TORONTO, CANADA, April 25, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Internationally acclaimed artist, educator and author Sheinina Lolita Raj to headline the impressive line-up, including during the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto May 1st - 31st, with both her Intercultural and Architects of Hip-Hop photography exhibitions at Withrow Common Gallery. Winner of the most innovative artist award at World Art Dubai, INTERCULTURAL returns to Toronto after a 7-year hiatus. Prime Minister Trudeau voiced his support of the INTERCULTURAL Exhibition: "… it is our openness and multiculturalism that will prove to be the foundation of our future prosperity." The numerous and varied cultural festivals hosted during this time underscore this sentiment.

About this Event

As with most artists, Raj is a woman of action, in constant motion, thinking of new ways to engage the audience, to connect with the viewers with her mesmerizing images that invite conversation and sometimes controversy about the present, by exploring the past. Who were her ancestors and how did that specific combination of DNA create who she is today? How does that inform and impact her, her family and by proxy, the viewers of her art? In alliance with the Contact Photography Festival, Doors Open Toronto, Multiculturalism Day June 27th and the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop, the Withrow Common Gallery, a CNE Association Venue will feature the legacy contemporary fine art photography of the internationally awarded artist Sheinina Lolita Raj. Raj has always celebrated the theme of ROOTS and diversity in her art, whether it be the multiple layers of her personal cultural heritage in Intercultural or documenting a new genre of media community in her Architects of Hip-Hop Collection.

Her INTERCULTURAL Exhibit is an immersive vision of 25 cultural portraits and sound art experience that also features a quadraphonic collaboration by Grammy Award winning Musician Nelly Furtado. Further, in collaboration with Nelly Furtado, Raj deployed instruments that historically belonged to various cultures to create a healing sound space disseminated through brilliant quadraphonic sound. Attendees will have the opportunity to listen, experience, and heal before jettisoning into Hip Hop memories at the Gallery's Pod D. The last portrait before Pod D is of a modern woman that defines herself as Sheinina Lolita Raj, the Artist. The Huffington Post comments about her work, “The aesthetic affinities between sound and picture reinforce each other to amplify and expand what is already the considerable power of each… Life, like art, becomes only more radiant when boundaries are overcome and everyone and everything is most fully in it together”.

Her ARCHITECTS OF HIP-HOP features her photographs of the ground-breakers of hip-hop taken from 1998- 2000. This is the first time this collection has ever been seen by the public. It truly is an incredible way to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the icons of the hip-hop movement. Sheinina Lolita Raj’s professional career began in the 1998 when she moved from Vancouver to Toronto. As an artist whose primary discipline is photography Sheinina turned to the music industry. “I wanted to collaborate with artists expressing in sound and enhance their voice through visual arts.” Sheinina contacted the Art Director of Access Music magazine, who gave her a shot. Sheinina photographed Michie Mee for the cover and the Architects of Hip Hop that included, The Circle, Kardinal, Choclair, Rascalz and Saukrates for the feature. The groundbreaking conceptual contemporary fine art photography launched Sheinina’s career as a Hip Hop photographer. She continued to work in the emerging genre and created album art for Maestro Fresh Wes, Ghetto Concept, 2Rude, Baby Blue Sound Crew and Blacklisted. "Withrow Common Gallery is pleased to present the return of this legendary photography as we map Raj's artistic evolution".

INTERCULTURAL and Architects of Hip Hop Exhibitions at CNE's Withrow Common Gallery will be featured in Doors Open Toronto, celebrated during Multiculturalism Day and will join in celebrating Hip Hop's fiftieth Anniversary. All artwork is for sale. Raj is also launching her new website – Architects of Hip-Hop, which features the same photography that will be for sale at the exhibition as well as a newly curated line of collectable tees featuring the ICONS of Hip-Hop. Tees are $45, available in both men & women’s sizes. Learn more about Sheinina's work at www.sheininaraj.com.

Opening Reception: April 27th, 6 – 9 pm (RSVP at info@withrowcommon.ca)
Opens to Public: April 28th; Closes: Canada Day, July 1st
Open Doors Toronto: Artist Tour/Book Signing: May 27-28, 11 am to 4 pm
For further information: www.withrowcommon.ca
Gallery Curator, Lyudmila Bezpala-Brown (LBezpala-Brown@TheEx.com)

Sheinina Lolita Raj
Intercultural Worldwide
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