The Search for the Black Madonna and Green Tara: Winsom Winsom and Tara Darrall

Curated by Shannon Anderson, AGM Senior Curator

Over several decades, Winsom Winsom has expressed her own spiritual journey through her multimedia work and shared her knowledge as a mentor, teacher, and advocate for the arts. For this artist—who has travelled the world and now calls Mississauga her home—art and life are inextricably connected. Her work explores themes of freedom, survivance, resilience, and renewal within the context of the Black Atlantic experience. As a person of African, Maroon, Arawak, Spanish, and Scottish ancestries, Winsom draws from her mixed heritage to incorporate extensive symbolism and ritual references in her work, interpreting the elements, land, animal, and human presence within the context of Afro-centric value systems.

Featuring both existing and new bodies of work by this senior artist and self-described “child of the universe,” The Search for the Black Madonna and Green Tara traces the trajectory of Winsom’s emotional, physical, and spiritual journeys. The exhibition includes an expansive collaborative project with Winsom’s daughter, artist Tara Darrall. Together, they explore the layers of their mother-daughter relationship through a suite of paintings. Guided by aspects of the seven chakras—the energy centres within our bodies—these works are a personal meditation on the artists’ intertwined development of their identities.

ARTIST BIOS

An influential figure of the Canadian art world, Winsom Winsom has exhibited her work across Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean, including solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Image Factory Gallery (Belize), the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery (Kingston), and the African American Museum (Boston), as well as group exhibitions at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), A Space Gallery (Toronto), Articule (Montreal), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), and the 2024 Toronto Biennale, Precarious Joys. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards and grants, including an Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, the Marilyn Lastman Award from the City of Toronto Arts Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Since 2021 she has been based in Mississauga. Winsom is represented by Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto.

Tara Darrall was born and raised in Canada and has been painting her whole life. Art and creative expression were an integral part of her childhood, having been raised by an artistic mother and father. In her mid-twenties, Darrall started exhibiting her work in outdoor art exhibitions, small galleries, shops, and cafes. With a desire to experience the cultures of other countries, she subsequently lived, painted, and exhibited her work in Mexico, Belgium, Korea, and Hong Kong. She now divides her time between Mississauga, Canada, and San Pedro, Belize, where she continues her painting practice, teaches art classes, and is the owner and primary yoga teacher of Zen Belize studio. She primarily works with acrylic paint on canvas, focusing on capturing the joys of life and fleeting moments in time, both real and imagined, through bright and vibrant colours, layers of detail, movement, and composition.

Opening Reception: You’re invited to the opening reception on Sunday July 27, 2025, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. Artists will be in attendance, with a special performance by Mississauga-based singer Shweta Kamerkar.