Published on June 15, 2023
We are thrilled to showcase an incredible art piece created by the talented Anthony Leger in honour of Pride Month.
His stunning work can be found on our windows in the North section of our Colonel By Foyer and will be displayed throughout the summer months, including during Capital Pride. Anthony’s piece brilliantly captures the spirit of Pride and celebrates the diversity of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. We are honored to stand in solidarity with the community and provide a safe and inclusive space for all.
Queer art has always been here, and it won’t be forgotten
“This piece highlights queerness in visual arts, unity, and acceptance among the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Many people are familiar with the art world and its icons. Yet, not everyone may realize that some of those iconic artists are part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community because art history has forgotten or diminished the influence of queerness in visual arts throughout the years. For this pride season, I wanted to highlight the works of different queer artists and their impact on the art scene as a way to commemorate their practices and to recognize their impacts on the queer art scene. As a young queer artist, their practices inspired and influenced me. This mural is a homage that offers an educational component to the public and other queer artists so that we can celebrate them.
Visually there is a reference to The Dance by Henri Matisse, an iconic painting that has been used in many ways. The composition was highly conceptualized around that piece due to its influence and meaning, even though Matisse himself wasn’t queer. Furthermore, this piece represents unity, acceptance, and joy. It includes different queer artists and icons such as Keith Haring, Kent Monkman (AKA Miss Chief Eagle Testickle), Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Claude Cahun.”
Anthony Leger, Artist
About the Artist
Anthony Léger is an emerging queer French-Canadian artist. He was born in Aylmer, Québec, Canada where he grew up and still resides. His passion for creating started at a young age by exploring a multitude of mediums and techniques, but discovered photography where his professional practice started. Exploring the photographic lens led him to study the visual arts where he obtained his college degree at the Cégep de l’Outaouais in Visual Arts. Later he continued his studies studying visual arts at the University of Ottawa to obtain his bachelor’s degree. Through his academic exploration, he developed his practice under a photographic lens while exploring a multitude of avenues and influences. The young artist doesn’t only use one medium, he prefers to use the medium that is best suited for his vision and concept, which it concentrates most of the time on photography, painting or collage work. His art is inherently queer due to him being a queer a man. His experiences and influences of queerness, through queer art and queer representation, informs his work greatly. At the moment, he is exploring the banal, the extraordinary and the daily life under their multiple aspects. He also has a fascination for the concept of time in occurrence to memories, due to his capability of associating his own memories to the approximate date and time that they happened. Another topic explored in his work is his relationship with the online world. Growing up in that atmosphere and seeing the world change progressively into a virtual space, makes him wonder how it interacts with our experiences and our global human condition.
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