Kachelle Knowles & Gordon Shadrach: When the Bread They Have Cast on the Waters Comes Floating Back

The D'Aguilar Art Foundation, Nassau, The Bahamas, will join forces with United Contemporary to exhibit Bahamian artist Kachelle Knowles alongside Canadian artist Gordon Shadrach. This unique collaborative exhibition will travel to The Bahamas in March, 2023. 

Both working figuratively, Knowles and Shadrach seek to disrupt colonial constrictions of portraiture. This duo-exhibition creates a dialogue between their distinctive practices, and collectively uplift and celebrate Black bodies. Together, themes that evolve around gender identity and representation are explored and challenged, highlighting universal issues despite differing geographical and cultural experiences.

Kachelle Knowles (born 1990, Nassau, The Bahamas) is a contemporary artist
who explores the ideas of gender identity, cultural preservation/ production, and social relations within the black community. Her approach is both masculine and feminine with the black male figure as her main subject matter. She received her bachelor’s degree in illustration at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada in 2017. In 2011 Knowles was awarded the POPOPstudios ICVA Junior Residency Prize. Since she has participated in numerous exhibitions in the Bahamas, and has shown with galleries such as the Central Bank of The Bahamas and The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. In 2013, Knowles exhibited in the 40-Year Bahamian Independence show held by the Bahamian Embassy in Beijing, China. She has also exhibited in the IMAGO MUNDI (Luciana Benetton Collection) show held in both Venice, Italy, and Lincang, China in 2014. Her solo show, 'Bahamian Man Since Time' was shown at the National Gallery of the Bahamas in 2019. She exhibited as a solo artist at SCOPE Miami in 2022 with The Current: Baha Mar Gallery and Art Center who is based in The Bahamas.

She is currently working as a practicing artist in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Born and raised in Brampton, Ontario, Gordon Shadrach has lived and worked in Toronto for over 25 years. The artist started painting in 2013 and paints in oil on wood or canvas and in 2020, he returned to his original field of study (textiles) by exhibiting textile-based installation pieces. Shadrach has exhibited in solo and group art shows in Canada and the United States, and his work was included in an exhibit developed by the Royal Ontario Museum titled, “Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art”, which was also presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Shadrach has work in notable collections such as the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the City of Toronto and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre.