‘Fall in love with your choices’
Contemporary art curator, director’s home gallery is a collection of emotional connections
If it involves contemporary art, Ashley McKenzie-Barnes has been involved: creating, curating and collecting, for starters. Then there’s branding, installations, public speaking and more collaborations than you can shake a paintbrush at.
With a career of almost 20 years under her tool belt, McKenzieBarnes lives and breathes art in her third-floor loft in the heart of the vibrant Queen West arts community.
Her live-work home base is in an Artscape building — a not-for-profit group that provides creativity spaces for arts and culture.
With 10-foot ceilings, the loft has become her own private gallery, hung with creations she’s personally drawn to.
“I have an emotional connection to most of the pieces because they’re artists I’ve worked with,” says McKenzie-Barnes, who does commercial and creative projects through her company, D.PE Agency, which stands for diverse, progressive, experiences.
One piece in particular stands out, rising six feet behind a black leather sectional in the living room. It’s a loose, raw canvas suspended from a tree branch provided by the artist Dahae Song, a South Korean, Toronto-based alumnus of OCAD University of art, design and media.
“I fell in love with it,” says McKenzie-Barnes, recounting how she spotted the piece in Song’s studio when they were working on a project together.
Song, who has called her art an exploration of her innermost, “sensitive parts,” hadn’t planned on selling it, according to McKenzieBarnes.
But the two “had a great working relationship” so she agreed to part with the wall hanging, which McKenzie-Barnes describes as “a really beautiful blend of brush strokes and simple spheres … a balance of light and dark.
“There’s so much detail in the paintbrush strokes, I always see something different (looking at it),” she says, noting that like other pieces in her collection, it’s a great conversation starter. For McKenzieBarnes, art talk began back in Grade 4 when her teacher told her mom the youngster showed real talent.
“I was a big drawer,” focusing on still-life and portraiture, she recalls. The recognition eventually led to her acceptance into Toronto’s Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts in Grade 9.
After high school, she studied advertising, graphic design and art direction, and went on to collect an impressive list of clients and projects including Harbourfront Centre, the AGO and the Scarborough location of 2019’s Nuit Blanche, an all-night interactive art event.
The solo show of a Toronto artist she’d supported for years yielded another eye-catching piece for her loft, where she displays mostly BIPOC artists. It’s a photography and digital rendering by Afro-futuristic artist Adeyemi Adegbesan, who goes by Yung Yemi.
His intricately detailed and embellished portraits “embody history, future, and culture all in one,” according to his website where some of his images are displayed.
McKenzie-Barnes was also captivated by a photograph of a “sadhu” (holy person) taken by Che Kothari, who “caught a real moment” on a holy walk in India where the dark river shimmered in the background.
“Che ended up gifting it to me,” she says of the Toronto-based director, producer and photographer who’s done portraits of performing artists such as Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Ziggy Marley.
As well, McKenzie-Barnes’s collection includes art-related items and books such as the coffee table tome by African American visual artist Mickalene Thomas called “Femmes noires,” which was an exhibition at the AGO a few years ago.
McKenzie-Barnes encourages opening the art world to everyone.
“Art collecting isn’t for the wealthy or upper-class only,” she says, advising would-be connoisseurs to stay within their budget and to consider buying directly from the artist, which may cost less.
Collecting should be an “organic” process, with exposure to different artists and art forms to figure out what you’re drawn to, she advises. And grow your collection slowly, to allow your taste to evolve.
Don’t let trends turn your head, McKenzie-Barnes advises. The “easy and accessible” work of big names or famous Instagram personalities may not be something you connect with.
“Fall in love with your choices,” just as she’s done, urges the art aficionado.
Art collecting isn’t for the wealthy or upper-class only.
ASHLEY MCKENZIEBARNES D.PE AGENCY