Erika DeFreitas
The Black Madonnas of Great Echoes no. 4
About the Artwork
During an artist’s residency at Alice Yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, Erika DeFreitas learned of the Black Madonna, dark-skinned depictions of the Virgin Mary in Christian iconography, some of which may be connected to earlier or folk religions syncretised by the church. There was a Black Madonna in nearby Siparia, the hometown of the artist’s estranged father; the statue was once under the care of DeFreitas’s grandmother. This sealed the artist’s interest in “La Divina Pastora”. DeFreitas mirrors her late grandmother’s acts of robing the Black Madonna through collage, using magazine cutouts and photocopies of images of Black Madonna statues found throughout the world. In this exquisitely precise work, the face of one becomes the face of many.
The Black Madonnas of Great Echoes no. 4
2021
Framed collage, gold leaf on paper
Unique
9" x 12"
Estimate: $2,500
Courtesy the artist and Christie Contemporary, Toronto
About Erika DeFreitas
Erika DeFreitas’s (b. 1980, Toronto, ON) interdisciplinary practice includes performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, drawing and writing. Placing emphasis on gesture, process, the body, documentation and paranormal phenomena, DeFreitas mines concepts of loss, post-memory, legacy and objecthood. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery; Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, Winnipeg; Gallery TPW, Toronto; Project Row Houses and the Museum of African American Culture, Houston; Fort Worth Contemporary Arts; and Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita. She is featured prominently in the currently touring exhibition As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. Upcoming exhibitions include: The Performance of Shadows: Erika DeFreitas and Tim Whiten, Art Museum at University of Toronto; Doris McCarthy Gallery, Scarborough ON; and Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023, NY/NJ. Erika DeFreitas is represented by Christie Contemporary, Toronto.
