Quick Facts
Biography
Grace Channer (born 1959) is an African-Canadian lesbian painter and multi-media visual artist.
Education
Born in Britain, Channer received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Queen's University in 1978. She has also earned a postgraduate diploma in Animation Filmmaking from Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.
Artistic career
In 1987 Channer, along with painter Lynne Fernie, photographer Cyndra MacDowall, and filmmaker Marg Moores contributed to an exhibit titled Sight Specific: Lesbians and Representation. The exhibit explored connections between lesbian and artistic identities, relationships, narratives and politics. Channer curated the travelling exhibition Black Wimmin: When and Where We Enter with Buseje Bailey in 1989and she is featured alongside artist Faith Nolan in Dionne Brand's 1993 film, Long Time Comin'.
Channer is a member of the W5ART Collective, an artist collective established in 2011 by Buseje Bailey, Grace Channer, Alexandra Gelis, Margie Macdonald and Alexandra Majerus. In 2012, Channer was one of three artists, along with Sandra Brewster and Jay Stewart, who painted a 100-foot long mural celebrating women in visual and martial arts. Located in the East-end of Toronto, the public art piece is titled KIA: Unified Movement of Power, and it celebrates the strength of martial arts movement.
Exhibitions
“Who Will Fight For Our Liberation,” Power Plant Gallery, 1992.