Dupont and Dovercourt Billboard

Presented across three sites in Toronto—at CONTACT Gallery, on billboards, and in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Maggie Groat DOUBLE PENDULUM: Harbourfront

Harbourfront Centre parking pavilion

Presented across three sites in Toronto—at CONTACT Gallery, on billboards, and in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Sunday School Feels Like Home: billboards

Lansdowne & College Billboards

Founded by Josef Adamu in Toronto in 2017, Sunday School is a...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Writing Without Words: The Autoportraits of Hélène Amouzou

Metro Hall

Togolese-Belgian photographer Hélène Amouzou creates distinctive imagery through long exposures, generating photographic...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Robert Burley The Last Day of Work

Mount Dennis Library

Known for his inspiring colour vistas of urban architecture and landscape, Canadian...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Vid Ingelevics & Ryan Walker Greenwork

Port Lands

Since 2019, Toronto-based artists Vid Ingelevics and Ryan Walker have photographically documented...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Anique Jordan these times, 2019

The Power Plant façade

Presented as a billboard on The Power Plant’s south façade, these times,...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Nabil Azab Just How We Found It

Runnymede and Ryding Billboards

In tandem with his solo exhibition The Big Mess With Us Inside...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Seif Kousmate Waha (Oasis)

Strachan and King Billboards

Waha (“oasis” in Arabic) is Moroccan photographer Seif Kousmate’s three-year–long research-based project...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Sarah Palmer Wish You Were Here

Summerville Olympic Pools

In Wish You Were Here, Toronto-based photographer Sarah Palmer documents the world...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Esmaa Mohamoud The Brotherhood FUBU (For Us, By Us)

Westin Harbour Castle, Harbour Square Park

Focusing on the physical connection between Black male bodies by amplifying the...

Archives 2022 Public Art
CorePublic ArtOpen CallArtists
  • Core
  • Public Art
  • Open Call
  • Artists
Archives 2023 Public Art

Sunday School Feels Like Home: billboards

May 1 – June 2, 2023
  • Billboards on Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and College St
    Jeremy Rodney-Hall, The Hair Appointment, 2018. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Jeremy Rodney-Hall, The Hair Appointment, 2018. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

Founded by Josef Adamu in Toronto in 2017, Sunday School is a creative agency bringing together visual artists from across Africa and the diaspora to share compelling stories. This two-part presentation—including an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario and selected billboards in Toronto—celebrates Sunday School’s first major display in the city, foregrounding notions of identity, fashion, and culture at the intersection of art and education.

Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

The six larger-than-life billboards located at the bustling intersections of Lansdowne Avenue at Dundas Street West and at College Street bring Sunday School’s unique and vibrant reflections of Black identities to the city’s west end. Their subtle gestures and mindful depictions underscore photography’s powerful ability to forge connections, relating to African and diasporic communities represented across Toronto and globally. Highlighting selected images from four series—The Hair Appointment (2018), Obaasima (2020), Ten Toes Down (2021), and Jump Ball: Mighty Migration (2020) —this public installation considers contemporary discourses around the notion of home, for home is an inhabited space both tangible and intangible.

Joshua Kissi, Jump Ball: Mighty Migration, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Joshua Kissi, Jump Ball: Mighty Migration, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Kreshonna Keane, Ten Toes Down, 2021. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School
Kreshonna Keane, Ten Toes Down, 2021. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

Home is a place, our people, our surroundings. Home feels familiar.

Home is the body. Home is self-expression.

Home is not restricted to private spaces. Home is unity.

Most importantly, home is created in each other’s company.

Carlos Idun-Tawiah, OBAASIMA, 2020. Courtesy of Sunday School. ©Sunday School

Read more about the exhibition related to this project, presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Curated by Emilie Croning & Sunday School

  • Sunday School is a creative agency founded in Toronto by Josef Adamu in 2017 in an effort to offer unique perspectives through visual stories and experiences. Bringing together creatives from around the world, the agency aims to shed light on notions of identity, fashion and culture at the intersection of art and education. Sunday School has since gained international recognition for their many collaborations and projects, while actively pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.

Installation Images

  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
  • Sunday School, Feels Like HOME, 2023, installation view, billboards at Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St W and at College St, Toronto. Courtesy of the artists and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

Jake Kimble Grow Up #1

460 King St W

Artist Jake Kimble, a Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłıné) from Treaty 8 Territory in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Maïmouna Guerresi Sebaätou Rijal & Villes Nouvelles and Ancient Shadows

Aga Khan, Aga Khan Park

The work of Italian-Senegalese multimedia artist Maïmouna Guerresi invites viewers to look...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Jake Kimble Grow Up #4

Artscape Youngplace Billboard

Artist Jake Kimble, a Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłıné) from Treaty 8 Territory in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Nadya Kwandibens Shiibaashka’igan: Honouring the Sacred Jingle Dress

Artscape Youngplace Billboard

This outdoor component of the exhibition Materialized presents an image by newly-appointed...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Memory Work Collective Memory Work

The Bentway

Situated at the Strachan Gate entrance to the Bentway, Memory Work is...

Archives 2022 Public Art

Genesis Báez Groundcover

The Bentway

Brooklyn-based artist Genesis Báez grew up between the northeastern United States and...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Night Swimming

Davisville Subway Station

Working between the United Arab Emirates and New York, Lebanese-American artist Farah...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Maggie Groat DOUBLE PENDULUM: billboards

Dupont and Dovercourt Billboard

Presented across three sites in Toronto—at CONTACT Gallery, on billboards, and in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Maggie Groat DOUBLE PENDULUM: Harbourfront

Harbourfront Centre parking pavilion

Presented across three sites in Toronto—at CONTACT Gallery, on billboards, and in...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Sunday School Feels Like Home: billboards

Lansdowne & College Billboards

Founded by Josef Adamu in Toronto in 2017, Sunday School is a...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Writing Without Words: The Autoportraits of Hélène Amouzou

Metro Hall

Togolese-Belgian photographer Hélène Amouzou creates distinctive imagery through long exposures, generating photographic...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Robert Burley The Last Day of Work

Mount Dennis Library

Known for his inspiring colour vistas of urban architecture and landscape, Canadian...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Vid Ingelevics & Ryan Walker Greenwork

Port Lands

Since 2019, Toronto-based artists Vid Ingelevics and Ryan Walker have photographically documented...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Anique Jordan these times, 2019

The Power Plant façade

Presented as a billboard on The Power Plant’s south façade, these times,...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Nabil Azab Just How We Found It

Runnymede and Ryding Billboards

In tandem with his solo exhibition The Big Mess With Us Inside...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Seif Kousmate Waha (Oasis)

Strachan and King Billboards

Waha (“oasis” in Arabic) is Moroccan photographer Seif Kousmate’s three-year–long research-based project...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Sarah Palmer Wish You Were Here

Summerville Olympic Pools

In Wish You Were Here, Toronto-based photographer Sarah Palmer documents the world...

Archives 2023 Public Art

Esmaa Mohamoud The Brotherhood FUBU (For Us, By Us)

Westin Harbour Castle, Harbour Square Park

Focusing on the physical connection between Black male bodies by amplifying the...

Archives 2022 Public Art

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CONTACT is a Toronto based non-profit organization dedicated to exhibiting, analyzing and celebrating photography and lens-based media through an annual festival that takes place every May.

Land Acknowledgement

CONTACT acknowledges that we live and work on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, and that this land is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. CONTACT is committed to promoting Indigenous voices; to generating spaces for ongoing, meaningful, and creative Indigenous-settler dialogue; and to continuous learning about our place on this land.

Anti-Oppression

CONTACT is committed to the ongoing development of meaningful anti-oppressive practice on all levels. This includes our continuing goal of augmenting and maintaining diverse representation, foregrounding varied and under-represented voices and perspectives via our public platform (the Festival and all related programs), as well as continually examining the structures of power and decision-making within the organization itself. We aim to actively learn, grow, and embody the values of inclusivity, equity, and accessibility in all facets of the institution, as an ever-evolving process.